I watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day here in Taipei just now, and when I went online afterward to figure out why there were Mandarin lyrics in the end credits, I discovered a whole controversy I hadn’t known existed around multilingual regional end-credit songs.
Personally, I found the Taiwan-exclusive track — “All For You” by Eric Chou — a welcome surprise. I watched The Odyssey yesterday, and by comparison this film felt like the more engaging watch. The transition from English to Mandarin partway through the credits actually worked for me.
It turns out that on platforms like PTT and Dcard, there’s a long-standing debate — and some real historical friction — around this kind of localized marketing in Taiwan’s cinema industry. Plenty of people online call the practice immersion-breaking, or accuse it of “trying too hard.” I landed on the opposite side: I thought it was pretty cool. Below is a clip of Eric Chou explaining his own thoughts on this[1]
If you watched the Spiderman movies, I’m curious whether you noticed the track it were already aware of this song controversy, and what you make of the practice more broadly.
How do you feel about Regional End-Credit Tracks in Western Cinema?
- Positive — It adds a pleasant local touch and can suit the film’s emotional tone well.
- Negative — It breaks cinematic immersion and alters the director’s original vision.
- Indifferent — The credit track doesn’t affect my view; I’m usually out the door before it plays.
- Conditional — Fine if the lyrical themes genuinely fit the movie; not fine if it’s purely promotional.
Paraphrase: The mixing of Chinese and English lyrics came from a natural songwriting process. Though the chorus was originally written entirely in English, the creators added Chinese lyrics back in to give the song the feel of an Asian drama ending theme rather than a fully English track. ↩︎