"Nat Wolff" is not a household name. I don't think they "changed" any name to "fit the actor." They write the script first, that's the start of the process. Light's name is not Japanese for cultural reasons, just like Light's name was Japanese in the original story, not for aesthetic reasons but cultural reasons. Light isn't Japanese because "Japan is so cool" Light is Japanese because the author is Japanese. This is fairly standard operating procedure, it even often extends to gender.
I mean, Harry Potter is not Death Note. I had another person say this to me about James Bond. James Bond is an English speaking character. All of his books are written in English. All his movies are filmed in English. Trying to "translate" it, so it works for American audiences would be a waste of time. There's no language barrier. JK Rowling has the level of control she has over Harry Potter because of the impact her work has on the English speaking world. She's the one who made the money through her books. She's in a position of influence that way, with her fans, the same way Ohba was in Japan, when his work was being turned into anime.
The Dragon Ball author told the studios they weren't on the right track w/ characters or the world they were building, but they continued along anyway and didn't work w/ him (Akira Toriyama) to make sure it was faithful.
How is this the same? The movie would not have been good with another actor in the lead role.
Maybe if Japanese companies ensured that authors / producers / directors from the source materials got final say, they would have better results?
Have you seen any of the movies Stephen King has directed? I'm not seeing any evidence that this movie is being ruined by anything - don't get me wrong I don't
expect it to be good, but to anticipate a failure on par with Dragonball Evolution, knowing virtually nothing about it, "because white people" seems like quite a stretch.
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UrertvW3acIn short: he says the way to ensure fair representation and diversity, is to have people who are ethnically diverse be a part of the decision making process from the beginning. More specifically those who would consider themselves to be a part of the group being represented or normally misrepresented/ignored.
Of the
ten producers working on the Netflix adaptation of Death Note four are what one might consider "definitively" ethnically Asian. Most of the producing credits are co-producer, or executive producer; of these four, three are credited "producer"
Executive producer in particular can be a courtesy credit, for anyone who puts money into the film. (Not always and this is especially different on TV shows) Usually they manage finances. Co-producer is a roundabout way of saying "contributed to the process, but not as influential" Producer usually means "I paid for pretty much all of this, so I will make the decisions, if I so choose." The director is the guy who picks everyone and makes decisions? Yeah. The producers picks the director, and mediates his/her decisions. The producer is the one person in the central hierarchy who can tell the director "no" at any point in the process of production.
(Interesting Note: J.K. Rowling has only one producer's credit in the entire Harry Potter franchise. Two, if you consider that it was the "last film" in the series. - Since it was split into two parts)
Anyway these producers are; Masi Oka, Japanese; Dan Lin, Taiwanese - and "development executive" on The Departed; and Roy Lee, Korean-American, also worked on The Departed.
In fact Roy Lee is specifically a producer or executive producer on a number of Asian to American film adaptations, and some non-Asian sourced foreign films as well; to varying degrees of success.
So if you're worried about something getting lost in translation due to cultural appropriation, consider exactly who it is who may be appropriating it first.
--
There's no such thing as the establishment. Everyone knows that!
reply
share
Jcancelmo (22)
7 years ago
Interestingly in the U.S. book versions of Harry Potter they did make minor vocabulary and phrase changes from the British original so American readers could understand it better. I heard it's a common practice for British books published in the US, but not for US books published in the UK.
reply
share