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.
