Comments

1. Safiya Outlines wrote:

   Nooooo!

   Can’t people just watch films with subtitles?

   Or even *shudder* dubbing?

   What is the point?

   There is no way anyone could improve on that film. Why don’t we get an American/ northern European to repaint the Mona Lisa with blonde hair and blue eyes (and a bit thinner) so that she can be more widely appreciated?

   I hear a remake is in progress of “Y tu Mama Tambien” too.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 10:16 am ¶

2. Marmot wrote:

   I hope they don’t remake Oldboy, there’s no way it can do justice to the original. It’s such a mindf#ck, my jaw was on the floor when the big reveal came. Hollywood keep away!!

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 10:39 am ¶

3. Mr. Noface wrote:

   I’m surprised that Smith would even be mentioned in association with the film Oldboy given the content of the film and the (as Marmot puts it) way it has sexual relations with your gray matter. The only way that I see Smith doing a film like this, is if the concept is totally changed and we get an ending comparable to the ones in “I am Legend” and “Hancock” . That means that the film will likely be interesting for the first 2/3 of the film and then totally suck the last third (which in turn will cause the whole film to suck, because the huge twist in Oldboy happens in the last third of the film).

   My plea to Hollywood: PLEASE, PLEASE….leave Oldboy alone….PLEASE!!!

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:07 am ¶

4. Rchoudh wrote:

   Hmmm…I don’t what to say. On the one hand he might do a good job being a good director and all. On the other hand I don’t know how I feel about Hollywood doing another remake of an East Asian film! It’s like they just want to see how white characters would look in these films! Oh well I guess they think this is their way to pay homage to pay good films.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:15 am ¶

5. Mammith wrote:

   This is beyond stupid, theres thousands upon thousands of budding young screenwriters out there with original ideas (Me included!) that seem to fall at the wayside to support the remake/sequel/prequel/biopic/game-to-film/tv-to-film and book-to-film foolishness. No wonder Hollywood’s losing money year on year.

   There is absolutely no point in re-making this film, the original was perfect, theres no point. Maybe they think the American public would prefer it without the scary Asian people? *rolls eyes*

   @Marmot: I think Will Smith is remaking Oldboy for some reason.

   @Safiya: Yay, another pointless remake. I wonder if they’ll leave all the class stuff in? Yeah. Right.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:22 am ¶

6. ChiChi wrote:

   NOOOOOO!!! Say it ain’t so.

   I loved both movies (Lady Vengeance, more so — girl power! haha). I’m sad to see Western directors replace some incredible work with their watered-down, culturally biased interpretation.

   Spielberg + Smith — I mean, really???

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:27 am ¶

7. Lxy wrote:

   All this spate of remakes that Hollywood is doing only reveals its own lack of originality and creativity.

   It’s really kind of sad and pathetic.

   But it sure as hell isn’t suprising.

   Hollywood is not much more than a producer of soulless, plastic McCrap culture that is geared towards maximizing box office revenues above all else.

   Whatever tradition of artistic originality Hollywood once had (Hitchcock, Kubrick, etc) is long dead.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:33 am ¶

8. A.D. Nix wrote:

   @ Safiya Outlines: As is the case with most remakes, it’s not about wider appreciation, it’s about money. If someone is in a position to make more money by retelling a story, they will. (Or, they will try, and Haneke out instead.) Ultimately, I’d like to see original storytellers rewarded (financially and otherwise) for their work.

   The cultural messiness of remakes interesting.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:42 am ¶

9. ding wrote:

   it’s a sign of the dearth of new ideas in Hollywood – as well as a confounding orientalist mindset. as if they’re thinking, ‘well, no one will really appreciate these movies unless we *translate* them into a standard, American idiom for them.’

   they honestly think we’re that dumb.

   i loved both Old Boy and Lady Vengeance and i think we can pretty much predict that any remake will water down the subversion, the perversity, the operatic self-destruction in favor of a final product that is clean, antiseptic and totally uninteresting.

   but that’s contemporary, mainstream hollywood, isn’t it? sanitized, antiseptic and boring.

   Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:48 am ¶

10. Angel H. wrote:

    Lxy: That is sooo true.

    Every movie Hollywood has put out recently is either a remake, sequel, or part of a franchise (movie from video game, comic book, etc.)

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 1:21 pm ¶

11. Clash181 wrote:

    This will be awful.

    I’ve seen both movies and remakes won’t work because

    1.) Hollywood would never go there. Some of the things that happened in Oldboy and (More so I believe) in Lady Vengeance would scare the shit of them! The end of Lady Vengeance freaked me the hell out and they’ll never trust the audience to just go through with it.

    and

    2.) I can’t, no, WON”T! sit through another whitewashed remake of an already awesome film. Hollywood seriously makes me sick.

    P.S.- I loved both movies but Lady Vengeance gets the edge for me.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 4:07 pm ¶

12. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @ Angela H: In all fairness, that isn’t true. Many of the recent movies, maybe, but definitely not all.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 4:22 pm ¶

13. atlasien wrote:

    I’ll be the dissenter here. I don’t think the spate of Asian movie remakes is unusually heinous.

    If you look at this list of top box office office movies from the 1930s onward, not many are original screenplays. They’re mostly based on books, stories, stage plays or even remakes of movies… for example, the 1956 Ten Commandments was a remake of the 1923 Ten Commandments.

    So I don’t think it’s contemporary Hollywood that’s the problem. Hollywood (and any other globally profitable national cinema) has always been a) derivative and b) mostly crap. The only difference nowadays is that people steal from a wider variety of sources.

    I don’t really have a problem with other countries adapting our stuff, like Turkish Star Wars or Japanese Spiderman.

    I’d put something like this in a different category as what was discussed in the last post on Avatar. That’s an American cultural production. It’s ALREADY done in English, for an American audience. So the movie version isn’t adapting it for America, it’s purely whiteifying it, and the whole thing sounds horribly racist and objectionable.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 4:45 pm ¶

14. Kaonashi wrote:

    Ugh, people need to READ more. Even with Danny Boyle this will just be a huge ball of fug . :/

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 4:47 pm ¶

15. Lisa J wrote:

    If you think about it this has sort of happened all through history. Shakespeare retold stories that had been told before several times. Many mythological stories are retold several times in different ways. There are many versions of the legend of Arthur. Heck even the story of the flood is retold in different cultures again and again.

    Humans have always retold the same or similar stories again and again since we have been telling stories. I think it becomes galling in more modern times when you feel as though you have a “definitive” version in a book, or a film or on tv show that can be viewed and consumed over and over in just that exact version each and everytime.
    None of this is to say that Hollywood does a good job when it sequelizes or takes a story out of its original culture or that it is ok how they redo it and always make everyone in the story white. Just throwing it out there as food for thought.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 8:17 pm ¶

16. Safiya Outlines wrote:

    I just feel so angry about this. Lady Vengeance was amazing from start to finish. A remake would leave out all the best parts, how could they improve on the first scene with the tofu?

    Remaking average films, or loosely basing a film on a similar plotline is one thing, but classic should not be messed with.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 9:51 pm ¶

17. John Jihoon Chang wrote:

    Honestly, I’m okay with remakes like atlasien. As long as they do a decent job with the remake that is AND acknowledge the original source, I find remakes an enjoyable source of entertainment and even art. THE RING and THE DEPARTED, even if not stunning, were decent enough remakes of their sources and even managed to provide a different interpretation of their stories than their sources, leaving them from being redundant.

    I’d try to be upset but Leone’s A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS is a remarkable remake of Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO and the only problem that I have with it is that it doesn’t acknowledge that it’s an almost scene by Western adaptation of Kurosawa’s jidei-geki classic.

