Old Boy remake coming up!

H

harmonica44

Old Boy (2003) is one of my top 10 favorite films of all time probably. The remake has had a lot of negative flack from fans but I have high hopes and think it will live up.

I mean Hollywood has been able to make good remakes of foreign films before like The Departed or The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, so I have high hopes. Especially after seeing the trailer! What are your thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02k8Zac-so
 
I like Spike Lee, and I like the original Oldboy. Hollywood has done some good remakes, but the question I have is: why? Oldboy is already a good movie, and it's not that old yet. I'm not that excited about it, but looking at the talent involved, it probably won't be half bad.
 
I like Oldboy (it was one of the films that got me 'into' film, so there is a nostalgic love for it). It gets a lot more hype than it's worth, though. I consider it a great action film, but to credit it as something more clever, based on a convoluted plot and a ridiculous twist isn't right. I like it for it's ridiculousness, but again, I don't think it has a huge amount of value. Again, that said, it would still be one of my favourite films.

However, when I heard about the remake a couple of years back, i was skeptical, but maintained a small shred of hope. That hope was then destroyed when i saw the movie posters, then salt was rubbed into the wounds when I saw the trailer. They seem to have lost everything that made the first interesting, and not just another crappy action flick. Further, as far as i could tell, they've removed the twist? yes, I did say the twist was ridiculous just before, but that twist is that films biggest drawcard for most people (at least, the people I've talked to). I'm not sure I'll watch it, as everything around it so far has just caused me to become enraged.
 
Don't hold high hopes...and the find the whole remake culture utterly depressing!!

The remake of Dragon Tattoo was an absolute car crash!!!
 
I actually thought the Dragon Tatoo remake was as good as the original possibly.

I never really considered Oldboy to be an action film as pointed out. I thought of it as more of a drama thriller, since their was only one real action sequence.

And I don't see how people can say the twist was removed since the trailer gives no indication of that. As far as I can tell, the twist may still very well be there, and we don't know at all.
 
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Whoa whoa whoa… There's a U.S. remake of Oldboy? *views YouTube red band trailer*

/rant

Number one. To the producers greedy enough to license a remake: Go die in a fire. The Earth is covered in enough water to drown you all if there wasn't enough gasoline to consume your bloated body.

Number two. To the actors who wanted anything to do with this: I will no longer watch your films, you paycheck-sucking parasites who have absolutely no respect for the art of cinema.

Number three. I do not support American remakes, wether properly licensed or ripped off (see "Pacific Rim" - It's nothing but the theft of the Japanese anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion," arguably the most perfect anime series to ever be created). Remakes show that Hollywood is devoid of any brain cells whatsoever and are only trying to cash in on the existing franchise.

Number four. Recently, Speilberg and Lucas both were quoted in an interview that Hollywood would soon completely implode if they don't change with the times. Personally, I can't wait for this to happen. Times change. Hollywood and their money hungry lawyers haven't. Something's going to give way and with any luck, Cthulhu will eat Hollywood off the map and all the greedy scum that exist within.

And finally, Number five. I find it sad that no one takes Samuel L. Jackson seriously as an actor unless he's screaming "motherfucker" every two seconds on screen. He's a much better actor than that. Stop typecasting him.

/rant

Damn, that was an angry one, wasn't it? Sorry, my pain level is at maximum thanks to my advancing cancer and it makes me a bit grouchy. I accept all responsibility for anything said above, though. I meant it all.

As you can probably tell, I'm not fond of remakes. The Hollywood system as we know it will fall and the filmmakers of IndieTalk will be there to reap the rewards by distributing online.

Viva la IndieTalk!
 
I'm a big fan of the original, and tend to be HIGHLY critical of remakes.

That having been said, so far what I've seen of it is enough to keep me interested, and that's BEYOND rare. I mean, is everyone here REALLY pissed because it looks bad? Or maybe, JUST MAYBE are you thinking it looks much worse than it does because you're upset that it's a remake?
 
I wasn't that crazy about Oldboy (though I appreciated that it was well done, just not to my tastes), so I have no dog in this race. I'm also, generally speaking, not crazy about foreign remakes, or remakes in general. It's not that the idea is bad, it's just that they're so rarely done well (my favorite example, few people remember the original Scarface, but the remake is certainly an iconic film).

But anyway, most people in the US do not like to watch subtitled films. Is it silly? Sure. Do I wish more people would watch them? Of course. But is that likely to change? Probably not anytime soon. We're all film geeks here...we have no issues with subtitled films, or old films for that matter. But we are VERY much in the minority.

So we could say that the average filmgoer should either watch the film the way it was originally done, or just not watch it, but that's sort of elitist. Remaking Oldboy has raised awareness of the original to a ton of people who wouldn't have watched it on their own. It also exposes the story (or a version of it) to a wide audience that did not know the original, and probably still won't recognize it as a remake. These people never would have watched the original. And most importantly, it can never "ruin" the original, which will always remain to be enjoyed.

Who knows? Maybe it'll turn out to be fun (related note: I'm looking forward to Brick Mansions, the American remake of Banlieue 13, still featuring David Belle). My perspective is skewed by a long-standing interest in folklore and traditional music which is all about reinterpreting past works, so there is that.

