Japanese/Asian remakes of American/Western movies.

[rinmackie]

The recent discussion of the Inception/Paprika movie connection is the inspiration for this topic. What movie (or show) would you like to see the Japanese (or other Asian country) adapt? I suggested "Let the Right One In" and mdo7 came up with some suggestions as well in the recent thread about the Japanese movie poster for Inception. So anyone else have any ideas? You can also mention remakes that have already been done.

 

[Tony K.]

Western into Eastern adaptation? The Last Airbender. M. Night Shame-alot gutted the big-screen adaptation, and I'd definitely be up for a Chinese remake. After being disappointed, I re-watched The Forbidden Kingdom and never realized the actual production crew was like, 30% Hollywood and 70% Chinese. Had Rob Minkoff been given this franchise to direct, I think it would've been loads better. Not that Minkoff is Chinese, but if you watch extras for FB, he and the Hollywood crew put quite a bit of work and research into putting it all together.

But to be honest, I'm not too confident in East Asian movie-making these days. I mean, it took Hong Kong long enough just to catch up to the decent cinematography, editing, and overall production standards of old Hollywood. You think something like Once Upon a Time in China could hold a candle to something like Terminator 2: Judgment Day back in 1991?

And while there are some great, great directors who actually know how to pull off Hollywood-esque productions (Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Ronny Yu, Stephen Chow, Akira Kurosawa), I just don't think enough of their industry can keep up with the West.

 

[Unicorn_Blade]

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Cure was heavily influenced by Seven. And many other Asian films were to some extent also inspired by American films, but managed to surpass them, like in the case of Memories of Murder. They might not be direct remakes, but they use motives so characteristic of contemporary American cinema, they are just better.

I do not want to see any great Western films remade, and as for the bad ones, I don't care enough for them to be remade. As long as they take insirations and make old ideas look like new, they do not have to remake films.

 

[mdo7]

The recent discussion of the Inception/Paprika movie connection is the inspiration for this topic. What movie (or show) would you like to see the Japanese (or other Asian country) adapt? I suggested "Let the Right One In" and mdo7 came up with some suggestions as well in the recent thread about the Japanese movie poster for Inception. So anyone else have any ideas? You can also mention remakes that have already been done.

Well this isn't an area to make a topic like that (I would love to see ANN create a General/off-topic discussion section in case topic like this would happen). But it doesn't look like the topic will be lock down anytime soon (I could be wrong).

Anyway, it looks like the table has turn and now Japan/Asia are now focusing to remake American film (talk about eye for an eye). It's reported that Japan has done a remake of Sideways. Now last month it's been reported Japan will remake Ghost (yes, as in the one with the late Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore). According to the website that talk about the Ghost remake, it looks like Japan is going to do more remakes of American film.

Ghost isn’t the only movie getting this treatment. Fox is prepping a Japanese remake of the Cary Grant classic An Affair to Remember, and we’re likely to hear about other Japenese remakes of proven American films in the remainder of this year.

Japan has plan to remake a 1958 French noir film, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows).

Japan isn't alone, China has done remake of High School Musical for their country. Also Zhang Yimou has now done a remake on a Coen Brothers' film, [i]Blood Simple[/i] into [i]A Simple Noodle Story[/i]. I was also reading this article from Newsweek about Asia doing remake on American film. It looks like China and Hong Kong has planned to remake American film like China just remade [i]Cellular[/i] as [i]Connected[/i]. China has plan to remake What Women Want with Andy Lau as Mel Gibson's character and Gong Li to play Helen Hunt's character. It looks like Hong Kong wanted to remake The Bridges of Madison County but couldn't make it due to development problem.

Five years ago, Hong Kong film director and producer Peter Chan got an intriguing call from Warner Brothers: would he be interested in remaking The Bridges of Madison County with Chow Yun-Fat reprising Clint Eastwood’s role and Chinese actress Gong Li stepping in for Meryl Streep? Chan thought transposing the action to China would work, but he couldn’t spend the time on development, so nothing happened.

I think seeing Asia remaking American film is sort of a good idea for me, why?

-Well, we remade a lot of Asian film, why can't Asia do the same thing for American film, as I said eye for an eye. If Asia remake American film then it's fair game to me.

-Another reason, I always thought a lot of our American film could do well if they were remade by Asia.

-I'm a big fan of Asian entertainment, and I also like watching remake (both American remake of Asian film, and I'll enjoy Asian remaking American/western film).

