It seems to me that the film industry, in spite of whatever new technology, financial crisis, or writer's strike we throw at it, is one of the strongest creative outlets that we, as a culture, have produced to date. And when I say 'we', just imagine I am from whatever country you are, because of course there are many different cultures producing films worldwide, not all of which are shelved as alien trash by Western society in general. There are some films that have the power to reach across cultures and across language barriers to inspire an audience outside of their comfort zone. These films are, for the most part, moving, well-made, well-cast, well-scripted hours of entertainment, and there are many of them out there. I for one am quite the fan of foreign cinema, as those who follow my movie blog will know: I own DVDs in German, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean...
Which is why I am more than slightly alarmed by a trend that seems to have been picking up speed over the past few years. It is the trend of taking a film made outside the US in a non-English language, repackaging and rebranding it, and rereleasing it fresh from a Hollywood studio. Is this really necessary? Are we in the West so comfortable in our dominance that we must siphon out all strains of other cultures before introducing them to our cinemas? God forbid, if we actually watched something in another language we might end up learning something! I think it is clear that I am somewhat bemused by this entire idea, and I want to explore not why it may or may not be wrong, but why it is happening in the first place, and how long it has been happening for.
The film that first really got me thinking about this was 'Funny Games', by a director whom I personally consider to be a living genius, Michael Haneke. In 1997 he released 'Funny Games' in German, and decided that it was the best and most perfect thing he had ever done. Soon afterwards, however, he began to despair. He realised that, because he had made his film in German - his own language - no one other than Germans were ever going to watch it. But this was the highest point of his career! His major work! To think that no one would ever see it would be... unthinkable! So, he set about remaking the movie himself and released it in 2007, in English, with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth starring as the now so recognizable married couple. Instead of watching some Germans get tortured during this movie, now we as a Western audience see two actors, because we know who they are. We have seen them both getting beaten up before, and we know their reactions. The cast are wonderful, but that is not the point. The point is that Michael Haneke reproduced his movie almost entirely frame for frame (this blog has some comparisons, though I don't agree with their review), just so that it had a chance of being seen by English-speaking viewers.
Did it work? Well, I guess so, because I first stumbled across 'Funny Games', and Haneke, when an American tutor of mine showed us the movie as part of a film studies seminar. 'This film,' he said to us, 'Was remade frame for frame from an original German movie ten years before. It's an excellent study of the use of film theory, and it's really very good.'
He could have said, 'This film is a German film that was remade for a Western audience. I am going to show you the original, though, so you don't get too caught up in the fact that it is Naomi Watts and Tim Roth there on the screen'. He did not. He also showed us a French film with English dub, which almost blew me up with frustration since I speak French perfectly well and did not need my viewing experience to be ruined by bad dubbing. Is this a problem that we, as a culture, need to address? I think it is, because English is not the most spoken language in the world. There are apparently over eight hundred million (800,000,000) people in the world whose native language is Mandarin Chinese. There are three hundred and fifty-eight million (358,000,000) whose native language is Spanish. There are only three hundred and fifty million (350,000,000) whose native language is English. I think our arrogance does not become us.
This is far from the only film remade for a Western audience. A quick summary, listed in chronological order, of some films you may have seen coming from Hollywood but that originated elsewhere:
1959: Some Like It Hot (Germany - 'Fanfaren der Liebe')
1960: The Magnificent Seven (Japan - 'Seven Samurai') note: the cultural references were changed drastically
1961: The Parent Trap (Germany - 'Das doppelte Lottchen')
1964: A Fistful of Dollars (Japan - 'Yojimbo') note: the cultural references were changed drastically
1965: The Sound of Music - reportedly based on a German film 'Die Trapp-Familie', though I cannot verify this
1983: Breathless (France - 'À bout de souffle')
1992: Reservoir Dogs (China - 'City on Fire')
1995: Twelve Monkeys (France 'La jetée') note: this version was also made longer, and the direction style was changed considerably
1996: The Birdcage (France - 'La Cage au Folles')
1998: The Parent Trap (Again) (Germany), Godzilla (Japan - 'Gojira')
2001: Vanilla Sky (Spanish - 'Abre los ojos')
2002: The Ring (Japan - 'Ringu')
2004: Taxi (France - 'Taxi'), Wicker Park (France - 'L'Appartement'), The Grudge (Japan - 'Ju-On')
2005: Dark Water (Japan - 'Dark Water')
2006: The Departed (China - 'Infernal Affairs')
2007: Interview (Holland - 'Interview'), No Reservations (Germany - 'Bella Martha')
2008: Funny Games (Germany - 'Funny Games'), Bangkok Dangerous (Thailand - 'Bangkok Dangerous')
2009: Blood: The Last Vampire (Japan - 'Blood: The Last Vampire')
2010: The Orphanage (Spanish - El Orfanato), Let Me In (Swedish - 'Låt den rätte komma in')
To be released in 2011: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish - 'Män som hatar kvinnor')
Though I found this list on Wikipedia, which you may doubt as a reliable source, all of the information here checks out pretty well. Some of these surprised me, for sure, and unless you are a film buff I am sure they surprised you! How is it that a film can be completely unknown in Chinese, and become a box office hit when remade in English?
I think the one from this list that annoys me the most has to be 'Let Me In', a remake of 'Låt den rätte komma in', which was originally released in Swedish only two years before. Two years! It was also very popular in it's own right: my university actually held a screening of it in 2009, which was well-attended. It won a whole scoop of awards, and featured heavily in all the best-of-2008 lists that anyone paid any attention to. It was praised readily by the English-speaking world just as it was... and yet here we are, with a remake. Disappointing? Yes. Surprising? No.
But why has this happened? Perhaps we as an audience have allowed it to happen. Sales of Hollywood DVDs and cinema tickets clearly outstrip that of any other film industry in the West, including the British film industry. Is this just because there are more Americans, or because Americans seem to be able to put a bigger budget behind their productions? Is it because it is hard to market material from another country in the US and Britain, given the language and culture gaps? I was also horrified to hear lately that the film 'Death Note' which was a phenomenal success in Japan going off the back of the manga/anime/book franchise, is being remade by Warner Bros next year. Ridiculously, some articles written recently, as news trickles down to us about the imminent production, have failed to mention that there are three Japanese films about the subject already. My advice? Do your research. Be open to other cultures. If there is an option to use subtitles instead of dubbing, use them. If we do not value and learn about other cultures, how can we truly value our own?
Now, take a deep, calming breath, looking at the soothing blue and white flowers on either side of this post and how pretty they are, and tell me what your view on this is.
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