Faithless
03-07-2005, 04:08 PM
Are they a good idea or bad?
Good side: The exposure to the original Asian flick.
Bad side: Remaking, when you could have just distributed the original Asian flick. :rolleyes:
Japan and the rest of Asia are a growing source of Hollywood remakes (http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NTk2ODQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZU VFeXk3)
Wednesday, March 2, 2005 * By RENEE GRAHAM * THE BOSTON GLOBE
One of the most discussed movies this year is one that won't even be in theaters until 2006.
A Boston-based crime thriller, "The Departed," boasts an A-list cast including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg. Jack Nicholson has reportedly signed on for a crucial supporting role, and Martin Scorsese will direct. Despite all the buzz, what many people won't know is that it's a remake of the taut, stylish 2002 Hong Kong drama "Infernal Affairs."
If there's a trend to be found in recent cinema, it's the decidedly Eastern persuasion of more than a few American movies. "The Grudge," "The Ring" and "Shall We Dance?" were all based on Japanese originals, and together they pulled in nearly $300 million domestically.
And that's just the beginning: Major studios are continuing to snap up the rights to films from South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong with the intention of remaking them with American actors. By some estimates, at least two dozen Asian films are slated for remakes. And before even a single frame of the "The Departed" has been shot, Scorsese and DiCaprio are already in negotiations to remake yet another Asian movie, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1948 noir "Drunken Angel."
For all the effort being dedicated to remaking Asian movies, however, some wonder whether the same vigor and funding would be better spent promoting the original films, which are often more audacious and challenging than the sometimes watered-down remakes that wind up in American multiplexes.
"Personally, I think [remakes] are a good thing because it provides exposure for the original source material," says David Leong, news editor of Kung Fu Cult Cinema (kfccinema .com), a popular Asian film Web site. "But it's also a bad thing, because the remakes are rarely up to the standards of the originals. Some of the themes are denser in the original source, and they - Hollywood studios - tend to dumb them down. Character development is taken out or plot points are roughed over, and that's a sore point for a lot of fans who like Asian films."
While Hollywood's burst of interest in Asian films might be new, for decades savvy Western filmmakers have taken inspiration from their counterparts in the East. John Sturges' 1960 western "The Magnificent Seven" was a remake of Kurosawa's 1954 classic "Seven Samurai." Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" provided the blueprint for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" (as did actor Toshiro Mifune's droll ronin for Clint Eastwood's iconic Man With No Name), as well as Walter Hill's "Last Man Standing," a lousy 1996 film starring Bruce Willis. And a prime influence for George Lucas' "Star Wars" was "The Hidden Fortess," also by Kurosawa.
Yet, except for cinephiles, most folks are more familiar with the American remakes. These days, Roy Lee, a partner in the independent production company Vertigo Entertainment, is Hollywood's point man for Asian remakes. Lee finds what he considers the best Asian films, negotiates the remake rights, and sells them to Hollywood studios. He facilitated the remakes of "Ringu," "Ju-on," and "Infernal Affairs," as well as upcoming Americanized versions of the South Korean comedies "My Sassy Girl" and "My Wife Is a Gangster."
"These are films people here were never exposed to in a way that would make them adaptable to the U.S. market," Lee says. "We take the projects, match them up with actors, writers and directors, and pitch the studios as to exactly how we would do it in the United States. Before that, [Asian films] were watched by the acquisitions side of the studios, looking at them only for release purposes."
Still, in opting for a remake, American audiences are sometimes cheated out of an original film's singular charm and viewpoint. Such was the case with last year's "Shall We Dance?," based on a Japanese film of the same name released in 1997. That film's cultural component didn't have the same resonance in the American version. In Masayuki Suo's movie, a businessman, stifled by his country's restrictive cultural order, achieves emotional freedom when he enrolls in a dance school. In the American version, Richard Gere's workaholic lawyer seeks a refuge from life's demands, yet the remake lacks the original's poignancy and subtle social critique.
"Certain things just don't translate on a one-to-one basis," Leong says. "The whole idea of being a bottled-up, repressed worker and finding release in dancing just didn't work as well because America is a totally different society.
"I believe if you treat your audience with respect, you'll get the payoff," he maintains. "Unfortunately, the studios don't think American audiences are intelligent enough to follow a movie plot that's not American. There's a lack of respect by Hollywood studios that, in the end, irritates people. They change the flow of a movie, the intent of a scene; you change the original director's vision, and you end up with trash."
Still, as Leong asserts, Hollywood's interest in Asia has also created a small but burgeoning market for original Asian films. Last year, Kino Video released "The Wong Kar-Wai Collection," featuring five films from the Hong Kong auteur, as well as prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Mike's outrageously graphic "Dead or Alive" trilogy. Home Vision Entertainment put out "The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity," Kinji Fukasaku's tremendously compelling five-part gangster epic, which has often been compared to the "Godfather" films.
And films such as "Ringu," "Ju-on," "Shall We Dance?" and "Infernal Affairs," once only available as imports or bootlegs, are now regularly stocked in stores selling or renting DVDs.
The trend has also presented opportunities for Asian filmmakers. "The Grudge" was remade by its original director, Takashi Shimizu. And Hideo Nakata, who directed "Ringu" and its sequel, was tapped for "The Ring 2," scheduled for release here this month. Others such as Hong Kong's Johnnie To are also being courted, much as American studios enticed Ang Lee and John Woo in the 1990s.
