Film Remakes Research Articles

East Asian Film Remakes, edited by David Scott Diffrient and Kenneth Chan

East Asian Film Remakes, edited by David Scott Diffrient and Kenneth Chan

A statistical approach to Hollywood remake and sequel metadata

Abstract Hollywood film remakes, as old as the cinema itself, have attracted much professional, critical, and academic attention. They have been viewed by art critics as products of cultural derivativity and imperialism and commended by financial experts as low-risk business investments, closely linked to other forms of brand extension, such as sequels and bestseller adaptations. In this article, we adopt a film-historical quantitative approach to Hollywood film remakes by analysing metadata obtained from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and verified against reliable print and web sources. We analyse 986 Hollywood remakes produced between 1915 and 2020 in terms of raw and relative frequencies of annual releases, genre (in)stability, and patterns of transnational reproduction. We contrast our findings with those outlined by Henderson (2014a) in his statistical survey of Hollywood sequels, series films, prequels, and spin-offs, presented in his monograph The Hollywood Sequel: History and Form, 1911–2010. Having completed his list with recent sequential productions released between 2011 and 2020, we investigate the potential parallels between Hollywood remaking and sequelization practices. Our findings demonstrate historical discrepancies in various ‘content recycling’ trends, which help better characterize the cultural and commercial significance of remakes and serial forms in the American film industry.

A Comparative Study on the Compromise and Struggle Between the False Overlord and the Real Concubine in Farewell My Concubine Based on Hegels Tragedy Aesthetics

In the study of the text Farewell to My Concubine, most of the studies are on the interpretation of different characters and the direction of drama film art and Chinese literature. The author believes that the tragedy of Different characters in the Farewell to My Concubine tragic theory can be used as a novel and necessary research direction. Hegels Aesthetics Tragic Theory is based on his philosophical theory. He uses conflict and reconciliation, regarding the generation and solving of tragedy as an aliasing uniform dialectical process, having special historical value and research significance, used to analyze the Farewell to My Concubine, it can enable readers to understand and appreciate the tragedy while producing more profound thinking. The original book embodies the turmoil of the troubled times, the distinct time passages, the span of time. From the melee period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the anti-Japanese period, to the Kuomintang rule period or the liberation War period, and finally to the Cultural Revolution period, and the new China period. Named after the Peking Opera name, it not only reflects the author Li Bihuas thinking about the traditional culture represented by Peking Opera, but also contains the emotion about the situation and fate of Peking Opera actors under the changing times. There is also the relationship between ideal and reality, which is often discussed in literature. In the later film remake, director Chen Kaige not only tells the content of the original well, but also uses the contrast of cold and warm colors from a visual point of view; Light intensity and side light and backlight; The joys and sorrows of musical tunes; In different scenes, the closed, framed, and Chinese-style composition, playsing the story alive.

Between Domestication and Foreignization: A Study of How an Italian Film Remake Got Lost in Translation in the Arab World

Film remakes represent a form of cinematic translation that reconstructs various elements of the original text. This article relies on the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization to analyze “Āṣḥāb Wālā Āʿāz”, the Arabic remake of the Italian film “Perfetti Sconosciuti” or “Perfect Strangers”. This study shows that the Arabic remake, which sparked controversy across the Middle East, replicates many of the syntactic elements of the original film, such as the narrative and the plot structure, as well as cinematographic and paralinguistic elements. Still, it attempts to adopt a transformative approach in order to generate a cultural production. The result shows that the use of domestication in film remakes alters the rhetorical effect of the original version and that, although foreignization may promote an audience’s interest in foreign cultures, it may contribute to the reproduction of otherness due to the dissatisfaction of the targeted audiences.

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

CHILDREN'S STORY B. SOKPAKBAYEV "MY NAME IS KOJA": FROM BOOK TO REMAKE

The work of Berdibek Sokpakbaev, a classic of Kazakh children's literature, often became the object of journalistic works, literary research and dissertation research. However, the fate of the book itself, which was continued in fiction, cinema, remakes, remained unexplored, which predetermined the relevance of this work. The purpose of this article is to describe the transformation of the well-known school story “My name is Kozha” by B. Sokpakbaev, which has gone from the text of the story to film texts (“My name is Kozha” by A. Karsakbaev (1964), “Menin de atym Kozha” by Yerkin Rakishev (2009) ) and the “boomerang” of the story “Angel” by Nurlan Sanzhar, who played the main role of Karsakbaev’s film masterpiece, which returned back to literature. Thus, B. Sokpakbaev's children's book has gone through an interesting path - from a story to a film adaptation, from a film adaptation to a film remake, from a remake back to a story. These transformations of the children's book "My name is Kozha" will be discussed in this article. The results of the study can be used in the course of teaching the disciplines "Kazakh children's literature", "History of Kazakh literature of the twentieth century", as well as philology students specializing in the field of literary criticism.

