Enter The Overdubs...

The topic of diegetic vs. non-diegetic sounds made me think a lot about Bruce Lee films. The dialog in these films (as many of you already know) are originally  set in Chinese and then translated to English using studio overdubs. As hard as the studio engineers may have tried, most of the spoken word never really lines up with the movement of the characters' mouth and creates an almost comical effect. However, it did seem to be a very effective way to create a new style of film that garnered a massive sub-culture in it's own right. But back to the point. The spoken word in these films (in English versions) has obviously not been recorded on site and is not directly heard by the listener, therefore making them non-diegetic. However, the effect of representing that which is implied by the the spoken word attaches it directly to what we see on screen, making them diegetic. Furthermore, the sound effects in these movies (especially those in the fight scenes) are presented and often exaggerated in the exact same ways. So the question is, into which category do these sounds fall? It is my thought that although the producers probably went this route because they saw an effective way to overcome a challenging language barrier rather than thinking about sound production (not to mention a financial opportunity to profit in the US film market), it is the obscurity between these two conventional sound sources that make the films effective in the first place. Below is a link to some of the fight scenes along with some of the dialogue that I am talking about. 
   
http://youtu.be/os6m9oL3PSM