Japan’s “Yellow Handkerchief” Gets Hollywood Nod
A 1977 Japanese film "Shiawase no Kiiroi Hankachi" – The Yellow Handkerchief of Happiness will be remade in Hollywood.
The film will star Oscar-winning, William Hurt and be directed by Udayan Prasad.
The story is about a middle-aged man, just released from prison, who meets a young couple on his way home to meet his own wife.
If Prasad is smart, or stupid, depending on your perspective, he can cast a Chinese person to play the Japanese parts..aka "Memoirs of a Geisha" and Zhang Ziyi.
It might not make the movie any better but it will surely cause enough buzz to get people to watch it.
The last movie I can remember that was a Hollywood remake of a Japanese flick, was "Shall We Dance" starring Richard Gere.
Oh…let's not forget "Grudge" and "Grudge II."
Any others?
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April 18, 2007
I don’t consider Hollywood remakes of Japanese horror movies specifically better or worse than the originals. The alterations, if well-thought, are cultural translations so that an American audience will be just entertained. “Shall We Dance” was an awful misstep on the part those involved in the American remake. It was a profoundly different movie and felt hollow and superficial. I can’t think of any other Japanese films outside of horror that were remade in America, but Scorsese’s “The Departed” was a fabulous take on the Chinese film “Infernal Affairs”. It proved that, with good directing, it can be done.