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November 15, 2006
SANJURO REMAKE IS GO
If you thought it was only a rumor, then think so no more. The SANJURO remake is alive and kicking and has never felt better - the first ever Japanese remake of an Akira Kurosawa movie held its press conference just a few days ago. Directed by Yoshimitsu Morita (LIKE ASHURA) and starring Yuji Oda (of BAYSIDE SHAKEDOWN fame) in the Toshiro Mifune role, it's slated for a December 2007 release.
Says Oda, "There are lots of corruption and bullying problems nowadays, and I think the story that Sanjuro and young people stand against such a problem fits to the mood of the current generation. Sometimes I am tempted to copy Mr. Mifune, but I am trying hard to express Yuji Oda's Sanjuro."
(Thanks to HogaCentral for the news)
November 15, 2006 at 07:43 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
Do we really need another one though? Sure corruption is a relevant issue but if it's so relevant, why not either rerelease the original film or make a new film that deals with corruption?
I'm a jerk for saying this but I wish they would leave it alone.
Honestly, why shouldn't I give the new film a chance, right? I guess I would if it gets good press. And the good news is if it doesn't, I just won't go. I just....am tired of remakes in general. It doesn't mean that I don't realize that they won't stop anytime soon. I guess I'm just frustrated that remakes get huge budgets but unknown writers/directors with comparatively more original ideas don't get the time of day. That's all. Rant over.
Posted by: Simon Abrams | Nov 15, 2006 9:30:01 AM
Sanjuro is my favorite of these! They can remake it, but they can't equal it. Can anyone take Mifune's place? No. Not in my mind anyway. Not that that will stop any remakes. *sigh*
Posted by: Screamingmimi | Nov 15, 2006 11:03:54 AM
There's been quite a bit of discussion about this across the Kurosawa community. We are just generally hoping that the film won't be turned into one that is full of explosions. ;)
It is, after all, not the first time someone is remaking a Kurosawa film. One learns to live with them after a while...
Posted by: Vili Maunula | Nov 15, 2006 12:59:13 PM
"I guess I'm just frustrated that remakes get huge budgets but unknown writers/directors with comparatively more original ideas don't get the time of day."
Well, I don't know if Kurosawa's SANJURO had a huge budget, but this same argument could be applied just as easily to his film -- after all, it was both a sequel and an adaptation, so it didn't exactly emerge fully formed from the heads of Kurosawa and his co-writers. (And the novel was already remade once by the end of the '60s -- as Kihachi Okamoto's KILL! -- and the results were surprisingly good IMO.)
Posted by: Bob Violence | Nov 15, 2006 11:07:14 PM
This is true but I was speaking in general about film to film remakes. I should have been more specific. Book to film adaptations which happen to have been already films (All the King's Men, I am Legend, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.) are a whole 'nother ball game I think. It's very much a case by case basis in that instance. Remakes of films just kind of upset me.
Again, I never said that my reponse was rational. I admit that I should give this new Sanjuro a chance and I most probably will (after my current fury has fully died down....can I say that? "My current fury?" Jeez.) but I just don't like the idea of it.
Posted by: Simon Abrams | Nov 16, 2006 11:56:10 AM
http://www.tsubaki-sanjyuro.jp/
Posted by: logboy | Jan 18, 2007 8:15:39 AM
i side with simon. i am quite tired of the fact that most of the films being released lately are remakes, particularly horror films (omen, fog, dawn of the dead, texas chainsaw, wicker man, hills have eyes, when a stranger calls, black christmas, with prom night and halloween on the way), and particularly asian-i.e. japanese-horror films (ring, grudge, pulse, with old boy and the eye on the way). but, as yojimbo was remade well, twice (that i know of, anyway), why not sanjuro? the difference is that this is a japanese remake, not a western one. i don't know if that really matters, but if the wholly unnecessary zatoichi remake is any kind of a preindication of how modern japanese film makers view classic chambara films, i think i'll wait 'til dvd. oh, who am i kidding? i'll still go see it.
Posted by: jojo the idiot circus boy | Feb 18, 2007 3:38:40 PM
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