Netflix English Dub Changes Dialogue In ‘Godzilla Minus One’
One of the biggest issues historically with cinema imported from the East has been dubbing. To the point it became a cultural meme before the phenomenon of the meme, ridiculously bad dubbing has amused and baffled audiences since the prime of Bruce Lee and the Godzilla Showa Period.
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We all might assume this isn’t a problem almost a century later in 2024, but the axiom “Some things never change” still holds true, and no less so for Godzilla Minus One, which triumphantly premiered on Netflix after a long wait.
The mighty OG Kaiju is burning up the streamer’s charts with his heat ray, but unfortunately not without complaints. There are a few, though the dominant one is that lines in the Japanese theatrical version were changed.
This is nothing new — just ask George Takei — but the translation of Minus One from theaters to streaming has changed the tone and meaning behind some dialogue and moments.
[Editor’s Note: Beyond this point, spoilers for Godzilla Minus One will be presented.]
Case in point, a line at the end uttered by the main female protagonist Noriko Oishi (played by Minami Hamabe) is altered to make her come across as less compassionate to her love and his struggles.
Originally, when our tortured hero and combat vet Shikishima finds her in the hospital, Noriko asks him, “Is your war finally over?” to close the film. It’s fitting and poignant but in the Netflix dub, they had other ideas.
The new line is “Can this war of yours be over soon? Finally, be done?” As one user pointed out on X, “Not only did they change one of the most impactful lines, but they changed it to make it sound like she was annoyed his ‘war’ was still going on.”
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“This is so much weaker than if the line was just kept as “is your war finally over?” the way the English dub changed it just makes it feel so removed from Shikishima and the troubles he faced, and makes it seem like his trauma was just an ‘issue’ that needed to end,” another said.
Someone else summed up fan disapproval nicely by saying, “I’ll never forgive the English dubbers for changing the most impactful line in Godzilla Minus One.”
That account also shared an observation from a voice of reason, Simon Pegg, who encouraged viewers to watch the film’s proper Japanese dub to experience the unencumbered depth of the actors’ performances.
“If you are going to watch Godzilla Minus One, by the way, just as an addendum to what I was saying yesterday, watch it in Japanese. Don’t watch it auto-dubbed. Never watch anything dubbed. Never. Always have subtitles because you want to hear the original performances and the original language,” Pegg said in an Instagram video.
Pegg also urged everyone to see Minus One in general, calling it the best Godzilla movie since Shin.
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