A Critical History of Chinese Film Remakes: From Shanghai to Hong Kong to Beijing and Beyond

A Critical History of Chinese Film Remakes: From Shanghai to Hong Kong to Beijing and Beyond

Quantifying the remake: A historical survey

American film remakes have enjoyed growing academic attention over the past 50 years. Together with prequels, sequels, reboots and spin-offs, they have been often viewed as exponents of contemporary recycling culture, symptomatic of Hollywood’s recent creative exhaustion and commercial risk aversion. In our article, we adopt a diachronic quantitative perspective to analyse and interpret the available metadata on 986 Hollywood remakes produced between 1915 and 2020. Our quantitative research shows the number of American remakes produced every year, their ratio in the total number of feature films produced annually, the percentage of remakes in the top most watched movies among the users of IMDb, as well as remake recency and percentage of remakes with titles recognizably linked to the original over the years. We find that popular convictions concerning the remarkable derivativity of contemporary American cinema stem from availability bias (accessibility of statistics concerning recent productions and relative neglect of historical data) and systemic differences in the function and prestige ascribed to feature film remakes by Old and New Hollywood filmmakers.

Male Monsters Still Stalk, Yet More Violent: A Comparative Analysis of Original Slasher Films and Their Remakes

Since its origins in the mid-1970s, the slasher has been defined as a subgenre of horror in which a serial or mass killer stalks and massacres middle-class youngsters, and preferably attractive young women, using cutting weapons or projectiles. In that regard, the twenty-first century has seen a revival of the slasher, combining the release of original movies with remakes of classic films, adapting the traditional plots to the current context. In this paper, a comparative content analysis is performed on 13 slasher films made during the 1970s and the 1980s and 13 remakes premiered in the new millennium, focusing on the differences stemming from the adaptation of the latter to the new sociocultural context. The results indicate that, although there have been a number of changes, such as higher doses of explicit violence and profanity and in the fight responses of the victims, most of the subgenre’s defining traits have remained intact, whereas others, such as those relating to the defining traits of the victims, should be questioned. The limited differences found between the original films and the remakes provide the basis for drawing interesting conclusions about the subgenre itself, as well as to raise discussions about the different contexts of production and reception.

A Comparative Study of Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Shakuntalam and Namita Gokhale’s Shakuntala: The Play of Memory

Shakuntala is one of the most acclaimed women characters of Indian Literature. For the first time Shakuntala’s character originated in The Mahabharata. Since then she has been represented in various texts in various languages of India. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the representation of Shakuntala by the authors from ancient times to the present. For this purpose ancient work Abhijnana Shakuntalam by Kalidasa and the modern work Shakuntala: The Play of Memory by Namita Gokhale are studied.
 In Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Shakuntalam Shakuntala is the real daughter of Sage Vishvamitra and nymph Menka. However, she is adopted and brought up by Sage Kanva and his wife Gautmi. She is a rustic girl, brought up in a hermitage. With the progress of the play, she is married to King Dushyanta who forgets her because of a curse. Later, she was adopted by sage Kashyapa and his wife Aditi. She gives birth to a brave child Bharat and finally reunites with her husband.
 Shakuntala: The Play of Memory by Namita Gokhale was Published in 2005 and it is a challenging work of Indian English fiction. Like the remakes of films there may be re-invention and re-interpretation of old myths embodied in literary works. In her masterpiece Shakuntala, Namita Gokhale has portrayed the story of a woman named after the heroine of Kalidasa’s classic drama Abhijnana Shakuntalam. In contrast to her legendary namesake, she is bold, spirited and imaginative. Right from her childhood she is conscious of the discrimination towards female. In her marriage with a mahasamant, Srijan, she feels suffocated by social customs. Hungry for experience she deserts home to travel with a Greek horse merchant, Nearchus. Together they travel far and wide and surrender to unbridled pleasures. Shakuntala assumes the identity of Yaduri: the ‘fallen woman.’ But she forsakes this life as well to meet her salvation in her death at Kashi.

