Unforgiven Remake (Yurusarezaru Mono)

Mickeroo

Yep, there's a remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven happening. A film i love very much. But hang on, before we all get our knickers in a twist, it's actually being remade in Japan, as a Samurai movie called Yurusarezaru Mono, with Ken Watanabe in the Munny role: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118058041

I am entirely ok with this!

johnny_ultimate

Hmm... Lee sang-il's last film Villain wasn't amazing by any stretch, although I do need to watch it again because my first viewing was on a plane :pac: Can't really comment any further on the director choice, as I'm fairly sure his other films haven't been released around these parts.

Western originals have been crafted into great Japanese films in the past, although will be curious to see how they adapt it. Hopefully it'll be a little more radical than other recent Eastern remakes like What Women Want

One of the more interesting remakes in recent years has to be Yurusarezaru mono, Lee Sang-il's remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.

I've seen most of Lee Sang-ill's previous work and enjoyed it all. He#s one of the most interesting filmmakers around and while the trailer shows very little the setting, and cast make Yurusarezaru mono one of the more interesting films set for release next year. The Japanese release is set for September 13 so sadly we most likely won't see it till some point in mid 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIzLPfXrFRg

Duggy747

Love Unforgiven and I'm well looking forward to this remake, just a pity it's a year and a half away for us English-speaking folk.

Hmmmm, looking forward to a remake.........don't hear me saying that too often :pac:

Ethan Edwards

I'll be watching this for sure. I love the last five minutes of Clint's Unforgiven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5lFuTUhso

Links234

years ago they were remaking samurai movies as westerns and now they're remaking westerns as samurai movies?

gotta see this

FortuneChip

I'll probably wait for the US Remake

norrie rugger

I await the people giving out about remakes and why people can not just watch the original, with subtitles

norrie rugger

norrie rugger wrote: »

I await the people giving out about remakes and why people can not just watch the original, with subtitles

Had the title read Hara Kiri the American remake then the replies in this thread would be full of vitriol and snide comments about how Americans are too stupid to read subtitles. Really makes you wonder how many people just hate remakes because it's fashionable to dump on them.

norrie rugger

Bingo

Mickeroo

The trailer doesn't really show much but I think this could be brilliant.

Icarus Wings

This really has excellant potential, with the samurai element possibly providing that special something which could distinguish it from just being labelled a remake to a top quality film in it's own right. The original story is a classic and there are still a lot of interesting possibilities left to explore.

Watanabe is always an engaging actor and even from the brief glimpses in the trailer, the cinematography looks lovely. So far, what's not to like?

Now..."any man who don't want to get killed better clear on out the back".:p:D

Bipolar Joe

Deleted User wrote: »

Had the title read Hara Kiri the American remake then the replies in this thread would be full of vitriol and snide comments about how Americans are too stupid to read subtitles. Really makes you wonder how many people just hate remakes because it's fashionable to dump on them.

I think the difference is, American remakes are basically just the same film with very little changed. Just a slightly different script, some new scenes that don't really add anything, so on. This is a western being turned into a samurai film. That's almost enough to make it a completely different film (Not all the way, but close).

I do totally get where you're coming from, though.

Bipolar Joe

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

I think the difference is, American remakes are basically just the same film with very little changed. Just a slightly different script, some new scenes that don't really add anything, so on. This is a western being turned into a samurai film. That's almost enough to make it a completely different film (Not all the way, but close).

I do totally get where you're coming from, though.

Plenty of American remakes do more than simply rehash the same plot, in fact we could argue that this adaptation is pretty much the same as Leone's remaking of Yojimbo as a western.

Far too many people write off American remakes before a single scene is shot and then go in to the film prepared to hate it but the second a Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Spanish remake of a US film is announced people are jumping up and down about how great it's going to be.

johnny_ultimate

Deleted User wrote: »

Had the title read Hara Kiri the American remake then the replies in this thread would be full of vitriol and snide comments about how Americans are too stupid to read subtitles.

TBH if the thread read Hara-Kiri the American remake I'd be giving out about the ignorance of making a Western film about Japanese ritual suicide :pac:

MakeEmLaugh

It seems Lee Sang-il's Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, starring Ken Watanabe, is not screening anywhere in Dublin, despite opening in the UK last Friday 07 March.

Is this correct? If so, very disappointing.

Sad Professor

Doesn’t look like it. No big surprise. It’ll be out on video before long.

MakeEmLaugh

Did anyone see Lee Sang-il's remake of Unforgiven at the Japanese Film Festival in the Light House?

Overall, I felt it was a noble companion to the original. Considering Clint Eastwood's first big-screen western was A Fistful of Dollars - a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo - there was something nicely cyclical about Eastwood's last and arguably best western being remade, and reset, in Japan.

The subplot involving Goro, a substitute for the character of The Schofield Kid in the original, echoed John Ford's The Searchers as well, Goro being of mixed Ainu and Wu heritage. This level of detail is what elevated the film above being merely an experiment, or riposte to the slew of unnecessary English-language remakes of Asian films.

And yet, like any remake of what was already a very good or even good film, there was a certain level of redundancy to this version of Unforgiven. If you've seen the original, then it's hard to shake off a feeling of relentless déjà vu. I knew what was coming, and when, as much as I enjoyed the cinematography, music and political subtext.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

johnny_ultimate

As I said in the JFF thread, more or less:

I haven't seen the original in at least five years, so I'm in no real position to compare and contrast based on anything other than a cursory glance at Wikipedia's plot description. But I enjoyed Unforgiven, even if the crowd-written encyclopedia highlights it's pretty much a note for note remake plotwise - minor alterations aside, but they're broadly similar. I did even recognise several images and settings, even if the specifics had grown hazy. It's heavy handed thematically and musically (although the overbearing score drops off to allow many key scenes speak for themselves, at least). The performances are all solid, and Il lets scenes play out at their own considered pace. Above all, it looks fantastic. Even many big budget Japanese films in recent years tend to have a cheap, digital look about them, but Unforgiven offers pretty sumptuous widescreen rolling hills, snowy fields and lashing rain. Overall, it's probably pretty redundant outside a few intriguing cultural adaptations, but I was surprised at how worthwhile it was on a big screen purely in visual terms. Maybe its inherent redundancy will be less forgivable on televisions or for those who've seen the original more recently than I have.