MovieChat Forums > Sukiyaki uesutan Jango (2007) Discussion > Japanese Remake of 'Fist Full of Dollars...

Japanese Remake of 'Fist Full of Dollars'


That's all I saw, a modern , Terantinoed, Japanese Pulp remade version of a classic. Maybe that's the reason I didn't think it was good, but meh, opinions?

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you're joking, right?

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Have you ever seen a movie called Yojimbo ..... Fist full of dollars????????? hahahahaaaaaaaaaa
"walks away LOL'ing like crazy"

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/

''Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."

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In fairness to the original poster (who, admittedly, may just be horrifically uninformed) at least all of the other big-name remakes did the same story in a different genre. Yojimbo turned the story into a samurai story. Fistful of Dollars turned it into a Western. Sukiyaki turned it into... a Western?

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Just in case Bzerker01 is not kidding, I should explain why others are shaking their head and walking away laughing from this comment. The classic "Fist Full of Dollars" was a direct rip-off of Akira Kurosawa's classic movie called "Yojimbo" (which means bodyguard in Japanese) by the Italian director named Serge Leone. Serge Leone's film was called a classic "Spaghetti Western" because Serge Leone was Italian (hence the Spaghetti). Apart from big stars like Clint Eastwood, almost all the actors were Italian or Spanish (The two countries where the films were shot). Also, these foreign actors spoke in english to the best of their ability and later the lines were voiced over by American actors. Miike just skipped the voice over nonsense (thank goodness). Basically the genre was Italian directors borrowing stories and from cultures other than their own (and some great films came out of it). In that same tradition comes Takeshi Miike. The brilliance of Miike is that he decided to reclaim what was originally Japanese then made Italian/American by creating a big smash up of the genres with modern and classic Japanese themes, Shakespeare theater and classic Japanese Noh theatre in a uniquely fashion. I especially enjoy when the gun slinger first goes into town and the scene looks exactly like the beginning of Kurosawa's Yojimbo until one of the gang members yells "best not get any ideas about playing Yojimbo." Gold I tell you! Also, in the end, it says "_____ later goes off to Italy and was know as the man Django," as if he is offering some modern Italian director to make a remake of a remake of a remake plus throw in the story line of another Spaghetti Western, "Django."

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Couldn't have said it better myself.

Hahahahahahahah a rip off of Fistful of dollars... Buh

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I love the film. I saw it at the cinema here in Japan and I was blown away. I had such a great time catching reference after reference in the script, visuals and editing.

The movie is like a Japanese remake of an Italian remake of another Italian remake of a Japanese "Samurai movie", and also features Tarantino, one of the most well known American re-appropriators of film (often Japanese and Asian film) as a old and frail nerd obsessed with Japanese pop-culture. Additionally, though the film features Japanese buildings and religious iconography, it is in distinctly foreign surroundings and all the inhabitants speak English (badly), except for the natives, who speak their own tongue.

I love the subversive nature of the film and the full circle and cultural commentary that it represents. It was actually part of quite a few high level lessons with students here, and to hear their views on cultural re-appropriation and globalisation was fun.

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It's interesting that everyone considers Yojimbo the origin of this storyline. Kurosawa was actually making a film version of Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest," a story about a detective who pits two warring gangs against each other. Quite similar to "Last Man Standing" actually, hmmm... (yes I realize it's part of the line of "yojimbo" remakes I just figure it's actually the closest one to the original story.)

Kurosawa was quite fascinated with western literature apparently. Two of his most famous films were based on Shakespeare plays. RAN (Japanese for "Chaos") based on "King Lear" and "Kumonosu jô" ("Throne of Blood") based on Macbeth. So I guess the "smash-up of genres" started with Kurosawa and Yojimbo.

Oh, and dont' give Bzerker01 too much grief, none of us were born with the knowledge that Fistfull was based on Yojimbo and must've asked the same question at some point.

Roan

The only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.

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And not only all that, but (and I've never seen this said by anyone else, but I'll stand by it), Seven Samurai owes a lot to Beowulf.

I know the idea behind Seven Samurai was to have it be a kind of "day in the life..." kind of thing, but the basic plot of the story is the same as that of Beowulf. And A Bug's Life is a kind of remake of Seven Samurai.

I don't know. I've always made that connection. Kind of fits to this discussion.

Why did the moron beat his head against the wall?...because it felt so good when he stopped.

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pretty much everything owes itself to Beowulf, though, right?

It kinda works that way when you are one of the first.

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Well, in a general sense, yeah.

But I meant in terms of basic plot.

Why did the moron beat his head against the wall?...because it felt so good when he stopped.

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i'm glad at least some people here can tell this movie is a bad rip-off of yojimbo

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Just because a movie has taken plots elements and other ideas from an older movie doesn't necessarily make it bad. That is only up to your own personal taste or opinion. What it shows that knocking a movie because it "rips off" of another movie is a shaky business because every story or movie was influenced by something that came before.

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To paraphrase Almodòvar, in movies stealing is good and homage is deadly. I agree with this 110%, and Quentin Tarantino needs to write it on the blackboard 500 times.

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Django, you're as ignorant as the o.p.

hi, my name is Crowded, and im a Linux.

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Lets not forget about "The Magnificent Seven" aka "Seven Samurai" and "Macbeth" aka "Throne of Blood". The last brings in Roman Polanski. These things happen in the film industry. I must say that "The 13th Warrior" owes much more to "Beowulf" than "Seven Samurai".

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"Macbeth" aka "Throne of Blood"? I haven't seen Polanski's Macbeth, but isn't it not so much a Throne of Blood rip-off/remake as a... another Macbeth adaptation!? I don't doubt you've heard of the Shakespeare play, but you make it sound like Throne of Blood is the original inasmuch as the OP makes it sound like Fistful was original.

Anyway, in fairness to the OP, this being sort of a modern Japanese take on the spaghetti western, it has more in common with Fistful than Yojimbo. It's kinda like Yojimbo's come full circle.


--- grethiwha -------- My Favourite Films:
http://www.imdb.com/list/Bw65XZIpkH8/

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I would say that Polanski's film is in no way shape or form a remake (much less a ripoff) of 'Throne of Blood.' Kurosawa's (great) film bears a stronger resemblance to Orson Welles' (unfortunately not very good) Macbeth made a decade earlier - but that's not saying much. These are all just alternate adaptations of maybe a dozen, and Polanski's film (the best Macbeth ever filmed, followed by Kurosawa's, imo) owes far more to the influence of Charles Manson than to Kurosawa or any other filmmaker - which is one of the things that makes it so compellingly (and appropriately) bitter and morbid (despite its considerable visual beauty).

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Well written, and being a Kurosawa fan, you already know that Yojimbo was his homage to the westerns of John Ford.. for me, Kurosawa's best works were all in black and white: Seven Samurai, Stray Dog (which caused a wave of Japanese police procedurals), Ikiru, and High and Low are some of my faves.. but I've only seen about 15, there are another 17, he directed 32 films in all, but wrote 72..

My only regret in life is that I'm not someone else - Woody Allen

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