With all the attention directed toward multiculturalism and diversity, the author of this essay feels that it is now the time to reconsider the mode of translation through which the audience's cinematic experiences with the foreign are mediated. The author reacts against what he calls 'negatively abusive' subtitling and stands up for a 'positively abusive' subtitling. Looking carefully at the transaltions between Japanese and English, and moving between theoretical and merely practical poles, this paper identifies some of the dilemmas subtitlers as well as their responses to them over the past 70 years. According to the author, only then can we move forward towards creative solutions through strategic abusiveness.