I would love to see Japan remaking Scarface, The Unborn, Carrie, and The Shining. I would love Hong Kong to remake Die Hard, The Boondock Saints (since the one Troy Duffy made was not good and I thought what would happen if Hong Kong remade it with John Woo directing the movie, the Hong Kong version could be superior over Troy Duffy version).

 

[Skylark]

In terms of a Japanese "Die Hard", I'd say the movie Hard Boiled is about as close as it gets. Different story, but the movie had a hollywood blockbuster feel with unrelenting action, sweet gunfights and mounting tension. It was an awesome movie (though I only vaguely remember it - I saw it roughly 5 years ago) and I would recommend it to anyone.

 

[mdo7]

In terms of a Japanese "Die Hard", I'd say the movie Hard Boiled is about as close as it gets. Different story, but the movie had a hollywood blockbuster feel with unrelenting action, sweet gunfights and mounting tension. It was an awesome movie (though I only vaguely remember it - I saw it roughly 5 years ago) and I would recommend it to anyone.

Did you mean Hong Kong/Chinese? Well I love Hard-boiled also, but I would love to see Hong Kong remaking Die Hard because I like to see 1 person taking on many bad guys (Hard-boiled had 2 or more person fighting the bad guys). the Hong Kong remake can have 100 bad guys and one cop fighting 100 bad guys, where the original had 12 bad guys so it makes it more interesting and challenging for the remake and the character. Also I would love Tony Leung Chu-Wai to play as John McClane for the remake.

 

[Lycosyncer]

For me, I would absolutely love to see that China, Korea and Japan would collaborate together to make an Asian remake of The Last Airbender because since Bryke had obviously worked hard to pay respect to Asian culture that it would probably be best if they would get Asia's best filmmakers on it ASAP because it would pretty much be the ultimate Asian fantasy epic that is just waiting to happen.

What M. Night did to the series with that abomination of a movie was just crap and he has no excuse over what he did. Terrible casting, horrendous acting, terrible dialogue, the martial arts was mediocre and also terrible continuity. M. Night is better off not doing anyone else work and after this trainwreck of a film was released, it better cemented the idea that he should just stay away from any franchise and get his grubby self-indulgent hands away for all our sakes.

 

[Amibite]

For me, I would absolutely love to see that China, Korea and Japan would collaborate together to make an Asian remake of The Last Airbender because since Bryke had obviously worked hard to pay respect to Asian culture that it would probably be best if they would get Asia's best filmmakers on it ASAP because it would pretty much be the ultimate Asian fantasy epic that is just waiting to happen.

Might be a bit hard considering the show bombed in all three of those countries and wasn't well received. It wasn't terribly popular here either and from what I've heard the only reason the movie was made was because M.Night asked Nickelodeon to do it since his kid wanted him to do it (that's always a good sign, right?) , and since M.Night is a big name (for some reason) they agreed. Chances of Japan doing one are pretty much zero.

Anyway, in general, I'd prefer anime to live-action remakes. One of the things I like about Japan is their openness to making animated adaptions, where as America only makes live-action adaptions usually. Animation is a much more versatile medium (one reason I preferred Paprika to Inception, it was a lot more dream-like in its atmosphere) so I think remaking some of the movies that rely on CG into full animation could be amazing.

 

[Lycosyncer]

Might be a bit hard considering the show bombed in all three of those countries and wasn't well received. It wasn't terribly popular here either and from what I've heard the only reason the movie was made was because M.Night asked Nickelodeon to do it since his kid wanted him to do it (that's always a good sign, right?) , and since M.Night is a big name (for some reason) they agreed. Chances of Japan doing one are pretty much zero.

I know, and despite that it may probably not going to happen, but hey, can I dream that or what?

Plus, despite M. Night's earlier good intentions, it still doesn't excuse the fact that it is a very terribly made live action adaptation. Plus, I wonder if Japan would be interested in doing their own take of Avatar: The Last Airbender through their eyes and turn it into an actual anime series? If that happens, it would definitely be different from the original series, that's for sure.

 

[mdo7]

For me, I would absolutely love to see that China, Korea and Japan would collaborate together to make an Asian remake of The Last Airbender because since Bryke had obviously worked hard to pay respect to Asian culture that it would probably be best if they would get Asia's best filmmakers on it ASAP because it would pretty much be the ultimate Asian fantasy epic that is just waiting to happen.

Might be a bit hard considering the show bombed in all three of those countries and wasn't well received. It wasn't terribly popular here either and from what I've heard the only reason the movie was made was because M.Night asked Nickelodeon to do it since his kid wanted him to do it (that's always a good sign, right?) , and since M.Night is a big name (for some reason) they agreed. Chances of Japan doing one are pretty much zero.

