Americans: We take your stuff and make it better!

[Meggiepants]

So, recently I read an article that talked about the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In. It?s going to be titled Let Me In and will star Chloe Moretz of Hit-Girl fame. And this got me thinking.

Americans aren?t unfamiliar with the concept of a remake. We scour our own media and remake anything that seems like there might possibly be a few more bucks to wring out of it. I hear Hawaii 5-0 is going to be remade as a television series, and they are already planning on re-booting the Spiderman franchise.

But I had thought that the success of a film like Pan?s Labyrinth had proven that foreign language films could be very profitable in the U.S. if they were properly promoted.

The reason this bothers me is because I can?t really think of a foreign film that has been remade in the U.S. that is better than the original. I think this is partly because the only foreign films we choose to remake are those that are highly lauded in their own countries and are often award winning films. It would be as if France decided to remake The Hurt Locker and Avatar this year. It?s hard to remake something that?s been so well received in its original form.

So why do we chose to remake a movie like Let the Right One In instead of some distributor buying up the rights and releasing it with the proper promotion? Surely this would net a higher profit than re-filming the whole thing and hoping it comes out as well as the original?

So my question to you, aside from money, can you see a good reason to remake a foreign language film?

And a bonus question: What?s the worst or best foreign language remake you?ve seen? Maybe someone out there can help me find the undiscovered gem among foreign film remakes.

 

[Toriver]

There seems to be this preconceived notion among film execs that if audiences have to read subtitles and sit through 2 hours or more of a film without seeing their favorite stars, they'll never want to see it. Sadly, I believe that notion to be partly true. I do enjoy foreign language films, but you'll have a hard time convincing the general public to enjoy them if they have to read. At this point, one could recommend dubs, but everyone, including the general movie-going public, knows dubs are usually done very poorly, even by Hollywood. Also, there is the cultural translation issue, where there's more to the translation of a film than merely the dialogue; many times cultural references exist in film that viewers from other cultures just won't be able to pick up on. Now, I find those to be rather interesting myself, but you don't want the average person walking out of the movie scratching their head trying to understand what went on during half the film, simply because they're not French. Foreign films can be more easily distributed throughout Europe due to the interconnectedness of the continent, that each country's culture can more easily move and be more understandable among the European nations than it would be after crossing the Atlantic. So then, that naturally leads Hollywood to just remake the film into something they think will sell with American audiences.

This might have been OK if Hollywood was still interested in keeping true to the film, but most of the time they do to foreign film what they do to anime and video games, and completely gut it to the point that it's barely recognizable anymore. Very rarely has this produced a product of any quality whatsoever. One film, off the top of my head, actually produced a good quality movie somehow through this "gutting" method: The Magnificent Seven, the remake of Kurosawa's 7 Samurai. While that movie doesn't hold a candle to the original, it has stood the test of time as being a good movie in its own right. Most people don't even know it was a Seven Samurai remake. Whether you think that's a good or a bad thing is up to you. I will say that the one foreign film remake that tried to keep to the original and I thought did a decent job was The Ring. I've seen both The Ring and Ringu, and it kept pretty well to the idea of the film and the production quality was pretty well on par with the original. Frankly, I can't remember the worst one I've seen and probably don't want to.

 

[Meggiepants]

One film, off the top of my head, actually produced a good quality movie somehow through this "gutting" method: The Magnificent Seven, the remake of Kurosawa's 7 Samurai. While that movie doesn't hold a candle to the original, it has stood the test of time as being a good movie in its own right. Most people don't even know it was a Seven Samurai remake. Whether you think that's a good or a bad thing is up to you. I will say that the one foreign film remake that tried to keep to the original and I thought did a decent job was The Ring. I've seen both The Ring and Ringu, and it kept pretty well to the idea of the film and the production quality was pretty well on par with the original. Frankly, I can't remember the worst one I've seen and probably don't want to.

I need to see The Magnificent Seven. And I don't think I've watched The Ring or Ringu, so I'll give those a look.

As for your other points, when I was writing this thread, I was thinking to myself, "Stupid Americans! Don't like to read!" And I agree, most dubs I have heard are truly awful.

But I also find it interesting that we feel the need to remake the British movies and television shows. I suppose it has to do with the whole American audiences want to see American stars thing, but when they remade The Office, the only widely recognizable actor they cast was Steve Carrel and at that time he was not exactly a leading man yet.

