Anti-Hollywood

[KendoTiger]

*caution - some cussing*

-----whee, stop looking already------

Those fucking bastards in Hollywood - they're so damn stupid, they have to rip off other country's movies just to make money. They take amazing movies (specifically from Asia, because that's all I really care about at the moment - EU movies don't get remade), rape them, drape them in rags, then parade them around with American actors/actresses. What the fuck. You're so stupid you can't even create your own story line. Instead, you take someone else's, alter, ehem, RUIN it, then prop it up as original. Your pathetic attempts to make it "understandable" by American audiences contains the basic flaw that IN ORDER FOR THE MOVIE TO WORK, THE "ASIAN" PARTS MUST BE KEPT IN. When you remove/alter the story line, actions/reactions so they are "understandable", you lose what made the movie so special in the first place. Those actions/reactions are what give emotion to the characters. Sigh, you guys (and girls) in Hollywood are complete morons. Fuck you all (and not in the hot, sexy way).

So, for evidence. Let's look at "The Lakehouse". Now, it wasn't terrible, just pathetic and a little boring. They even changed the ending. Yes, the Korean version started out slow, but it built into a really sad, and amazing movie (Il Mare). Now, "Lakehouse" on the other hand... well, they took the "mail box" idea, and sort of ran it into the ground.

It's so damn similar to when they dub anime. Honestly, anime isn't that far from cartoons - so the biggest factors that make an anime good is story line and character dialogue (gives emotion). Sadly, without both, anime usually fails (manga can usually live because it has better art and more in-depth story line than anime versions).

Now, what has set me off on this rant against the stupidity arisin, otherwise known as Hollywood? The fact that THEY ARE REMAKING "MY SASSY GIRL" with the actress from "Girl Next Door."
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Yes, they remade "Il Mare" into "The Lakehouse". They ruined it.
Now they're remaking "My Sassy Girl" into an American Version. They *will* ruin it.
Sometime in 2008, they're also remaking "Battle Royale". Failure.

Now, how do I know they'll fail at the remakes? Obviously, from "Lakehouse", they have no clue on how to bring across the beauty of Korean Romance/tragedies - so "My Sassy Girl" is obviously beyond their abilities. Besides, there are no beautiful, rural scenes that would preserve the beautiful tree... Now, there is 0% chance anyone NOT Japanese, or FAMILIAR with Japanese current culture will be able to understand "Battle Royale" American Remake. Why? Because AMERICAN CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE CLASS WITH THE SAME 40 PEOPLE FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR, THEN HAVE AT LEAST 1/2-2/3* OF THE SAME PEOPLE THE FOLLOWING YEAR (in class, thanks to Yuki). They won't understand how traumatizing it would be to kill their classmates (they don't spend as much time with them). Besides, I can't remember any recent "Columbine" insidents in Japan.
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So in conclusion: Fuck Hollywood. Make amazing stuff I can respect - don't rip off someone else's work and parade it around like you did something worthwhile.

[smarks]

YES I HATE IT WHEN HOLLYWOOD MAKES ASIAN REMAKES AND SUBSEQUENTLY RUINS IT!

Oh I just hate it. Hate how Hollywood makes Asian movies look sooooo cheesy and lame when they're really good. The thing with Hollywood is that they do blockbuster after blockbuster without actual understanding of raw, good emotions and a good, solid storyline. Asian movies pay more attention to subtlety and emotions of the characters, which are very lacking in Hollywood movies. Hollywood just tends to spell everything out to the audience and add their own 2 cents into the film, which kills all the beauty the film possessed.

Korean movies in particular are very beautiful in an emotional kind of level, which Hollywood can never reproduce. Good Chinese movies have a very lyrical and poetic feel to the screenplay, which Hollywood can again, never replicate with English. And Hollywood actors lack the soft touch and subtlety to truly convey emotions with conviction.

I hated how they can't even remake horror movies like Ju-on and The Ring. God, they completely killed the movie. And they're remaking Infernal Affairs. Like can there be anything more disastrous?! Tony Leung is irreplaceable. That very fact will be the reason why teh remake will not be as good as the original.

I almost fainted when they said they are remaking My Sassy Girl. Can they not? It's such a beautiful, quirky little movie that I can't bear to see them mutiliate it like the other remakes. Can they ever find an actor like Cha Tae Hyun or an actress that can portray the character as well?! Seriously, I don't care if they go do another stupid, meaningless blockbuster. JUST DON'T RUIN OUR MOVIES.

The worst thing is, they hardly even credited the Lake House as being adapted from Il Mare. Spare me, Hollywood.