Anyway, in general, I'd prefer anime to live-action remakes. One of the things I like about Japan is their openness to making animated adaptions, where as America only makes live-action adaptions usually. Animation is a much more versatile medium (one reason I preferred Paprika to Inception, it was a lot more dream-like in its atmosphere) so I think remaking some of the movies that rely on CG into full animation could be amazing.

uh well, we've been remaking a lot of Asian movie like The Grudge, The Ring, and other movies like that. So when I heard Japan is remaking Ghost and China/Hong Kong remade Cellular into Connected and now there is plan for China to remake What Women Want. I thought why not have Asia remake American film to balance out the American remake of Asian film. To me it's fair game if Asia remake American film. I don't always prefer anime remake of live-action American film for several reason:

-Remember the rumor Twilight was going to get a anime version. Although it was dispelled, I don't want an overrated American movie getting a anime remake because it sometimes make things worse for the franchise and the fandom itself.

-There are Asian countries that can pull off remake of American film because it can be adapted to their country and culture like I always thought The Boondock Saints remake would be fitting for Hong Kong after seeing a lot of HK action film. You don't need Japan to remake the Boondock Saints in anime since Hong Kong can probably make it better and bloodier. Same thing for horror movie, Carrie would do a good job as a Japanese remake if you get Takashi Miike to direct the film and get Chiaki Kuriyama to play as Carrie.

-Not all American film can do well as anime remake.

 

[Agent355]

It would be interesting to see more Western material adapted into anime movies. Satoshi Kon's film "Tokyo Godfathers" was a (loose) remake of an American movie, although its name escapes me right now...(If you know its roots, please post it)!

The Matrix should be remade from square one, completely animated (yes, I've heard that The Matrix itself was inspired by Ghost in the Shell, but I still think it would be good fodder for an animated Japanese movie in its own right).

Also, seconded on Stephen King. I'd love to see someone remake "Firestarter." I don't really care if its live-action or animated, as long as its good. It'd be a trip to see Ghibli do it! (having a strong, superpowered young heroine, and all)! :lol:

 

[mdo7]

It would be interesting to see more Western material adapted into anime movies. Satoshi Kon's film "Tokyo Godfathers" was a (loose) remake of an American movie, although its name escapes me right now...(If you know its roots, please post it)!

I check that, and I don't remember Tokyo Godfather being a loose remake of any American movie (are you thinking the Godfather?). I like seeing more western material into anime also. But leave the American movie remake to live-action Asian remake.

The Matrix should be remade from square one, completely animated (yes, I've heard that The Matrix itself was inspired by Ghost in the Shell, but I still think it would be good fodder for an animated Japanese movie in its own right).

It sort of already did, ever heard of the Animatrix?

Also, seconded on Stephen King. I'd love to see someone remake "Firestarter." I don't really care if its live-action or animated, as long as its good. It'd be a trip to see Ghibli do it! (having a strong, superpowered young heroine, and all)! :lol:

Well a anime would work for it. But leave Carrie and The Shining to Japan as live-action movie. For The Shining remake, have Ken Watanabe play as Jack Nicholson's character for the remake.

 

[Agent355]

*sigh* when in doubt, Google it yourself.

Tokyo Godfathers is a remake of the 1948 western "The Three Godfathers", directed by John Ford:
http://www.allmovie.com/work/the-three-godfathers-49666

Why can't I mention anime adaptations of American live action films? This is an anime board, after all

I do think much of Stephen King's work would work well with Tokyo's live-action horror film set. Definately with Carrie and The Shining.

 

[mdo7]

Tokyo Godfathers is a remake of the 1948 western "The Three Godfathers", directed by John Ford:
http://www.allmovie.com/work/the-three-godfathers-49666

Well I also look it up on other site and yeah I was kind of surprised by that.

Why can't I mention anime adaptations of American live action films? This is an anime board, after all

Some American movie can do well as as anime like some sci-fi one, and maybe others (I don't know which one). But give other Asian countries chance to remake American movie. Leave Die Hard remake done by Hong Kong, The Notebook remake by South Korea, and well, you get the idea.

I do think much of Stephen King's work would work well with Tokyo's live-action horror film set. Definately with Carrie and The Shining.

Oh I also want Japan to remake one of US dance movie like maybe Dirty Dancing, Save the Last Dance, or Step Up since we remade Shall we Dansu?