Sorry to hear about your pain, Loud Orange Cat. I understand and hope you feel better. We can definitely argue about Evangelion if you'd like :D del Toro cites Tetsujin-28 as more of the influence for Pacific Rim, and from what I hear, there's a lot more Mazinger than Eva in the film (haven't seen it yet). Either way, in the words of Stravinsky, "good artists borrow, great artists steal!"
 
most people in the US do not like to watch subtitled films.
Click to expand...

Absolutely true.
So here's my suggestion - which everyone will hate:
Why can't foreign movies be offered in both a dubbed and a subtitled version?
Yeah I know dubbing costs more, but many other countries do it.
And if it gets people to watch movies that they wouldn't otherwise watch, I think it would be a net positive.
 
I saw Brotherhood of the wolf (French film, subtitled), at a local theater. Bought it on DVD when I found out it had an English dubbed track.

Before seeing the red band trailer, I had never heard of Old Boy. I will see the remake, and look for the original on Netflix.

I liked the orginial Let The Right One in, and I also enjoyed (might be the only person) the US remake, Let Me In. Thought the US version added some clarity to the relationship between the old man and the little girl, that I think the original leaves up to the viewer to try and assume.
 
I hope you feel better as well Loud Orange Cat.

Well the original is one of my most favorite movies, and I am in the huge minority of fans that is actually looking forward to this remake with high hopes. I mean I would be against a remake if South Korea was remaking their own movie only 10 years later. But I have no problem with the U.S doing a take on it, as long as they stay true, and do a good job.

And people are blaming Hollywood for selling out, but they are just the buyers of the material. No one seems to be mad at the original movie makers for selling the rights to a remake. Everyone is just disappointed in Hollywood only, when they are just the buyers. It's the original filmmakers who signed the piece of paper.
 
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I call Shenanigans on this entire "remake"! It's Bullshit! They're making a completely different movie, only using the name to capitalize on the popularity of a cult favorite. As far as I'm concerned, by buying the rights to this film, that can pretty much only be seen as a form of marketing, cuz we can tell enough from the trailer to know that they've COMPLETELY changed the story.

Imagine if somebody did a remake of Fight Club, but then decided that
Brad Pitt and Ed Norton weren't actually playing the same character
?

What if somebody remade Sixth Sense, and decided that
Bruce Willis wasn't actually dead the whole time
?

Yeah, that kinda changes EVERYTHING. So, in the trailer for this new Oldboy, we can see that
our hero knows what his grown-up daughter looks like
. So much for the ENTIRE story!

I'll watch it. I'm not against American remakes of foreign films that were already good (Dragon Tattoo was made better, IMHO). But I don't see how this is a remake. Maybe we'll be surprised.

BTW -- if anyone hasn't seen Oldboy, should you watch it, I HIGHLY advise watching it with subtitles. One of the greatest joys of this movie is the Tarantino-esque dialog, and it was completely ruined in the dub (I thankfully watched the subtitled version first).
 
We can't tell from the trailer that the ending will be different.

In the trailer, the daughter is kidnapped and held hostage, which did not happen in the original, but that woman might not be the daughter and could be a red herring to control the hero, and the real twist ending could still be the same.
 
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harmonica44 said:
We can't tell from the trailer that the ending will be different. In the trailer, a woman is kidnapped and held hostage, which did not happen in the orignal, but that woman could be a red herring, and the real twist ending could still be the same. The woman hostage could very well be a diversion.
Click to expand...

He see's his daughter on TV?
 
Ugh. Actually, the remake looks like it's good looking, at least. Josh Brolin looks good.

But yeah, knee jerk, I resent the remake. I didn't love everything about the original. But I do love some things about the original.

I don't know. If Hollywood wants to do remakes, I'm not all against it. Like you, Josh, I don't exactly have a dog in the race. There is something to be said for adapting a foreign film to give it sensibilities that a Western audience can better relate to. And, there's something to be said for watching a movie without having to read subtitles. After all, movies aren't meant to be read. It's a distraction. It gets in the way. It mars the image. Most of us here are glad to put up with subtitles because we want the original and unbutchered by crappy dubbing versions of films. Like CF pointed out, dubs seem to typically be just awful.

What annoys me most about these remakes, though, is here you have this talented bunch of people, you have the money to do something, why the hell not make something new, for goodness sake?! I know, CF already explained why they do this.

It's a shame though.
 
cheeseandachallenge said:
He see's his daughter on TV?
Click to expand...

In the original the villain was able to keep an illegal prison secret, even though it was a building in the downtown area of a city. He was able conjure up all these secret resources and things, with no one ever knowing. So if he can do all that, he could somehow get an imposter on a television set, pretending to be the daughter, and it shouldn't be too much of a challenge for him.
 
Fair theory i guess, but I think the makers would know that fans would be annoyed at the removal of the twist, and by suggesting that happens in the trailer, they're damaging themselves? I don't see what they would gain using a trailer, where the most logical assumption is that the twist has been removed.
 
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