A pair of children befriend an eccentric old man, who lives isolated on the far shore of their island home. But it turns out that the old man knows a terrible secret about the island and the narwhales who sometimes come. Meanwhile, World War I is making life hard in the village.
I made pretty perfect English subtitles for those who need them. (The English accent is sometimes hard to understand, at least for me.)
There was only one sentence I couldn't get. At 00:49:10 Gracie says: "Father, father, ???...".
Can anyone understand, what she's saying?
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2023 9:39 pm
by Night457
Thanks! I've started DLing your video too, which I expect will surely have better audio than the VK streaming video I found. She is SO quiet! I need higher volume and headphones to even make an attempt.
I have a hard time with certain English accents too, especially from children.
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 5:14 am
by pillowbaker
OOoh oooh I love these challenges! Downloading now!
Edit: oh my, I might have to get my headphones for this one, ghost. This dialogue is muttered almost as if it was supposed to be barely audible, with the background music as loud as it is. You can tell they are continuing their conversation, but the dialogue audio cuts out and the music takes over.
edit:
the last word sounds like it could be "today" and the first word "I".
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:36 am
by Night457
00:49:11,460 --> 00:49:14,160
Father, father, I saw a partan today.
(It's an edible crab.)
ORIGINAL MEANDERING POST, during multiple edits:
Spoiler:
"Father, father, I saw a X?X?X today."
I can not figure out what exactly she saw, probably some kind of sea animal or bird. They likely did not have a scene where she "sawr" it, neither.
"python"?????? Unlikely. Sounds like "parthan" or "parthen". A Hindi or Malay boy's name or a family name????
There is this:
Parthan, Queen of the Sea, is regarded as the patroness of the oceans and their bounties.
I have done a search without luck for a free eBook of the source novella "Why the Whales Came" by "Michael Morpurgo" to search the text.
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 3:52 pm
by ghost
Thanks for your efforts, Night457.
I GOT IT!!!!
"Father, father. I saw a puffin today.
And that makes sense, because her friend is carving a puffin.
Subs updated.
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 5:06 pm
by Night457
YES!!!!!! Seems a more interesting animal to a little girl, too. A crab by the seashore is likely rather common. A bird I figured to be a likely candidate, but I could only think "pelican", one syllable too many.
I was going through all the damn words I could think of that were p****n, because that is what I heard. Then I started making up words and then looking them up to see if they were real. I never heard of a partan, but it exists.
I left the 4-second loop playing on VLC at half speed for about 2 hours while I read and explored FLM and where it led me. Maybe I shoulda just watched the movie instead.
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:05 pm
by ghost
I left the 4-second loop playing on VLC at half speed for about 2 hours
For 2 hours?! OMG!
Maybe I shoulda just watched the movie instead.
Yes, I'd recommand this.
I isolated the voice and heard it very very loud. And after listening to it about 10 times, I got it right.
Re: [REL] When the Whales Came (1989)
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 7:00 pm
by pillowbaker
Great job, you guys! That makes perfect sense.
Honestly, I was wondering if I could get a clue by watching the whole movie. I was hoping to take another stab at it, too.
Seriously, the "what was that mumble" game is very enjoyable to me. I am even considering compiling some of the uncertain lines I've come across, and creating a separate thread, to see if anyone would have any ideas. A show I used to watch from New Zealand unintelligible lines. The accent is delightful and one of my favorites, but there are some mumbles in it! Even the associated, official subs that came with it simply put "mumbles" or "unclear" at these moments!
Please let me know if you have any other difficult lines.