    I’m not trying to excuse every remake: God knows we didn’t need THE LAKE HOUSE, THE GRUDGE, etc. But I feel that, because of the artistic parodic potential (and I mean in the critical story-changing sense, not in terms of comedy) of remakes, it’s a little naive to dismiss them as unnecessary.

    Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 11:18 pm ¶

18. nonogirl wrote:

    There is a difference between the re-telling of stories, and not being creative enough to come up with your own. Stories cannot be removed from the culture through which they were created. Hollywood doesn’t want to put a unique spin on these things, so much as just live out their lil fantasies of having white people star in everything they think is cool. Asians – we don’t want to see them, but let’s feel free to steel their intellectual property, traditions etc. Disney’s Eight Below based on a Japanese expedition to Antartica (yes folks, with real japanese people), The Lion King (same cartoon done about fifty years earlier by the Japanese creator of Astro Boy), “21″ based on the real life story of a group of Asian American MIT students, now Avatar, tomorrow – who knows what else? I think white people must have some pretty fragile egos to have to want to see themselves everywhere.

    Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 12:24 am ¶

19. A.D. Nix wrote:

    White people like Will Smith?

    Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 2:06 am ¶

20. Isha wrote:

    If it does get made, I hope it’s done well. I enjoyed Infernal Affairs and The Departed both in different ways. Scorcese and Monaghan used the plot and very much made it into an American story. I can appreciate something like that. Although there are cultural boundaries that will not translate well into American culture, Lady Vengeance is primarily about a woman seeking her own personal revenge but also allowing other victims purge their own (compared to Park’s other two films in the trilogy, this seems to be because she is female and that women are stereotypically seen as being nurturing, selfless, which is in almost direct contrast to Lady’s character). So, if Boyle/Theron really take the time to develop this story and bring their own, unique interpretation, it could turn out to be good. I’m all for watching a film that examines a female character’s motives for revenge instead of a waste of celluloid that twists everything into a cheap horror film.
    By the way, does anyone else think the full English title, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, sounds a lot better?
    And side note, there’s another Asian remake that’s using the ‘let’s-turn-this-into-a-thriller-to-put-asses-in-the-seats-oh-and-it-also-stars-Sarah-Michelle-Gellar-Asian-remake-queen’ ploy. The Korean film Addicted, which is about addictive love with a semi-supernatural twist is now Possession…oooooooo scaaaaaaarrrrrry.

    Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 3:48 am ¶

21. A. wrote:

    I don’t think this will be done well.

    In fact, reasons like this is why too many of us Americans are thought to be completely ignorant of other cultures. Really, is it necessary for every single blockbuster that comes out of Asia to be remade with a blue-eyed blonde? Are we really that xenophobic and terrified to see Asians on screen? Hollywood really thinks that the American people are honestly pathetic.

    Seriously, there are a lot of young writers out there. Employ them instead of butchering movies that were already good.

    Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 1:29 pm ¶

22. nonogirl wrote:

    White people like the cast of Eight People, the blue eyed (ha!) lions of The Lion King, the white cast of “21″ and the proposed all white lead cast of Avatar.

    Will Smith is a Hollwood commodity, and so is Oprah and so is Halle Berry. We can discuss the intersection of race and economics, but that would needs its own blog.

    Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 3:26 pm ¶

23. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @ nonogirl: I heard you the first time. But you’re missing the point. Will Smith may be a Hollywood commodity but that does not make him white. Oprah and Halle Berry? Not white either. This is not a “white people issue.” It’s a green paper issue. Bankable people of color in Hollywood are just as able to participate and, if ire is called for,* deserve that ire as well.

    I may be out of line for pointing this out but . . . this blog tackles the intersection of race and economics all of the time. In fact, that’s exactly what you’ve been doing.

    Also: have you seen ‘21′? The cast is not all white.

    @A: Big studios spend money on movies that they can sell worldwide, especially in Western Europe. For example, almost half of the gross for The Dark Night came from international sales. And when making movies, they definitely take that worldwide audience into consideration. So, they’re not just blonde-ing it up for the oft caricatured Stupid Xenophobic American. That’s for theaters all over the globe.

