A few thoughts about.....LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Dear Mr. Frank,


My name is Ron Epstein and I am co-owner of Home Theater Forum, one
of the largest DVD and BD discussion sites on the Internet.

Perhaps you would consider us to be one of those "bandwagon mentality"
online bloggers that get rowdy without knowing all the details.

Truth be, we work very closely with all the studios who look to our forum for
consumer feedback on their releases. In addition to providing very positive
responses and suggestions that the studios use for marketing purposes, there
is also times when defective studio product becomes the focal point of discussion.
Over the years negative feedback on our site has resulted in many defective DVD
releases being recalled where the studio took the responsibility of issuing replacement discs.

Unfortunately, it seems that Mongrel does not hold the same high value of quality
to their releases nor follow the same courtesy to their consumers as the major studios do.
In the case of "Let The Right One In," you released this film to DVD and BD with incorrectly
translated subtitles. You may not see this as a big deal from your perspective, but from
the perspective of the viewing audience, those incorrectly translated subtitles change
the entire context of the scenes they represent.

A recent email response of yours was just posted on the Internet, and I have to
say that it one of the most obnoxious responses I have ever read from someone
associated with a company who put out product that was clearly not mastered properly.

"Obviously online tend to get rowdy and bandwagon mentality without knowing all the details."

"Title came out two weeks ago and general public don’t notice and don’t care – bloggers
are well known for jumping on something, making an issue of it and moving on. "


This is clearly an obnoxious insulting response that translates into "We aren’t going to
take the time nor expense to take care of a mistake that we made."

Your core DVD and BD enthusiasts partake in daily discussions on many Internet
sites like ours. We are intelligent viewers rather than individuals who enjoy jumping
on whatever bandwagon seems popular at the moment. We are the people that buy
and recommend your product. The general public that "don't notice and don't care" are
typical renters who will probably watch this title once -- and you are correct -- they won't care.

If there is nothing wrong with the disc why are you now inserting the proper subtitles? It's
obvious that there is something wrong that you are looking to correct. With that in
mind, instead of taking an arrogant position against those of us that expected your
product to be mastered correctly the first time, why not do the right thing and initiate an
exchange program?!

The studios who generally always make good on defective releases understand that
exchange programs generally get a response from a small percentage of the Internet
community. This isn't going to cost you a mint. Furthermore, by making these exchanges
available it certainly speaks volumes about the studio's standards of quality. Your refusal
to make the exchange and your arrogant response speaks volumes about your lack of caring.

At this moment, members of our forum are looking at your response and publicly posting
that they won't buy your product anymore because you won't stand behind it. I personally
will never again purchase any DVD from your company and will make a point to remind
prospective purchasers of any future Mongrel release that this is the same company that
put out the defective "Let The Right One In" and refused to stand behind a mistake they made.

 

[Robert Crawford]

In short, what is this BRD missing? Also, what's missing will it negatively affect my enjoyment of this movie?






Crawdaddy

 

[Carlo_M]

Wow, what a turn of events. I was just getting ready to open this up and just buy the new title when it came out (if they didn't acquiesce to an exchange policy) when I read the latest.

Well this "rowdy bandwagoner" is going to return his unopened BD to Amazon asap.

Poor form, Magnet. You just cost yourself 2 sales with this bandwagoner, and an untold number of customers when I begin telling all of my friends what kind of company mentality Magnet has going on with regards to its consumers.

---------------
Edited to take out Mr. Frank's name, as he is just the messenger and not the one who wrote the comments

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I'm dying to see this film, but I want the subtitles to be right. So I guess I'll be waiting until they get it right.

Very intrigued by the film.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Robert, in short, what's missing are properly translated theatrical subtitles for this release. For whatever reason, the first go round Magnolia/Magnet choose to use a different translation of the English subtitles. Some have said this new translation is 'dumbed down', while others have offered that it is a more in line with the dialogue as it appeared in the book.