Good side: The exposure to the original Asian flick.
Bad side: Remaking, when you could have just distributed the original Asian flick. :rolleyes:
Japan and the rest of Asia are a growing source of Hollywood remakes (http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NTk2ODQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZU VFeXk3)
Wednesday, March 2, 2005 * By RENEE GRAHAM * THE BOSTON GLOBE
One of the most discussed movies this year is one that won't even be in theaters until 2006.
A Boston-based crime thriller, "The Departed," boasts an A-list cast including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg. Jack Nicholson has reportedly signed on for a crucial supporting role, and Martin Scorsese will direct. Despite all the buzz, what many people won't know is that it's a remake of the taut, stylish 2002 Hong Kong drama "Infernal Affairs."
If there's a trend to be found in recent cinema, it's the decidedly Eastern persuasion of more than a few American movies. "The Grudge," "The Ring" and "Shall We Dance?" were all based on Japanese originals, and together they pulled in nearly $300 million domestically.
And that's just the beginning: Major studios are continuing to snap up the rights to films from South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong with the intention of remaking them with American actors. By some estimates, at least two dozen Asian films are slated for remakes. And before even a single frame of the "The Departed" has been shot, Scorsese and DiCaprio are already in negotiations to remake yet another Asian movie, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1948 noir "Drunken Angel."
For all the effort being dedicated to remaking Asian movies, however, some wonder whether the same vigor and funding would be better spent promoting the original films, which are often more audacious and challenging than the sometimes watered-down remakes that wind up in American multiplexes.
"Personally, I think [remakes] are a good thing because it provides exposure for the original source material," says David Leong, news editor of Kung Fu Cult Cinema (kfccinema .com), a popular Asian film Web site. "But it's also a bad thing, because the remakes are rarely up to the standards of the originals. Some of the themes are denser in the original source, and they - Hollywood studios - tend to dumb them down. Character development is taken out or plot points are roughed over, and that's a sore point for a lot of fans who like Asian films."
While Hollywood's burst of interest in Asian films might be new, for decades savvy Western filmmakers have taken inspiration from their counterparts in the East. John Sturges' 1960 western "The Magnificent Seven" was a remake of Kurosawa's 1954 classic "Seven Samurai." Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" provided the blueprint for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" (as did actor Toshiro Mifune's droll ronin for Clint Eastwood's iconic Man With No Name), as well as Walter Hill's "Last Man Standing," a lousy 1996 film starring Bruce Willis. And a prime influence for George Lucas' "Star Wars" was "The Hidden Fortess," also by Kurosawa.
Yet, except for cinephiles, most folks are more familiar with the American remakes. These days, Roy Lee, a partner in the independent production company Vertigo Entertainment, is Hollywood's point man for Asian remakes. Lee finds what he considers the best Asian films, negotiates the remake rights, and sells them to Hollywood studios. He facilitated the remakes of "Ringu," "Ju-on," and "Infernal Affairs," as well as upcoming Americanized versions of the South Korean comedies "My Sassy Girl" and "My Wife Is a Gangster."
"These are films people here were never exposed to in a way that would make them adaptable to the U.S. market," Lee says. "We take the projects, match them up with actors, writers and directors, and pitch the studios as to exactly how we would do it in the United States. Before that, [Asian films] were watched by the acquisitions side of the studios, looking at them only for release purposes."
Still, in opting for a remake, American audiences are sometimes cheated out of an original film's singular charm and viewpoint. Such was the case with last year's "Shall We Dance?," based on a Japanese film of the same name released in 1997. That film's cultural component didn't have the same resonance in the American version. In Masayuki Suo's movie, a businessman, stifled by his country's restrictive cultural order, achieves emotional freedom when he enrolls in a dance school. In the American version, Richard Gere's workaholic lawyer seeks a refuge from life's demands, yet the remake lacks the original's poignancy and subtle social critique.
"Certain things just don't translate on a one-to-one basis," Leong says. "The whole idea of being a bottled-up, repressed worker and finding release in dancing just didn't work as well because America is a totally different society.
"I believe if you treat your audience with respect, you'll get the payoff," he maintains. "Unfortunately, the studios don't think American audiences are intelligent enough to follow a movie plot that's not American. There's a lack of respect by Hollywood studios that, in the end, irritates people. They change the flow of a movie, the intent of a scene; you change the original director's vision, and you end up with trash."
Still, as Leong asserts, Hollywood's interest in Asia has also created a small but burgeoning market for original Asian films. Last year, Kino Video released "The Wong Kar-Wai Collection," featuring five films from the Hong Kong auteur, as well as prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Mike's outrageously graphic "Dead or Alive" trilogy. Home Vision Entertainment put out "The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity," Kinji Fukasaku's tremendously compelling five-part gangster epic, which has often been compared to the "Godfather" films.
And films such as "Ringu," "Ju-on," "Shall We Dance?" and "Infernal Affairs," once only available as imports or bootlegs, are now regularly stocked in stores selling or renting DVDs.
The trend has also presented opportunities for Asian filmmakers. "The Grudge" was remade by its original director, Takashi Shimizu. And Hideo Nakata, who directed "Ringu" and its sequel, was tapped for "The Ring 2," scheduled for release here this month. Others such as Hong Kong's Johnnie To are also being courted, much as American studios enticed Ang Lee and John Woo in the 1990s.