    * I don’t find retelling stories fundamentally problematic so the ire is foreign to me.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 12:22 am ¶

24. Nick wrote:

    hey nonogirl, who are all these white people you mention? The ones with fragile egos who insist on seeing themselves everywhere.

    Last time I looked there are plenty of white people watching, enjoying and prefering the originals.

    Just a thought.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 3:43 am ¶

25. birdlegs wrote:

    Who wants to see Will Smith in an Old Boy remake? Other than the simple fact that the man cannot act, can you imagine Mr Christ-Complex eating a live octopus? Didn’t Spielberg see his performance in Seven Pounds? Big Ears spent the whole film looking like he had a Seven Pound Turd he needed to drop.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 5:24 am ¶

26. Lxy wrote:

    Speaking of _21, the movie_ here’s a video that suggest some other wonderful opportunities for Hollywood to engage in Whitewash …. er cross-cultural adaptation.

    http://www.angryasianman.com/2008/09/18-mighty-mountain-warriors-21-movie.html

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 8:11 am ¶

27. brad wrote:

    Come on, I think some of the responses here are just autopilot denunciation. How many people were upset that Ron Moore and David Eick were rebooting “Battlestar Galactica”? Guess what? BSG is a great show, considered one of the best TV dramas of all time.

    “Lady Vengeance” was a pretty good film; but not a great film. The film is an ultra-violent dramedy with comic book embellishments. Why put the film on a pedestal?

    How many versions of “Frankenstein” or “Dracula” have we seen? Sherlock Holmes has been revised several times in film.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 11:50 am ¶

28. anna wrote:

    Thank you for posting this — I hadn’t heard of Lady Vengeance before this post(I live under a rock, apparently.) I just saw it, and it was amazing!

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 1:08 pm ¶

29. allheavens wrote:

    Will Smith in a remake of Oldboy, as Whitney would say, “Hell to the naw!”

    Not that I am opposed to a remake but Will “a Mediocrity as Populist Icon” Smith? Yeah, I defended him in an earlier post but I am not THAT deluded.

    AND Spielberg, God did they even see the original? Exactly how the hell are they going to change that mind fuck of an ending to accommodate the masses.

    **Spoiler Alert**
    Answer: He doesn’t sleep with her which in turn just dissipates the entire third act and ruins the entire film. Way to go Hollywood.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 4:27 pm ¶

30. jstele wrote:

    @A.D. Nix:

    They’re whitening it up for the US, not Western Europe. Europe is actually more open to films with Asian faces, non-white faces. I know that several Asian films have played in France, the UK, etc. and NOT in the independent theatres, but the major cinemas.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 7:10 pm ¶

31. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @ jetele: I’ve interviewed 3 casting directors on the subject – one working NY/London, the other 2 based in LA. They increasingly cast for everywhere a movie plays. No one is shrugging off the expectations of the audience that provides (more often that not) a serious chunk of a film’s profit. And with the US hosting far more people of color who are not opposed to, you know, seeing people of color on the screen, than any European country, I’d be hard-pressed to believe in this out-sized openness. Certainly not something I’ve seen in the theaters (or streets) in a major way any of the places I’ve lived in Western Europe, including the UK and France.

    You may not think they need to (and the numbers may prove you wrong) but they’re “whitening it up” for everyone.

    Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 9:25 pm ¶

32. DivergentDana wrote:

    “I hear a remake is in progress of “Y tu Mama Tambien” too.”

    Please be lying. Gael Garcia Bernal’s sex appeal transcends mere cultural barriers and could compel any truly living straight woman or gay man to tolerate the minor inconvenience of reading 1.7 hours of dialogue.

    “Thank you for posting this — I hadn’t heard of Lady Vengeance before this post(I live under a rock, apparently.) I just saw it, and it was amazing!”

    I saw Oldboy because I heard about it on Racialicious first. I’ll keep an eye out for this one, as well.

    Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 3:57 am ¶

33. InJM wrote:

    Isn’t the Will Smith remake supposed to be based on the original comics instead of the movie? Not that I’ve read or seen either…

    Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 4:05 am ¶

34. Jay wrote:

    Bankable people of color in Hollywood are just as able to participate and, if ire is called for,* deserve that ire as well.

    I disagree with this. I think people of color in Hollywood are given much less support, so they get far fewer chances to be bankable. It seems like equality of access, but it’s not.

    Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 9:59 pm ¶

35. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @ Jay: Which is precisely why I said “bankable people of color in Hollywood” and not “all people of color in Hollywood.” There’s no claim to equality of access there. It’s a dangerously small pool of actors/directors/producers but it’s a group that still exists.

    In other words: Will Smith is a star whose movies make money (Will Smith is bankable). Will Smith is black. Will Smith can star in a remake of Old Boy and . . . not be a white person.

    Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 11:25 pm ¶

36. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @ Jay: I will say that, aside from Will Smith, there aren’t many actors of color that are given a chance to open an expensive major motion picture. But remakes aren’t necessarily big or expensive.

    Just saying – I get your point and agree. But that’s not quite what I was talking about.

    Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 11:37 pm ¶

37. Free wrote:

    I’ve never seen Lady Vengance, but why Charlize Theron. Why not Grace Park who is well known from Battle Star Galactica? No she isn’t as famous as Charlize Theron, but shoot, how can she become that famous if she doesn’t get the same breaks?

    Co-sign with everyone about OldBoy, which is a spectacular film. Steven Spielberg is a great filmmaker, but he just isn’t edgy enough to handle OldBoy. And Will Smith? Great actor, but I’m afraid that image will become a factor because some of the themes in OldBoy are too shocking for conventional Spielberg/Smith audience (so agree with you AllHeavens, #29). I imagine that as the script goes through blockbuster check, OldBoy will end up sanitized for your protection. OldBoy, meet E.T.

    A Y Tu Mama Tambien remake? Oh no, say it isn’t so! And I don’t care that Eva Mendes is in talks over the role of Luisa.

    Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 2:09 am ¶

38. Nick wrote:

    I think Will Smith is a great actor. I don’t like some of the films he’s been in, but to dismiss his abilities just because he’s “bankable” is short-sighted IMHO.

    Not many actors can carry an entire film by themselves (I Am Legend) although the canine did well in the support role.

    Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 12:47 pm ¶

39. A. wrote:

    A.D Nix – this sounds like the typical excuse of “PoC aren’t marketable, which is why they aren’t utilized.”

    PoC CAN BE VERY marketable, but it’s the opposite – PoC aren’t considered as marketable BECAUSE they aren’t utilized. Why would this be? Racism? Xenophobia? Fear of seeing someone who isn’t a blonde? Could it actually be that the film wasn’t as heavily marketed in Korea for an international audience as this one will be?

    Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 11:46 pm ¶

40. keya wrote:

    Theron is a good actress, though the taint of horrid dud ‘Aeon Flux,’ will be on her always in the action genre. Plus, she runs like a cow. Would definitely need a double if she has to do anything remotely athletic. lol

    Posted 28 Jan 2009 at 9:53 am ¶

41. A.D. Nix wrote:

    @A: It’s definitely the typical explanation but there is no “excuse.” If you think I’m trying to argue that they just shouldn’t use people of color because they won’t make money, you’ve completely misread my posts.

    Talented people of color should be working more and producers and marketing departments should be busting their asses (aka doing their jobs) to get people to go see these movies – even if they aren’t chock-a-block with Kates Bosworth and Beckinsale or Toms Cruise and Hanks. It can be done.

    I don’t think aiming for L.C.D. for the sake of $ is good for the industry – full stop.

    @ Keya: Plus, she runs like a cow.
    That’s fucked up/hilarious.

    Posted 28 Jan 2009 at 12:38 pm ¶