Hallyu (the ”Korean Wave”) in Vietnam

By now popular culture of South Korea is widespread not only across Asia, but also worldwide. However, the problem of the features of Hallyu content reception in Asia lacks research, what stipulates for actuality of this work. The task of the research is to reveal the specific character of the reception of “the Korean wave” products in Vietnam.The research has shown that in the SRV “the Korean wave” reception process is divided into four stages, the reception took place unimpeded on each of them. The modes of reception of Hallyu products in Vietnam comprise re-makes of Korean films and “trendy dramas”, joint issue of musical compositions with the participation of Korean singers, as well as cooperation in filmmaking. In the SRV cultural diffusion is not deep, as in fact, the initiative almost entirely belongs to the Korean side. Despite public displeasure with “the Korean wave” content, which is a real conflict of cultural interests, Vietnamese authorities do not undertake any limitations against Hallyu and do not strive to slow the reception artificially, while economical advantage of the cooperation with the Korean side is very high, and the Vietnamese entertainment industry can evolve on the investments of large South Korean companies.

Easy Rider and Thelma & Louise revisited, or on experimental film remakes of the road movie

Although remakes and road movies are particularly endemic to Hollywood cinema, experimental filmmakers have also embraced the road movie tradition and reproduced existing material for new audiences to retell, readdress and rearticulate the prior story, exploring the dialectics between repetition, differentiation and genre. Interestingly, however, while the remake, seen mostly as a genre phenomenon, has received some critical attention, remaking in the avant-garde film scene has been rarely explored by adaptation theory and practice. To somewhat fill in this gap, the article situates two recent avant-garde films, James Benning’s Easy Rider (2012) and Jessica Bardsley’s Goodbye Thelma (2019), within the framework of remake and adaptation studies and proposes that both works function as acknowledged and transformed remakes of the classic road movies, in which the outcome radically differs from the original story and crosses the temporal and spatial boundaries of the genre. In doing so, the projects fit in with the broader tradition of cinematic reworking and recycling as they continuously reference and exploit earlier films by creating their alternative versions as well as a strong sense of place and movement.

Hollywood remakes of British films: A case of cross-pollination

This article is an attempt at analysing Hollywood remakes and their British originals in terms of constructing and articulating their shared identity and their difference. Although the source films are considered British, they are often UK/US co-productions, made at the time of Hollywood’s active involvement in the domestic film scene during the so-called ‘Hollywood England’. This complicates neat labels not only in terms of nationality and geography but also original versus copy and points to the existence of transnational and transcultural flows already in evidence in the original works. The article focuses on genre and casting in a selection of British films from the 1960s/70s and then their Hollywood remakes in the new millennium as an example of such cross-pollination with remakes and their originals seen as hybrid works existing between two cultures and film traditions that can be accessed from both directions.

Originality versus proximity: An explorative study of audience reactions to monolingual film remakes

Striving for a more holistic approach of the field that studies film remakes, this article analyses the reception context of the monolingual film remake practice in the Low Countries. Instead of assuming how audiences define, perceive, experience, and evaluate Dutch-Flemish film remakes, this article explores these aspects empirically by analysing data from four focus groups. Given the cultural proximity between the Netherlands and Flanders, the study equally inquires if (and why) Dutch and Flemish audiences prefer their local film versions. It is found that participants do not share a common definition of the artefact and understand the label differently from scholars or people working in the industry. Participants were highly critical of film remakes and generally preferred the local version. However, it appeared that the latter depended on whether they knew which version was the ‘original’.

The Remake Industry: The Practice of Remaking Films from the Perspective of Industrial Actors

AbstractThough current research on the film remake phenomenon acknowledges an underlying industrial process, it rarely analyses it. Therefore, building on expert interviews with people working in the remake industries of the Low Countries, this article places the production aspect of the film remake process central. The findings suggest that the manner in which these cultural mediators describe and evaluate the film remake mirrors popular discourses and seems to affect the production process of film remakes themselves. It was found that the phenomenon is generally seen as the result of a lack of originality, authenticity and is, moreover, highly commercially driven. These aspects were found to sometimes function as a license for initiating remake projects. However, next to the financial benefits, other personal and creative rationales were advanced. Additionally, the element of localization was deemed as one of the most essential tactics in the creative process. Finally, distributors appear to be crucial figures in the emergence of film remakes in small geo-linguistic film markets.

