Whoah

[james_davis_nicoll]

Apparently there's an American movie about the 47 Ronin coming out. Aside from the lead (Keanu Reaves) the the cast seems to be Japanese, and it's still set in 18th-century Japan.

Are American film companies allowed to make faithful adaptations of foreign stories? I thought an egregious disrespect for other nations and an essential contempt mixed with distrust of their audience was a core part of their values.

Ah, here we go:

Reeves's character is half-Japanese and half-British; the character was created for the film.

So it could be a variation on Mighty Whitey, where Reaves' half-British characters inspires the Ronin to do that which they historically did on their own. At least, I don't see a production company hiring him and then handing him a role like Kikuchiyo in The Seven Samurai.

Comments

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure most other variations of 47 Ronin don't include shapeshifting dragon-witches. Just sayin'.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

Okay, that pretty much decided I'm going to see it right there.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

BIG SPOILER!

They all die in the end.

Oh wait, that was the Canadian meaning of "faithful adaptation", was it?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Compared to what the CBC did to the Halifax Habour explosion, adding a Brit and a dragon(?) is actually pretty good.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

like, Dude...

[hrj.livejournal.com]

If one were being generous, one might assert that inserting a character who is half-Japanese and half-British for him to play is less offensive than asking us to believe him playing an all-Japanese character (which would have been the old-school approach).

[goingferal.livejournal.com]

From Wikipedia:

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), a costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr. His mother was English and his father was a Hawaiian-born American of Native Hawaiian, English, Irish, Portuguese, and Chinese descent.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

I do kinda like the idea of a movie about 47 Japanese warriors struggling to deal with the consequences of publicly revealing their sexuality, though.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

:-)

[peter-erwin.livejournal.com]

The trailer, for those who haven't seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47_-pqoPDVQ

I'm halfway intrigued by the fact that the screenplay is credited to the combination of:
a) the American who wrote most of the Fast & Furious screenplays; and
b) an Iranian-Brit known for adapting late 19th/early 20th C novels (e.g.Thomas Hardy, Henry James);
which could be a weird enough combination to maybe produce something interesting.

On the other hand, reports from last year indicate the studio pushed the director aside and took over control of the editing and postproduction, which is almost never a good sign.