Quote:
Originally posted by Duncanature
J-Horror is great. All these American remakes are slowly killing it, though. Americans can't stand the fact that the Japanese are better than them at anything, but by remaking all these movies, all they're doing is proving them right.
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Let me start by saying I really enjoy J-horror, so the fact I'm biased in this case should be pretty obvious. I don't, however, see how American remakes of J-horror flicks can kill J-horror because people who are "true" fans of the genre are going to stick with it, meaning the foreign originals.
I think American audiences have a hard time with J-horror (and foreign horror in general) because we lack the cultural background to fully understand what is going on.
I loved The Ring when I saw it, but when I watched Ringu, I was smitten. I liked the Japanese version much better because it made sense. All of the paranormal, psychic stuff that was absent from the American version helped make Ringu cohesive. In fact, after watching Ringu I better understood The Ring, and I thought I had The Ring figured out. I do, however, understand why all of that stuff was absent from The Ring. American audiences and culture don't buy into paranormal phenomena like Asian cultures do, so the studio execs felt it needed to be toned down.
That being said, I do agree with Duncanature that American cinema has overdone the whole "J-horror ripoff" thing, just as it's overdone the remake/"reimagining" thing. It becomes laughable when the list of movies at the cineplex reads like a movie list from the 70's: Wicker Man, When a Stranger Calls, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Omen, The Fog, etc. It's even more laughable when you realize that the 70's originals are millions of times better (with the possible exception of THHE).
Of course even quality directors like Scorsese aren't above doing it. The Departed (his latest cinematic "masterpiece") is just the Americanized version of Infernal Affairs, which is one hell of a movie.
Sorry to have climbed on my soapbox, but this is something that really gets me hot under the collar.
