By Yun Suh-young
Seoul City will regularly offer subtitles in Chinese, English, and Japanese at some movie theaters, the capital’s municipal government said Monday.
Chinese is newly added to the current system in which English and Japanese subtitles are sometimes available. English subtitles have been provided since March 2009 and Japanese from last year.
The irregular use of subtitles inconvenienced foreign moviegoers. Until now, they were offered at differing times and the frequency of the service depended on the popularity of the movie.
Subtitles in the three languages will now be offered on one weekday and once on the weekend at selected Lotte Cinema and CGV theaters.
At Lotte Cinema, subtitles will be offered for movies starting between 7 to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and 10 to 11 a.m. on Saturdays.
Lotte’s Hongdae cinema will offer English subtitles, its Myeongdong theater, Japanese, and the one in Cheongnyangni, Chinese.
At CGV, subtitles will be offered for movies starting between 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 5 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. CGV’s Yongsan theater will offer English subtitles, the Chungdam cinema, Japanese, and in Guro, Chinese.
Lotte’s Cheongnyangni and CGV’s Guro cinemas will provide Chinese subtitles for the new movie “I am King” which premieres Wednesday.
“The subtitles will be offered mainly in areas where foreigners live. We added the Chinese subtitles in the hope that more foreigners can enjoy cultural activities,” Seoul City said through a press release.
There are no extra charges for the subtitled movies and tickets can be reserved at www.cgv.co.kr and www.lottecinema.co.kr.
However, since the two websites do not offer an English service, foreigners are expected to have trouble finding which movies are subtitled.
Information on foreign language subtitles are only available after clicking on “yemae” which means booking and then on “English subtitles” beneath it. This, however, is only limited to CGV website. Lotte Cinema doesn’t have any banner leading to films subtitled in English.
“We will ask the movie theaters to offer English homepages. But since it costs too much, we cannot guarantee how quickly they will be able to introduce the changes. We will try to reduce any inconvenience,” said Baek Woon-seok, the director of culture industry at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
“If the movie sites are not available, foreigners can check with the nearby Global Village Center. We will promote the service through these foreigner help centers situated in seven locations within Seoul,” Baek said.
The Global Village Centers are in Yeonnam, Yeoksam, Seorae, Ichon, Itaewon, Yeongdeungpo and Seongbuk.