There were some subtitles but so much of the writing is in Chinese. I think they probably just made the movie in English simply so it'd be eligible at the Oscars. I dunno, could be a bit far-fetched but it seems possible.
shareThat's not at all far-fetched. I thought it was pretty clear that most of the English dialog is meant to represent Mandarin Chinese being spoken in real life, including conversations between Johnston and Puyi.
Johnston was a sinologist and proficient in Chinese. In the first lesson scene with Johnston, we can see Johnston gazing at and reading the calligraphy on the wall, which I think is the director's way of indicating that he wasn't just some random foreign derp whose only qualification as a tutor was proficiency in his own first language.
Did they consider making it in its native language, or was the intent to introduce the story to a UK/US audience and therefore they had to make it in English?
shareI don't know whether they considered it, but while the spoken language decision could be based on intended audience, it could also be due to the actors' ability to deliver the lines naturally. Just as an example, if they wanted to make the film in a language like Italian, it would be difficult to find enough ethnically Chinese actors who can fluently deliver Italian lines.
This practice, as a way of helping the audience identify with the protagonists, is really not uncommon. There are several approaches to this. Sometimes, a language like English is used to represent a *specific* language in the context of a film: in The Pianist, English represents Polish and *only* Polish (German is still German). Other films like Schindler's List employ what I call the "magnifying glass" effect, where once the characters are in the shot, the lines are "transformed" into English, but as background noise, you can still hear they are Polish and German. And then you have movies like the Hunt for Red October, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Valkyrie, where they start by speaking the correct languages, and then it fades into English, indicating that it should be understood that they're still speaking the correct languages in real life.
I was surprised this was in English. All this time I had thought it was in Chinese.
Come at the king, you best not miss.
It was in english for the intended audience.
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