Japanese horror vs Western Remakes
 

Obviously the majority of you will think Japanese horror makes for a better film, to which I personally agree, if you disagree why? is a hollywood remake better? or (much much) worse? what features of the japanese orginal make it more scary, gruesome, terrifying and altogether thrilling?

remakes in general turn me off




for the most part

Japanese horror movies done well blow their American counterparts out of the water. Take the ring for instance, the girl from the tv is genuinely creepy in the original, its just blah in the us remake. As a rule I refuse to watch the remakes cause normally theyre terrible, that said though Japanese movies lose their effectiveness the more sequels are made, the ring is again a prime example.

old thread but i like the question.

some remakes are good - some are bad .. simple.

Dark waters was a bad remake because it missed the subtle tie that made the original more tense (and if had nothing to do with the ghost.

The Grudge was an excellent remake. (same director - so that probably helps)
I jumped in places where i knew the scare was coming .,. and i NEVER jump - so i've always respected that one.

the ring was just fine - and responsible for introducing north americans - for the most part - to asian horror.

I thought The Grudge remake was impressive too.

Although it's a Hong Kong film and not Japanese I really liked the US remake of Infernal Affairs (Scorcese's The Departed)

There will always be subtleties lost when things are westernized but a good film is a good film (and vice versa).

i have to stop using my iPhone to respond to these things - my eyes are going and i can't see all the autocorrect errors until i'm on the computer :)

I tend to avoid the Hollywood versions all together.

Thai, Korean and Japanese remakes surpass Hollywood
 

I don't know why Hollywood always fails in their remakes of Asian horror movies. I think it's the "formula" that is required by the boardroom of execs - they need to tweak it, because they think Americans want only 1 movie (same formula, girl, romance angle etc.)
Otherwise, I've no clue why we can't get it right.

I really liked The Grudge remake. The Ring was okay, but not nearly as good as the original. The indisputable worst is the One Missed Call remake.

The Chaser to be re-made as a result of Leonado DeCraprio's interest possibly featuring Ryan Gosling last I heard. I have yet to see a NA adaption that is even remotely palatable.

I suspect Murdered will be re done at some point or Detective C+ (Aaron Kwok)

Old Boy. Ugh. A travesty.

Dark Water was horrible as well. No scares, no... Nothing.

The current American style tends to be influenced by the music-video era and now also social media, which is why most remakes are hyperedited crapfests and why shaky cam persists.

When they Americanize these movies they lose the foreign aspect that helps with the horror situation. So few are able to establish a correct and similar horror mood. Only The Ring, at least to me, is equal to the original.

To me The Ring was more entertaining than Ringu, but the scary parts wasn't as scary.

I didn't mind "Oldboy," although not a horror movie. There are rare examples where a reake can work, but I think the cultures are too different, as well as US remakes being bright and vibrant, Asian cinema has a knack of giving a moody, grimy look that adds to the fear factor.

After seeing The Ring much more recently, I think I like The Ring just a tad more. I like how Rachel has to do all the research rather than some stupid psychic shit, and the longer running time added to the film's scope.

I know, that this is a rather old thread, but still I couldn't avoid this topic,considering how many asian horrors I saw recently.Few years ago, I would completely agree with the statement that remakes are usually much more worst than originals(with exceptions, of course). But recently I watched the last two parts of ju-on, and I must admit that some bad remakes were better than those two films. I still like Korean horrors, but the grudge and original japanese ju-on were one of my first horrors which scared me without showing too much blood and without screamers, that's why current situation with japanese horrors makes me really sad.

I watched Ring and Ring 2 before Ringu and Ringu 2 and I wasn't scared by any of it. Think I might've watched them the wrong way round though. Either way, I like all of them. I also have The Sleeping Bride, but I've not seen that yet.

i don't think american remakes of foreign movies work because while also being a lazy cash grab they also don't take into account the cultural differences. i mean what one culture finds scary is different from what another finds scary and sometimes it doesn't translate well. there is a look that is associated with american remakes of Asian movies and most people find it bland at this point because in america we don't have the same ghost stories and legends and the same images don't mean the same things to us. if you don't understand why a thing is menacing then making a movie about it doesn't really work. it just ends up a boring mess. i like the idea of different cultures borrowing from each other and i think a few remakes ended up okay but for the most part there is not a respect and honest cultural exchange happening it's just a cheap attempt to make a quick buck off the fact that most people have not seen a movie that only came out in a country on the other side of the world. ::devil::

I don't mind remakes, The Ring was by far better than Ringu, and The Grudge was better than Ju-on: The Grudge as well, aside from the crawling-down-the-stairs-scene, that scene was done better in the original. However, Japanese movies are usually creepier/scarier because they rely on atmosphere rather than jump scares.

i agree, atmosphere is far more effective than jump scares.

I think it depends on the movies. I actually thought that the American remake of The Ring was a lot better than the original Japanese version, but I like the Ju-On movies a lot more than I do The Grudge movies.

BTW those are the only Japanese horror movies I have seen and I am NOT a weeaboo.

1. What's a weeaboo?
2. I recommend "Reincarnation"

Have you ever met those annoying people who love Japanese animation and manga so much that they obsess over it to the point of using Japanese words like "baka" and "kawaii" in an English-spoke conversation when they clearly don't know how to actually speak Japanese? They also tend to bad mouth anything that isn't Japanese (especially American stuff) and they like to believe that they are such experts on Japanese culture just because they watch Japanese entertainment with subtitles and look up a few things about Japan on Wikipedia. Also every weeaboo I know dreams of one day moving to Japan to become an "English teacher" and marry a beautiful Japanese citizen because they envision the country to be some sort of Utopia that's better than where they live now. Nevermind the fact that a lot of Japanese people are xenophobic and don't take well to outsiders trying to move in on their already crowded country.

But yeah that pretty much sums up the description of your typical weeaboo. Now please don't misunderstand me there is nothing wrong with loving Japanese culture or entertainment (I actually love Japanese culture myself). But weeaboos take it way too far.

Also I saw a preview for the movie Reincarnation once and it looked good. I'll have to check it out if I ever get the chance. :)

Thank you for the explanation!

No problem. :) Basically they're obsessive fanboys and fangirls who go crazy over anime and manga and anything else related to Japan. Most people find them to be annoying.

I think the problem with Western remakes is that producers think the American audience needs those jump scares and CGI to be satisfied. Hopefully it's getting better these days though!

I really prefer the originals over the american remakes....like ringu and ju-on....tho i really do enjoy the grudge series and the ring..

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I would love to see the Japanese movie industry make a Resident Evil movie. I'm sure it will be way better than the Western version.

Concidering all the games has been made by japanese developers you might be right. Wouldn't hurt to try.