What irks me even more, the BBC nature docs that suddenly need to have someone like Oprah Winfrey narrate as opposed to Richard Attenborough. If you look at the reviews on Amazon for something like that, people pretty universally pan the American voice.

It makes me wonder if it is simply sheer American ego. We're still the leading exporter of entertainment so apparently we are the only ones who know how to do it right.

 

[spinFX]

How's this recent example?

Remaking Death At a Funeral. A British film, IN ENGLISH, MADE 2 YEARS AGO.

WHAT THE HELL.

The original is a MILLION times better.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Well I don't see any reason for Americans trying to remake a "foreign" language film (for me Enlgish is foreign =D), they tried to do so with one of our best movies ever called "9 Reinas" or Nine queens, the remake was called Criminal and it really is a shadow of the original one.

 

[flamingjimmy]

But I also find it interesting that we feel the need to remake the British movies and television shows. I suppose it has to do with the whole American audiences want to see American stars thing, but when they remade The Office, the only widely recognizable actor they cast was Steve Carrel and at that time he was not exactly a leading man yet.

The two shows are actually quite different though. Steve Carrels Mike is almost nothing like Ricky Gervais' Brent. They just share a similar sort of vibe. I actually think both are great and can't decide which one is my favorite

What irks me even more, the BBC nature docs that suddenly need to have someone like Oprah Winfrey narrate as opposed to Richard Attenborough. If you look at the reviews on Amazon for something like that, people pretty universally pan the American voice.

I can understand that being annoying, BBC nature documentaries are the best in the world, and Attenborough is one of the reasons for that. I'd hate to hear Oprah narrating any of the BBC documentaries, but I'm not really speaking from experience, being British I've never actually heard it.

It makes me wonder if it is simply sheer American ego. We're still the leading exporter of entertainment so apparently we are the only ones who know how to do it right.

I think it's probably more to do with American producers underestimating their audience, they think you're all stupid.

 

[Ishadus]

Pan's Labyrinth was a great movie. I don't see why having to read is such a big deal to so many people. Are they afraid using parts of their brain they usually just let sit there and atrophy will cause the whole organ to spontaneously combust?

If I was holding a movie in each hand, one a remake and one the original, I'd choose the original (provided it's recent enough to still be fairly contemporary. Cinematography was pretty shitty once you start counting back decades rather than years). I guess that puts me in a minority though?

Granted, I'm Canadian rather than American, but in this specific case I doubt that distinction makes much difference.

 

[lostzombies.com]

quarentine...f&&king terrible film, the original 'Rec' is the only film in the last 18 years which scared me

 

[RowdyRodimus]

How's this recent example?

Remaking Death At a Funeral. A British film, IN ENGLISH, MADE 2 YEARS AGO.

WHAT THE HELL.

The original is a MILLION times better.

Honestly, this one seems more like they see the money Tyler Perry brings in for his never ending series of films for a predominantly black audience and just took something they thought would be a good ensemble film so they could put as many popular black actors together in one film and try to get in on that demographic.

 

[robinkom]

They remake it to make it appeal to a wider audience in America so that any Middle-America "Joe-Shmoe" with a below average intellect will be able to comprehend it on some level.

The comical phrase comes to mind of "Why cain't dem foreigners speak 'American?'"

It's a sad portrayal of many lower-middle class Americans but it tends to be true a lot of times. The more Americana and localized references you fill it with, the better they can understand it.

It's been done similarly for decades in Japanese Anime being dubbed to English. A line of dialog contains something containing a Japanese cultural reference or in-joke is changed to some arbitrary "Who's your daddy?" remark or what have you. The Anime OVA "Angel Cop" comes to mind. Not one Anime site with a review of it had anything nice to say with the majority of them having watched the original Japanese version. The original... in my opinion, is far worse than the localized version.

One has to understand, this was originally dubbed to English in the mid-90s before the huge Anime boom, but I found that the English version has some of the best dialog and voice acting for the time. This is one of the few times I've considered a remake or re-dubbing better than the original, Black Lagoon being another superior English dub.

 

[Cmwissy]

I feel the need to say one thing on the concept of American remakes.

Never do anything with War of the Worlds again.

Unless you film it in Woking, don't do it.

