In recent years, there has been a string of American remakes of Japanese films. Most American versions were a nice attempt, but by no means could stand up to their original. In the process of adapting these films, the rendition lost the subtle beauty that is prevalent in the majority of Japanese cinema. As in a lot of American box office hits It seems as though these Anglo counterparts took the easy route to (as you guessed it) make them green backs. Maybe studio execs cast B-level blond innocent actresses in order to draw in the generic movie goer or maybe the director/screen writer/producer had no ability to personalize the plot to relate to US culture and society. That being said, our generation is not the first to revamp Japanese films. This trend (to my knowledge) started with one of the greatest Japanese film makers, Akira Kurosawa. There are two Kurosawa remakes that stand out. John Sturges' 1960 cowboy western "The Magnificent Seven" was a rendition of the 1955 classic "Seven Samurai." Second being the1964 Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" directed by Sergio Leone was adapted from the 1961 film "Yojimbo," which brought us Clint Eastwood's break out role. Instead of producing a carbon copy of these prolific masterpieces, the aforementioned directors created something all in it's own. In the US, the Cowboy is the template for the All American Man. Much like how the Samurai is viewed in Japanese culture. Over the years, the cowboy has been glorified as a heroic figure. For example, dueling in the streets, killing a man face to face, or taking pride in the criminal lifestyle. In reality, there have never been a recorded one on one duel in the old west streets. Hollywood developed this. Which brings me to my main point. The Clint Eastwood's 1992 anti-western Unforgiven. Eastwood's character (Willy Munny) is the antithesis of the John Wayne or Ronald Regan. Something new is coming upon us. A Japanese remake of Unforgiven. Starring the seasoned Ken Watanabe, the film is called Yurusarezaru mono. From the preview, it looks like it will lean more to a Western than a Samurai movie. I believe its been done before, but this will be the first big box office movie of this style. Coming out by the end of this year, I'm quite excited!
