Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon To Get Modernized Remake
Details are still fairly limited at the moment, but it looks like another classic film is about to get the remake treatment — although in this case, I’m not sure that it’s going to upset many people other than critics and film students. Akira Kurosawa’s groundbreaking 1950 film Rashomon tells the horrific story of a woman getting raped and her husband being murdered, but filtered through flashbacks from differing viewpoints. The movie’s far-reaching influence can still be felt today among recent films such as The Usual Suspects, Hero and Vantage Point. Considering the fact that so many movies have drawn from it over the years, is this really something that needs to be remade?
Technically there has already been at least one full-on remake of Rashomon, the 1964 western The Outrage, starring Paul Newman and William Shatner, among others. This new version will supposedly move the setting to modern day America, where the case is brought before a court. The movie will be a collaboration between production companies in L.A., Tokyo and Singapore, and it will supposedly be called Rashomon 2010 (ugh). No word on who will direct or star, but it is interesting to note that Kurosawa himself was trying to set up a remake before his death in 1998, and he wanted Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy) to do it. How do you feel about a modern Rashomon remake?
Comments (5)
I’m a fan and student of Japanese cinema, and I don’t see why anyone would do this. I think anyone that was inspired by the film would use that inspiration to make something original, perhaps with references. And anyone wanting to make a bunch of money off of it would surely be better off with different material.
What kind of audience are they going for? A remake of somethieng this old and revered seems kind of self-indulgent. But moving the plot to court, makes me think of it more like how Ran is a ‘remake’ of King Lear.
I’m not offended or really care about remakes in general. If you’re a purist, then just watch the original. If you wanna see a remake, then go watch it. A part of me would want to see it out of curiosity.
Posted by joe on September 22nd, 2008hmmm.. I love Akira, I don’t really have a problem with this though. I’ve never considered remakes or late sequels as “raping my childhood” though. It doesn’t change my memory of how good the original is.
Posted by Mike on September 22nd, 2008Moving the movie to court sounds boring and shitty.
Anyone wanting to remake this is mildly retarded and I’m not one of those people that needlessly bashes remakes (for instance The Day the Earth Stood Still is ripe for one imo).
There are many reasons Rashomon is so good and the reasons a remake could never hope to beat are: the samurai setting, Kurosawa was a genius, and most importantly fractured narrative was an original concept at the time. Now that it has been done so much sense I really don’t see why anyone would think this needs a remake (other than the fact that it is a good story that probably 95% of filmgoers have never seen).
Who is producing this? They are probably a shithead.
Posted by Ryan M. on September 22nd, 2008Personally I don’t have a problem with a remake. I’m a big fan of the original. The original movie itself was based on a short story. It’s a very simple, archetypal story that, like Sean mentioned above, has been adapted to a wide variety of movie styles and genres.
That said, I think calling it Rashomon 2010 is a stupid idea. But since the story is so simple and it’s basically already been remade many times before, I don’t understand all the kerfuffle about this remake.
Posted by Joel on September 22nd, 2008There have already been like a million unofficial remakes already, why bother paying the rights for the thing just for the rights to the title which most of “middle-America” won’t recognize.
Posted by TheMovieVampire on September 22nd, 2008Leave a Reply