 

[Skinny Razor]

The worst was The Departed, which was lame American histrionics compared to Infernal Affairs. Yeah it won an Oscar, so what? Many a shit film down the ages has recieved an Oscar then died a quick death.

12 Monkeys wasn't too bad compared to Le Jettee. Of course, that was a still-shot collage, so that's not a very high bar.

 

[JEBWrench]

I don't get how so many people need an entire movie remade cause they can't read the bloody subtitles. Seriously, how could you have an attention span so insultingly short that it distracts you from enjoying what the movie has to offer? >:-/

Because some movies make it extremely difficult to read the bloody subtitles, through poor color contrasting, changing placement, small/blurry text, and so forth.

 

[JEBWrench]

Oh, in those cases the subtitling is to blame, but for what I've seen this is NOT the reason many moviegoers refuse to see subtitled movies. To put it simply, they can't stand it.

Which is a matter of personal preference, I believe. I don't care a whole lot for subtitles, simply because it pulls me out of the movie. There are exceptions, when the film is so good that I'm drawn in completely, and the subtitles, while still getting read, don't seem to even be there. (I don't honestly know how better to describe this). Himmel Uber Berlin, A Taste of Cherry, Let The Right One In, and Pan's Labrin.. Labryn... However it's spelled, are the ones that come to mind that manage to do that.

I think that, by very specifically needing to draw your attention to a limited area of the screen, you're detracting from the experience of the medium itself.

 

[Schnookums]

Dubbing is disturbingly common and I can't really see why that is.
I'm swedish, and in Sweden every foreign film with a target audiance of 11 years or older has subtitles. As a person who hasn't seen a handful of movies without subtitles for about 17 years I have to ask, what's the big deal?

Im not sure how the whole remake thing works, but I imagine selling the rights to another company gets you more money than promoting it to a public that doesn't seem interested.

 

[zHellas]

So, recently I read an article that talked about the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In. It?s going to be titled Let Me In and will star Chloe Moretz of Hit-Girl fame.

Will we have to see a

Spoiler

bloodily cut up and scarred crotch on her?

Though knowing that this is an American remake, and it's not explosions or violent gore, I highly doubt it.

 

[pelopelopelo]

The Departed was probably the best remake of a foreign film, at least of the ones I've seen both original and remake. I'd say it was about evens with the original, though perhaps that's because I haven't seen Infernal Affairs since before The Departed came out...

 

[AMMO Kid]

G.A. Romero is the biggest remake failman I've ever seen. He remade his own movies, you know, the amazing classics in the genre he helped create. The Dawn of the Dead remake was ok but the rest were all crap. Fail, Romero, Fail...

 

[Casual Shinji]

So, recently I read an article that talked about the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In. It?s going to be titled Let Me In and will star Chloe Moretz of Hit-Girl fame.

Will we have to see a

Spoiler

bloodily cut up and scarred crotch on her?

Yeah right, like they're ever going to show that in the remake? This remake is just going to piggyback on the tween vampire hype and call it a day. Also, I don't think Chloe Morentz can pull off a 200 year old vampire.

Wanna bet Oskar will be played by some Justin Bieber look-a-like?

 

[anthony87]

Nothing recent at all I can think of was good. A few old films, yes.


I don't get it myself, it's a source of constant annoyance, especially since I love watching foreign language films myself, they're usually very eclectic, and free from all the cliches that drag Hollywood to the abyss.

I don't understand why people don't like watching them, subtitles aren't as big a deal as you think, your brain pretty much shuts it off (here's a test, remember the last foreign language film with subtitles you watched. I bet you that you'll remember them speaking in English, even though they weren't), and it's good to get an insight into other cultures.

Part of what makes Let The Right One in is the Sweden portrayed in the film, a cold, quiet place, echoing the vampiric theme. Northern Europe is stuffed with myths and legends, but you move it to the US, and all that is lost. It just becomes another vampire film.

They're also remaking the Host, Akira (live action, in New York, allegedly starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Grrr..) and Phone.

I think the best one I've seen has to be Twelve Monkeys, based off La Jetee. The absolute worst is most probably Mixed Nuts. Now, the original, Le Père Noël est une Ordure, is no masterpiece, but at least it was fun. Mixed Nuts with Steve Martin is just totally excruciating. I burned the disc it was so bad.

I agree with toriver on this one mostly.

Fixed.....unfortunately.......