[JayMatrix]

Look what they did to Infernal Affairs, one of Hong Kong's best in many years.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6576/1915792823512214jpg0rf3.jpg

[hisashiluv14]

Haha, I was just thinking about starting an anti-Hollywood thread. :-)

Another great Asian film Hollywood totally fucked inside out: The Japanese film Shall We Dance? I saw about half of it during Chinese class like two years ago but saw enough to get the gist of the film. So imagine my horror when I found out that Hollywood got its greedy claws on it and was remaking it, starring Richard Gere (WHAT?) and Jennifer Lopez (WHAT??????). The story of a shy, awkward, Asian man coming out of his shell through dance lessons has turned into a typical Hollywood rom-com starring RICHARD GERE. I mean, seriously. I didn't watch the Hollywood version (I don't hate myself so much to willingly inflict such torture upon my senses) but it was obvious the direction they took with the "remake" from the trailers - absolutely nothing like the original film.

Why can't they just screen the original? If the American people are too stupid or ignorant or narrow-minded or just plain idiotic to "get it" (not like there's anything to get), THEN THEY DON'T DESERVE TO WATCH IT, PERIOD. Don't insult the original by dumbing it down, completely ruining its premise, just to cater to a bunch of ignoramuses who haven't been outside of their small little STATE.

The ONLY redeeming factor about the impending Infernal Affairs remake is that it's directed by Martin Scorsese, a director I respect. But still, no matter how fantastic Scorsese is, the end result will never, ever match up to the original.

If they think that Asian movies are so fantastic, they should just screen the original and stop "remaking" them - BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING TO REMAKE. Stop demeaning our movies, you idiots. And while you're at it:

Stop rehashing the same damn plot ten million times and trying to pass it off as a "new movie". Hollywood is so damn typical that the majority of its stupid-ass movies are so damn predictable that I don't even give a damn about the shit it releases anymore. Special effects do not impress me, stop ripping off great literary authors that you can NEVER EVER hope to emulate, and stop wasting good money on rubbish romantic comedies/Adam Sandler comedies/high school comedies that basically tell the exact same story, just with different actors. It's absolutely ridiculous. No wonder Hollywood's turning its attention to Asian cinema, because it's completely out of ideas. We should feel sorry for those people. Shame on them.

[smarks]

Don't insult the original by dumbing it down, completely ruining its premise, just to cater to a bunch of ignoramuses who haven't been outside of their small little STATE.

YES I SO DO AGREE WITH YOU. Hollywood just tends to treat everybody as dumb as a.. i dno.. chicken? They just seem to ADORE condensing a great film to nothing but plain water. It's just disgusting to see how they are able to wreck a beautiful piece of work. If THEIR audiences cannot appreciate the plot, DON'T MAKE IT. It's a great disservice AND a disrespect to the original filmmakers when they tear the film apart.


Stop demeaning our movies, you idiots. And while you're at it:
Stop rehashing the same damn plot ten million times and trying to pass it off as a "new movie". Yes I just hate it. Everything Hollywood does is so uncreative AND predictable. If it's a film on romance, it has gotta be a rom-com. or a chick-flick. God, can they just get something new? I do appreciate the occassional chick-flick, but not all the time with the same old plot. Get real, darlings.

Special effects do not impress me, stop ripping off great literary authors that you can NEVER EVER hope to emulate, and stop wasting good money on rubbish romantic comedies/Adam Sandler comedies/high school comedies that basically tell the exact same story, just with different actors. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Adam Sandler must be the worst actor ever. His movies are not funny, have no plot and don't even have eye candy. I'm disgusted. I just don't get why Hollywood is able to splurge huge bucks on such an incredibly untalented actor. :wacko:

[bebyjaystaa]

Look what they did to Infernal Affairs, one of Hong Kong's best in many years.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6576/1915792823512214jpg0rf3.jpg

hey..did it come out yet though ? :-)
but yea..when i saw this thread..the first thing i thought of was Infernal Affairs :D

[JayMatrix]

hey..did it come out yet though ? :-)
but yea..when i saw this thread..the first thing i thought of was Infernal Affairs :D

They even re-made it into The Departed, which is showing soon. I hate it when they didn't even credit Infernal Affairs in the trailer.

[tenshi_dew]

They're just going to ruin the American version of My Sassy Girl. I mean, the Korean version was perfect...how are they going to get an American actress that could play the role as well as Jeon Ji Hyun did?