Will it affect your enjoyment of the movie? Probably not. If I hadn't been alerted to the error, ignorance would indeed been bliss. However, what's clear, to me anyway, is that the film, as is, is not what the director intended and the theatrical subtitles should be presented as the director approved them for theatrical release. What is also clear to me is that I haven't seen a company cut off its nose to spite its face this spectacularly in a long time.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[James_Koch]

There are just a few things I wanted to comment on.

The comments from Andrew Frank, are actually not his comments. He works for Mongrel Media, the Canadian company that handles distribution of Magnolia's DVDs. All they do is release what ever Magnolia gives them.

If you follow the link and read the email Mr. Frank sent, it reads

So take from that what you will.

Also, Ron, your email most likely did not go through to him. His actual email address is [email protected]

I have e-mailed all of the information on Magnolia's comments to both Bill at The Digital Bits, and The Consumerist. However, with Magnolia's attitude towards this whole situation, I wonder if more bad press would actually mean anything to them.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Thanks for the clarification, James. I clearly had my Magnet, my Mongrel and my Magnolia all mixed up and amended my post above.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Wow. Thanks for the posts, everyone.

And yes, it should be made clear that it wasn't Mr. Frank that was responsible for those disparaging comments. In fact, he should be commended for posting them, allowing everyone else to see what Magnolia apparently thinks of its customers.

As I posted in the thread on the DVD release (and as others have pointed out both here and on Icons of Fright), "literal" doesn't necessarily mean "correct." I don't understand Swedish, but it does appear that the theatrical subtitles were interpreted a little more carefully than the ones on the DVD & Blu-Ray.

Again, what's most frustrating about this is that they are fixing it "based on the feedback," but refusing to extend that "fix" to the people who created the feedback.

 

[James_Koch]

But according to Magnolia, they aren't fixing anything...just offering another option. This was just a more literal translation, because the name Eli in swedish literally translates to "I'm Trapped"
(Hear that? I'm rolling my eyes so hard it made a sound)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wow, that was some bad intel. Thank God I addressed my letter wrong.

Who exactly should this letter go to so that I may reforward what I
had sent to the wrong guy?

 

[James_Koch]

Unfortunately, Ron, I have no idea where the original comments originated from. They just came from some anonymous (to us anyway) Magnolia employee to Andrew Franks.

I guess you could try sending a little note to Mr. Franks explaining who you and we are, and see if he would mind either a) supplying you with a magnolia contact or b) forwarding your e-mail to his contact.

It's really a shame that the only e-mail addys we have for magnolia are all generic department emails.

If we knew we would get a response, we could always go up the food chain to Mark Cuban. He owns Magnolia...(Yeah, I'm just grasping at straws at this point)

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

Ron, here's Magnolia's contacts page...

Magnolia Pictures

Somewhere, someone posted the email of the head of the company, but I cannot remember where, and haven't found it yet. If I do, I will post again.

 

[Mick Wright]

Mark Cuban's blog has a contact form: Contact blog maverick.
I have no idea if he actually reads this stuff, but it's worth a shot.

Edit: Now that I think about it, he has quoted emails in his blog, so he probably does read them.

 

[Carlo_M]

Maybe if you start out with "I'm a huge Mavericks fan..."

 

[James_Koch]

Well, I'm sure this won't work, but like Mick Wright mentioned, it is worth a shot.

Here is the email I am planning to send to Mark Cuban.

 

[dpippel]

If they're *replacing* the existing English subtitles with the theatrical subtitles there's no "option". They can call whatever they'd like, but it's a fix as far as I'm concerned.

 

[James_Koch]

They are just adding on the theatrical subtitles. They are not removing the original home video subtitles

As for the Mark Cuban e-mail, I just sent it. Now begins the waiting game.

 

[dpippel]

I missed that text, thanks. A slightly different situation, but an admission of omission if nothing else. I still call it a fix. Those of us who bought the title currently in the pipeline are still S.O.L. if we want the theatrical subs and Magnolia doesn't change their tune. Best of luck with your email approach. Hopefully it won't fall on deaf ears and Mr. Cuban can put the ball in motion...

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

Good email James. It covers everything, and well.