“They’re out to get you Barbra”
They are everywhere, nothing is sacred, they can represent
the deteriorating mind-set of advanced capitalism and consumer culture, they
are unavoidable, they often resemble inferior copies and don’t seem fundamentally right and, more often than not, they stink. They are often swiftly and spectacularly
killed, their existence is seen as an abomination and there seems to be no hope
for the future.
That’s right, Remakes.
They’re everywhere. Wherever you look, there are remakes. They
have been around almost as long as film itself, but why are there so many of them?
And why do films get remade in the first place?
A recent-ish trend that has grown has been the remaking of non-English
language films (usually horror) into an English language setting, often with
disappointing reviews and even angry reviews. Films like The Ring, Let The Right One In, One Missed Call, The Grudge and most recently the
phenomenal Oldboy have all been
remade, and for what seems to be no better reason than the fact they aren’t in
English. When films like Let Me In
arrive with less than 2 years after the official release date of the original
it does bring up questions of its reason for existence. Are they really only
made for people who can’t, or won’t, read subtitles when watching a film?
Sometimes yes, but I like to think on the whole that isn’t
the case. It is, after all, very easy to slip into this form of cinematic cynicism
when thinking about remakes. When that happens everybody suffers, including:
1.
The Original
Film. If it isn’t worth the effort of
watching in subtitles, why should it be worth watching at all? Although the
original may garner a few new fans it is often left aside in favour of it’s
anglicised remake. This is made even worse if the remake is a stinker.
2.
The Remake.
If it exists purely for money and thus should not be thought of as a film, but
instead as an overblown moneymaking machine will it ever get an objective
viewing? (well, as objective as one can get anyway)
3.
The Remake’s
Audience. Anyone watching just the remake will automatically be maligned by
the film going society and marked as a mindless drones
4.
Fans of
the Original. You will now sound like an arrogant nob whenever mention of
the remake is made (and on a par with people who evangelistically tell you over
and over about how “The book was better”).
But instead of falling into a slough of despondency at the
state of “modern cinema” (equally annoying as those mentioned in point 4*)
there are English language remakes out there that are fantastic films and that
hold their own with the best of them. If it weren’t for remakes in general the
Spaghetti Western genre wouldn’t have classics like The Magnificent Seven and films like Some Like It Hot and many other fantastic films would not have
existed; which brings us to the only occurrence on the list of both the
original film and it’s remake.
Infernal Affairs and
The Departed.
Aside from the language there is a whole level to Infernal Affairs that will pass over
most of its western audience, and that level is cultural. For starters, the
film’s title actually translates as The Unceasing Path. This path is in reference to the lowest
level of hell in Buddhism, a hell that is perpetual and never-ending. This alone would pass over the heads of most westerners,
as Buddhism is not our culturally dominant, or founding, religion. We have not
been brought up with a concept of different levels of hell and the anguish of
perpetual torment, so when we watch the film, Yan’s refusal of the gift of a
watch, on the grounds that he never wears watches, might seem rude, but to it’s
home audience it will make much more sense.
They will make the connection between Yan’s refusal to want to tell the
time and the lack of need for time in perpetual hell and see that living as
another is his perpetual hell he can never escape from. We are worlds
away from the cultures on the other sides of the planet and there are nuances
and subtleties we can never understand.
I don’t think, for
example, I can ever fully grasp a Studio Ghibli film as they are richly steeped
in the ancient culture of Japan. To me, all the wonders of the world of My
Neighbour Totoro and other such marvels will remain largely that, marvels.
Something I can look at in awe but only begin to understand after prolonged
immersion in Japanese culture. That does not mean I would ever dare to suggest
that they should be remade in the West. They exist in Japanese Culture and all
I can do is try to understand the world they are set in and appreciate just how
beautifully varied and diverse that world is. To remake them would be like
running a bulldozer over what made them great to, and for, me; their sublime
unfathomability.
This cultural
levelling, to alleviate any bump in culture clash, is why any Americanised
remake of a J-horror will never work; they are not the ghosts of our culture
and cant be made to move overseas to haunt affluent white people (as tempting
as it may seem). But, just because there are cultural boundaries does not mean
a film cannot be transported overseas. A film, despite its different language
and wholly remote culture, may hold themes and issues that speak out to all
people and it is when those themes are carried over that a remake’s existence
can be justified.
We all know what it feels like to be acting like someone and
how it starts to make us worry about who we really are. We all know about the
concepts of good and evil and have wondered what side our actions may fall on,
and whether there is a middle ground between them. These ideas are universal
ideas that exist in every culture and these are what carry best from Infernal Affairs. Instead of applying
foreign ideas of the Buddhist perpetual hell or the complex relationship
between triads and police in Hong Kong, The
Departed takes the bare bones of the plot and infuses Martin Scorsese’s
views or questions on ideas such as morality, guilt and identity which fit with
the original’s structure. Instead of keeping the brisk 100 minutes of Infernal Affairs, he opts for a long,
meditative film that looks over masculinity, Irish settlers in America,
conflicts within fractured cultural identity in America and other such cultural
issues, issues that would pass over the head of almost any non-American watching
the film. The reason that The Departed works best as a remake isn’t
that Scorsese is trying to shoehorn a Chinese film into an American culture,
but that he takes the original’s universality and uses that as his template. The story of two men, being who they aren’t,
looking for a true existence through the other person, I guess. I mean, what do
I know? I’m neither American, nor Chinese.
*I
can’t in any way claim innocence from any of these. I have repeatedly committed
all three instances of sounding like a cinema snob on multiple occasions
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