Japanese Remakes? Better or for Worse?

Perhaps the most annoying trend in recent American cinema has been the remake craze. Remakes seem to arrive in packs, such as the recent onslaught of 1970s horror movies and TV shows, reflecting the groupthink of most studio executives who are in the position of greenlighting new projects. These movies provide a certain degree of comfort for studios because they already have proven lucrative. But the logic behind the recent trend of American remakes of Japanese films is as much due to quality of filmmaking as it is to financial appeal.

Obvious examples of this trend can be seen in two recent remakes of Japanese horror movies: "The Ring" (based on the Japanese original "Ringu") and "The Grudge" (based on the Japanese film "Ju-on"). Both remakes have become successes in America, each grossing over $100 million. Yet, they also provide an interesting opportunity to examine the cannibalistic tendencies of movie studios, as well as the growing influence of Japanese cinema on mainstream American filmmaking.

The current trend of Japanese horror movies started in 1998 with director Hideo Nakata's "Ringu." The movie, based on a novel by Koji Suzuki, proved to be an instant sensation in Japan, warranting two sequels, and ushered in a taste for high-concept ghost stories reflecting the dominance of technology in the consumer lifestyle. This success resulted in the acquisition of the series by Dreamworks and the big-budget 2002 remake "The Ring," directed by Gore Verbinski, and starring Naomi Watts. While it retained much of the plot and some of the restrained tone from the original version, the American version "The Ring" also added elements from the parallel American trend of horror movies, including an emphasis on carnival-ride shocks and jumpy editing rather than a slowly mounting sense of dread. Nakata is now directing the American sequel for Dreamworks and will be directing other American projects as well.

Unlike the more mainstream "Ringu," "Ju-on" premiered in Japan in 2000 as a low budget direct-to-video series done by Takashi Shimizu. Rather than the complex supernatural mystery setup of "Ringu," "Ju-on" employs simple, straightforward scare tactics. A group of tenuously linked people all end up in a haunted house where they are eventually murdered by the ghosts of a boy and his mother. The chronology of events is jumbled to emphasize the importance of individual segments over a unified plot. There are even titles before each segment announcing the name of the person about to die. In a sense, "Ju-on" becomes an experiment that explores how long tension can be maintained in the viewer if he knows what will happen eventually.

With the aid of word-of-mouth marketing, the "Ju-on" series spawned two successful theatrical releases in 2003. Upon seeing the first movie, director and producer Sam Raimi (the "Evil Dead" and "Spider-Man" series) was so struck by it that he hired Shimizu to remake "Ju-on" in Japan, using the exact style but crafted for American audiences. When the American remake "The Grudge" came out in October, the film maintained the experimental formula of the original series, but was criticized by those who had seen the original for losing something in the translation of American actors to a Japanese setting. A sequel to the film, to be directed by Shimizu, is planned.

American studios' importing of directors from abroad to remake their own works is a fascinating process to observe. On the one hand, it is nice to see Japanese directors allowed to do justice to their own source material. This might be taken as a sign of respect toward the increasingly commercial Japanese film industry.

Los Angeles Film Festival

More than 200 independent American and international films, including works by Japanese directors, were featured last week at the 11th annual Los Angeles Film Festival in Hollywood.

From June 16-26, thousands of industry insiders and fans of independent cinema attended movie screenings and cast their votes on more than 70 titles competing for awards in the best narrative, documentary, and short film categories.

Only a fraction of the 3,700 works submitted from around the world were selected for the Festival, including the 2004 Japanese films ''Tony Takitani'' by Jun Ichikawa, and ''Kamikaze Girls'' (Shimotsuma monogatari) by Tetsuya Nakashima.

Bruce Lee - The Icon

'Bruce Lee's Hong Kong-produced and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world.' A couple of lines from wikipedia.com and the martial arts style in films. Bruce Lee has actually elevated this style in various films that he has done. 'Enter the Dragon' and 'Game of Death' are two of Bruce Lee's many famous films. Martial arts creates excitement for a Western Audience. They find it completely different to a typical Hollywood Movie. Bruce Lee is a Icon and forever will be a Icon.

English dub over Japanese Movies

Is it because the American film industry can not remake a Japanese film because of the actors used? Or could it be because they can't recreate the fighting scenes, or is it just because the American audience prefer the originals over the remakes? The American film industry could have remade the well known 'Kung-Fu Hustle' but all they did was dub the film in english. It could be argued that theres nothing better than the actual voices of the actors but the main focus wasn't the voice or dubbing but it was the action and the martial art scenes that reeled the audience in. It doesn't just matter whether the American film industry can make a decent remake, but it matters about the audiences reaction to it. Therefore, by keeping the original 'Kung Fu Hustle' and dubbing it in english allowed the audience to enjoy actions of unknown actors to them.

Ringu v The Ring

In my spare time I have done alot of research and I also had the opportunity to watch 'Ringu', the Japanese version of 'The Ring'. 'The Ring' focuses mainly on the story of the curse tape and the girl that pops out of the television and the woman trying to save herself. Maybe this is done so that a western audience can understand the structure of the story and get abit of a thrill. However, 'Ringu' doesn't only focus on the main plot of the crazy girl from the television and the woman saving herself but it also focuses on a sub plot of the woman saving herself and her ex-husband reuniting to help each other and creating bond again. Also in 'Ringu' they explain more of why the girl has been killed and why she kills people and this wasnt exactly straightforward in 'The Ring'. This could have been done because a western audience like to be kept on the edge of their seats. American films have alot of twists because the audience like to keep guessing on why and what happened. 'Ringu' wasn't that complex and the audience find out what happens and why just by listening to the conversations between Asakawa and Ryuji. Finally, the little girl in 'The Ring' was not as creepy as the girl in 'Ringu'. I advise you to skip the part when you actually get to see the little girl in close up in 'Ringu'.

I'm Back

Hello there, it has been quite a long time since I have updated my blog so I apologize for that. Not like people actually check my blog. Anyways, in the meantime I have been researching quite abit on American and Asian Film Industry and I have also chose to change my hypothesis to Japanese Cinema and not Asian because when I carried out my questionnaire, the first thing people associated to Asian Cinema was Bollywood movies. Therefore, I chose to change my hypothesis specifically to Japanese cinema.

Rinne

A interesting film that I came across while I was doing research. The story of 'Rinne' is that a Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago. 'Rinne' was retitled 'Reincarnation' in USA.