And one thing I hate is after all the Americans watch it, they don't know it was copied from an Asian film. If you're going to rip off someone else's idea, at least acknowledge it

[KendoTiger]

You want to know how stupid Hollywood is getting?

"Snakes on a Plane".

Yeah, that says it all.

[nightshade]

The worst thing is when Asian stars try to go to Hollywood to make it big in the English language industry. John Woo hasn't made a single good movie since going to Hollywood. (Ugh, thinking about bad Hard Target is makes my brain hurt. I guess I can say that Broken Arrow was OK.) I'm glad that he's come to his senses and is making a couple of movies with Hong Kong actors again.

I feel like the attempt to move to Hollywood took a number of great movies away from Chow Yun-Fat. I can only imagine what great movies he might have made instead of Bulletproof Monk or Anna and the King. It took Ang Lee (who has played the Hollywood system brilliantly) to revive his career.

Now, Wong Kar-wai is off in Hollywood making two movies. I'll watch them, but I'm a little afraid that the movies are going to suck. I don't like Norah Jones at all, and she's the star of My Blueberry Nights. And the horrible Nicole Kidman is going to be the star of his next film, The Lady from Shanghai. I cannot stand Nicole Kidman. She is the epitome of a sad cog in the Hollywood machine.

[JayMatrix]

I think John Woo's Broken Arrow and Face/Off are pretty good.

[jaychou_21]

I really hate it when Hollywood makes its version of Asian films, particularly Asian horror films that prove to be huge successes at the American box-office (take a look at The Ring and The Grudge franchises for instance.) Grrr... It only proves that Hollywood lacks creativity and originality. Remakes of Asian movies do very well abroad (especially in North America) and yet, Tinseltown never seem to care where those movies came from. They don't give a damn at all! They couldn't care less about Asian film makers, and they rarely show their appreciation. They just buy the rights and that's it. They create their own version - which is most of the time not even half as good as the original - and they give props to themselves. I rarely see Hollywood remakes (of Asian movies) that give proper credits to the original.

As for the Hollywood version of Infernal Affairs aka The Departed, I'd greatly appreciate it if they mention the origins of one of HK's most successful and highly-acclaimed films to date. If they can't show it in the trailer or in the final credits, at least some decent press release about it, not like people will only know it's a remake of an Asian movie once they read it on movie reviews. Anyway, I'm not really against the Hollywood version of Infernal Affairs because Martin Scorsese helmed The Departed and Martin Scorsese is a genius. But then again, maybe I'm biased. So I ask myself hey, did anyone among Leonardo di Caprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson ever bothered to watch the original version of this Asian classic?

Heck! I'd be really mad at Hollywood if they re-make the Korean monster film The Host and their version critically sucked but fared a hundred times better at the box-office than the original.

[wanie_jay]

They're just going to ruin the American version of My Sassy Girl. I mean, the Korean version was perfect...how are they going to get an American actress that could play the role as well as Jeon Ji Hyun did?

really? they're making my sassy girl? that's my old time favourite! how can they even think about making a remake to a perfect movie like that?

[jayx8318x]

Did you guys catch the Oscars tonight when the introduced The Departed (Infernal Affairs remake) as based on a JAPANESE film. Are they freakin kidding? It's the Oscars, can't they do their research properly instead of looking on Wikipedia...gah! I wonder how the people watching in Hong Kong reacted when they said that.

By the way it won for Best Picture.

[jaychou_21]

^ OMFG. Really?!? :glug: I missed that bit. I hate it when awards shows (or Hollywood for that matter) can't get their facts correct. My 10 year-old brother knows better.

It won for Best Adapted Screenplay as well, so I think the original writers deserve some credits for that one, and yet they didn't even mention the origins of the film that won for this year's Oscar Best Picture? What a shame. :dry:

[spongebob]

I hate HOLLYWOOD!
i think any place where the stupid celebs influence upon soicetey is stupid. When I think I think Paris Hilton, YUCK> >>

[tc9.jay]

Did you guys catch the Oscars tonight when the introduced The Departed (Infernal Affairs remake) as based on a JAPANESE film. Are they freakin kidding? It's the Oscars, can't they do their research properly instead of looking on Wikipedia...gah! I wonder how the people watching in Hong Kong reacted when they said that.
By the way it won for Best Picture.

Oh yesh! My mouth dropped open when they made that bloody cocked-up introduction. Can you say re-tar-ded? Freaking hell. It's like, where's the respect?! I mean, they bought the rights, remade it and ha! it won a best picture at the OSCARS and they can't even get the origins right! What really pisses me off is when Hollywood remakes a movie, it often gets passed off as their own with no or little recognition for the original directors and scriptwriters.

