MovieChat Forums > Casualties of War (1989) Discussion > The dubbing in the film

The dubbing in the film

posted 9 years ago by theblackestmagic
3 replies | jump to latest

I don't understand why it is they decided to dubb Thuy Thu Le's voice at the end of the film where she plays the Asian woman on the train or bus with Amy Irving's voice. From what I've read in a couple interview articles that were done with Le during the film's release she spoke/speaks fluent English with little to no accent at all. In fact in one these articles, which of course were done at the time of the film's release back in '89, the interviewer makes reference to Le's "Western accent" style of speaking. So obviously, unlike the scenes where she was portraying the victimized village girl, there was no real language barrier or issue when it came to playing the character of the young Asian student during the scene set within the film's present time. So I wonder then as to why DePalma decided to have Irving dub Le's own voice into the short little conversation piece that she has with MJF's character at the film's end when she was perfectly capable of doing it herself? And personally I'd have been extremely interested to hear Le speaking English in a calm and casual manner in direct opposition to her terribly distressed and hysterical cries spoken in Vietnamese while playing the part of Oahn.

Does anyone have any guesses and/or ideas as to why this was perhaps done in the film?

"Life IS pain highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something".

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] theblackestmagic 9 years ago

This is definitely a very interesting and valid point you bring up as to perhaps why her real voice was not used in the film's final scene. And the fact that you brought up the word "ethereal" in your post makes for yet another interesting interpretation in deciding to use the voice of a different actress in that scene. DePalma was no stranger when it came to utilizing scenes which featured certain ethereal qualities in them. Probably the most famous of these was the ending dream sequence in 'Carrie' which, interestingly enough, featured Amy Irving herself. So this could have indeed been what he was going for at the end of 'Casualties of War' as well.

Personally the only real reason I could ever think of or come up with is that DePalma was perhaps concerned that audiences would have possibly recognized Le's voice from earlier in the film and thus tipping them off to the fact it was actually the same actress playing a different role later on in the film. But yet I don't know how realistic my reasoning may be simply due to the fact that, as I had pointed out in my previous post, Le was speaking in Vietnamese in a state of absolute anguish and horror in relation to what the character of Oahn had just been put through several hours before Errikson released her from bondage. So her later lines, spoken in English in a simple matter-of-fact manner, may not have actually been enough to register with certain audience members as far as this simple short scene being played by the very same person who had been featured earlier in the larger and much more painfully agonizing scenes in the film. But again this is only my take on the whole thing.

But thank you so much for giving your own personal opinion on this specific subject as I really appreciate it, and plus the fact that it opens up for me a completely different view and interpretation as to why this particular decision was possibly made for that ending scene in the film.

"Life IS pain highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something".

[–] 9 years ago

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