Hollywood Remakes

I’ve been informed that a remake of Oldboy (a Chanwook Park directed Korean film released in 2003) is in the works. The plan is to have Steven Spielberg direct and to have Will Smith play the role of Daesu Oh, the protagonist who is imprisoned for fifteen years without knowing why. I’m a fan of both Spielberg and Will Smith alike, but this casting decision is a mistake.

A.I., Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List serve as an impressive line of work for Spielberg, leaving me little doubt that he will deliver a strong adaptation of the Korean classic which brings with it an atypically darker tone and potentially disturbing material for some. But I’ve settled on the fact that Will Smith carries a relentless aura of a charmer, a good-hearted guy who likes to have fun, a sharp guy who delivers quips that leaves his audience snickering or outright laughing. From his “allergic to bullshit” liner in I, Robot to his jabbering with Martin Lawrence in the Bad Boys franchise to his ability to humorously play off of Agent K’s stoic demeanor in Men In Black, Will can’t seem to fully bury his comedic talents.

Yet I found nothing funny about the scenes in Oldboy, which dabbles in cold-hearted revenge, torture, lust, to name a few themes without giving away any spoilers. Even had animal rights activists in a hissy fit with its incredibly eerie scene with a live octopus. The movie is amazing but I am disappointed to hear that the filmmakers and studio executives behind the casting decisions feel that they need to throw in a Hollywood A-list actor like Will Smith to top this movie off. If they genuinely believe Will is the best fit for this role and his penchant for drawing in megahit box-office numbers was a non-factor, then I think they aren’t seriously considering some of the lesser known names out there in the acting pool. I would be pleasantly surprised if Will can stretch his acting chops beyond his comfort zone and pull off this very dark role. I still feel he is at his best playing the love doctor or the action star in a Jerry Bruckheimer film.

Generally speaking however, I’m just plain sick of Hollywood remakes of successful Asian films and franchises. My Sassy Girl starring Elisha Cuthberg was atrocious. I’m guessing the same was for The Lake House. The seemingly infinite line of bad Japanese horror film adaptations appears to have finally been depleted. The Departed, perhaps one of the better and obviously more successful adapations, won a Best Picture Oscar but there was nary a mention of the Infernal Affairs film. To think the Scorsese film would have never come to fruition without the Hong Kong original, I was pretty pissed to hear words like “chinks”, “Bruce Lee and the Karate Kids”, and a reference to dick sizes coming out of Nicholson’s mouth, no matter how sleazy the character was.

And one of my beloved franchises, Dragonball, is slated to be released next year as a Hollywood film starring a Mr. Justin Chatwin as Goku. That series has such deep roots and a huge fanbase, it would have been such a positive step forward for the Asian-American community to have casted an Asian male lead for that film. Wishful thinking, I guess. No one should give a rat’s ass whether the supporting characters or the female characters were faithfully represented by an Asian counterpart (e.g. Yamucha, Chi-Chi). Goku is Goku, the face of the franchise, and it went to this guy.

It was awesome to see the nation take its first strides towards a new chapter with the first African-American elected to the presidency. Yet, if Asian-Americans can’t take the forefront of movies, let alone movies based off of material sourced from Asia, will we ever see the day when America is united under an Asian-American president?