The Last of the Long Takes: Feminism, Sexual Harassment, and the Action of Change

The surging activism of #MeToo has expanded discussion of the revival of feminism and the role of digital activism, and raised questions about potential for lasting change. This is approached by comparing the featured politics of naming in two eras of feminism: the naming of alleged harassers in #MeToo which originated with the claims against Harvey Weinstein by Hollywood identities in 2017; and the naming of sexual harassment as a workplace issue by feminist activists in the 1970s. Anita Hill’s testimony to the US Senate against Clarence Thomas in 1991 is a bridging episode between the eras to which Lauren Berlant responded with her theory of Diva Citizenship and her argument that change depends on the action of the body politic in response to the Diva Citizen. I argue that the historical naming of sexual harassment was a crucial first stage in any lasting change.

Film’s Unmade Sequels

Abstract This essay explores the plans of 1982–1983 to produce a remake of and then a kind of sequel to Beckett’s 1965 Film. With access to the personal archive of the director who was planning these pieces, Damian Pettigrew, the essay traces the history of the shifting project and focuses on Beckett’s own direct involvement, evidenced in correspondence as well as notes taken of a number of face-to-face conversations between Pettigrew and Beckett. These conversations also throw light back on 1965’s Film with regard to influential films, locations and imagery that provide context to the original. At the same time, further correspondence reveals the involvement or near involvement in the Film remake of notable figures such as Jack Lemmon, Dirk Bogarde and Klaus Kinski.

Towards an Integrative Methodological Approach of Film Remake Studies

AbstractThis article argues that, after decades of pointing towards the importance of including production and reception research into the study of film remakes, we should actually start addressing production and reception methodologies and investigate why this is necessary for the sustainability and future development of the field. I argue that a lot can be learned from the insights coming from the existing methodologies that are being used in, that is, format studies, (critical) media industry studies, (audiovisual) translation studies, and more recently the study of cultural transduction. The first section of the article mainly deals with the importance of investigating the different cultural mediators that take part in the production lifecycle of the film remake. It is contended that the analysis of film remakes should start examining the different individuals or institutions that mediate or intervene between the production of cultural artefacts and the generation of consumer preferences. The second part of the article points towards the importance of investigating the reception, experience, and interpretation of film remakes. It is shown that crucial questions like ‘(why) do audiences prefer the domestic remake over the foreign film?’, ‘how do audiences experience, interpret, and explain differences and similarities between source films and remakes?’, but also ‘how do audiences define and assess film remakes?’ remain yet to be asked. The article concludes that if the field of remake studies wishes to break out of its disciplinary boundaries, adopting a multi-methodological approach will help to further brush off its dusty character of textual analysis.

Global transcreators and the extension of the Korean webtoon IP-engine

Webtoons are fast cementing their place as a new sector of the digital media industries, with interest in this niche comic form increasing on a monthly basis across a range of platforms. To clarify this transformation, this article investigates the popular webtoon Cheese in the Trap, as well as its television series and film remakes, to illustrate the transmedia flows and participatory culture that underpin the extension of this new ‘IP-engine’. Next, it investigates the previously unrecognized contributions that fan translators – or what the authors call ‘transcreators’ – are making to the global spread of this format on Line Webtoon, the largest platform of its kind. The authors build on some significant previous studies – albeit with limited scope – by analyzing how webtoon series and the big data linked to them are transformed across multiple formats and platforms, how they are received by fans, and how cultural intermediaries are amplifying the impact and global spread of webtoons.

Local flavors and regional markers: The Low Countries and their commercially driven and proximity-focused film remake practice

AbstractThe practice of Dutch-Flemish film remaking that came into existence in the new millennium quickly appeared to be of great importance in the film industries of Flanders and The Netherlands – and consequently of Europe. Inspired by methods used in television (format) studies, this article conducts a systematic comparative film analysis of nine Dutch-Flemish remakes together with their nine source films. Considering the remake as a prism that aids in dissecting different formal, transtextual, and cultural codes, and subsequently embedding the practice in its specific socio-cultural and industrial context, we found several similarities and differences between the Dutch and Flemish film versions and showed how these can be made sense of. More generally, we distilled two encompassing principles that administer the remake practice: even though a great deal of the remake process can be explained through the concept of localization – or, more precisely, through the concepts of ‘manufacturing proximity’ and ‘banal aboutness’ – we found that it should certainly not be limited to these processes – as both (trans)textual, such as the mechanism of ‘filling in the gaps’, and contextual elements were found.