Re-makes a-plenty!

Here comes another slew of great Asian movie re-makes. First on the chopping block is one of my favorite horror/thriller movies: A Tale of Two Sisters. The original was suspenseful and intriguing, and stared one of my favorite Korean actresses: Moon Geun-young. She just LOOKS innocent and you want to curl her up in a ball and put her in your pocket to keep her safe. Now, why they don’t just leave these movies well enough alone, I’ll never understand. The second one is Addicted (2002) being renamed as “Possession” slated for a 2008 release as well. My Sassy Girl is being remade (another one where they aren’t even bothering to change the name) with some small-bit actors that I’ve never really heard of (I think I recognize the main guy, but he’s never really been in anything noteworthy.) The final one is Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Apparently Charlize Theron is directing and acting in the remake of this amazingly popular Korean movie. Those of us enlightened enough to watch these movies in their original form are happy that they were successful, but mostly want the US to leave them the way they are. No news yet on the remake of Love Undercover, but I’ll let you know if I find something else out.

Upset

I know that the wonderful people behind the Infernal Affairs trio LET Hollywood vultures have the rights to the storyline, but they only let them have the FIRST film and Andrew Lau said that they used parts from 2 and 3 which they didn't have permission to used. I hate that Hollywood producers and companies are snatching up rights to Asian films that have delighted international audiences in their original form. The Lake House was Il Mare from Korea. The Grudge and The Grudge 2, were based on the Ju-on series from Japan. Shall We Dance was a Japanese movie from 1995 before Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere thought about dancing. I just wish that they would put effort into marketing the originals versus spending all kinds of money making brand new ones. The latest rip-off has made a HUGE impact on the American movie scene in The Departed. It blew away the people of the Academy apparently winning a whole bunch of awards (if you want to know what - go to IMDB.) I just wish they would have promoted the originals along with The Departed instead of making it seem like a brand new idea.