That really sucks. :-x

[spongebob]

^^
Yeah, DUMBASS AMERICANS!
they want to do a squeal, I am not suprised.

[dazzlette]

Given the fact that the Asian media love to pick on small details and make mountains out of mole hills, I'm surprised that there hasn't been much reaction to this. Or maybe I just haven't seen it. :dry:

Personally, I didn't really like The Departed (I'm probably biased cos I loved Infernal Affairs, my fave HK movie of all time) and I hate it that most of the reviews I've read for The Departed downgrade Infernal Affairs to some kind of B grade movie while going on and on about how great The Departed is.

Come on, you use almost all the plot points from the original and you have the cheek to not even acknowledge it right!! URGH! I don't think it should have won best adapted screenplay, because I don't see much work done in adapting it because almost all of the story is taken from the original. And I didn't like the direction either. While I'm glad that Martin Socessee (?) won best director after missing his whole career, I just didn't like his interpretation of the story.

[simplyjennifer]

Leonardo DiCaprio to join Hollywood's version of Hong Kong's "Confession of Pain" what?!?!?!? roar! stinking Hollywood turning our beloved asian movies into CRAP!!

[tc9.jay]

Now Hollywood's on a roll. After striking gold at the oscars with a movie adapted or copied from a HONG KONG film, they are gonna do another one. Why am I not surprised?

Just thinking about it, when it comes to Chinese films in the American market, they seem to only obtain critical and commercial acclaim when it revolves arund the white man's favourite stereotype of a Chinese flick - gongfu and all that wushu fighting. Besides Bruce Lee's well-known gongfu movies, the only other Chinese movie that has gotten mainstream Hollywood's approval is Crounching tiger, hidden dragon. And now whenever the Mainland directors try to direct a film for the people in the west, they always have to try to play up to the western perception of eastern exotica. And so we have all the period shows and sword fighting(Curse of the Golden Flower anyone?). What's wrong with this picture? Frankly, Chinese cinema doesn't have to panter to anyone's demands or be pigeon-holed by a bunch of self-righteous outsiders.

[chineseguyjl]

you know what i hate about hollywood. the friggin chefs that go famous. their food when they arent famous is great, then when they have money and fame its like they dont care anymore. im just hungry right now.

chinese cinema and hollywood films are completely different. hollywood only aprreciates martial arts from chinese cinema. bastards. both sides have good movies, like "300" which was amazing.

you know what else grinds my gears. that fawking quintin tarren tino guy, taking the credit for a whole lot of hong kong films. he puts his name as the director in exchange to show the movie in america. hate that guy.

[lanny]

*sigh* thats why i never watch american movies/soap operas...they have the worst camera direction...n yea..theres just too many..kissin n skin showin..dont like it..-not sure if this hafta do with anythin discussed here..but whatever..this is what i hate bouts american movies... -_- ) but yea..like the one movie that just came out.."300" ---i was dragged into watchin it..there was this one "sex" scene...that was just...so...umm..unnecessary??.. it didnt hafta do with ANYTHIN..but..they just wanna show off their bodies n their skills in bed i guess...sowwie..just feel like biatchin bouts it...sheeshh...

[stag]

I remember back when Hollywood's creativity didn't go to crap, back when they didn't need to steal the plots of Hong Kong classics and win an oscar out of it, back when their movies were actually scary and not adapted from a single japanese horror director

is it really that difficult to be a little creative? :dry:

[joeymcjojo]

*sigh* thats why i never watch american movies/soap operas...they have the worst camera direction...n yea..theres just too many..kissin n skin showin..dont like it..-not sure if this hafta do with anythin discussed here..but whatever..this is what i hate bouts american movies... -_- ) but yea..like the one movie that just came out.."300" ---i was dragged into watchin it..there was this one "sex" scene...that was just...so...umm..unnecessary??.. it didnt hafta do with ANYTHIN..but..they just wanna show off their bodies n their skills in bed i guess...sowwie..just feel like biatchin bouts it...sheeshh...

"300" looked like a piece of crap that i wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. The previews just showed a guy yelling about Sparta and how they would eat their dinner in hell or something. Why the hell would anybody ever want to watch a movie about that? What the hell does that stuff even mean?

But yes, not only Hollywood but America in general has pretty much lost its originality and direction in movies. The last "original" movie I actually enjoyed was Little Miss Sunshine, but that wasn't even all that great. But, Asian cinema isn't exactly headed in the right direction either. Nowadays, it seems like all the movies are about triads or period dramas about betrayal or something.