Okay, We've seen lame remakes of media from one culture into another -

[karadinart]

So, can you name any that have worked?

Such as RAN the film by Akira Kurosawa that was based in part, on Shakespeare's King Lear?

Comments

[margi-lynn.livejournal.com]

The remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai into the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven.

That's the only other one I can really think of off the top of my head.

[shouldboverthis.livejournal.com]

There have been several version of Seven Samurai and I've enjoyed most of them.

Likewise Yojimbo has translated well in a variety of formats.

I think it's important to try and take each film on its own merits if possible.

Throne of Blood is Macbeth.

[suddenlyflying.livejournal.com]

I thought the Americanized version of The Ring was a pretty good horror movie. I still prefer the original Ringu for its characters and backstory and general understatedness, but both were scary movies that did their job.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

Mulan has its issues, but it's still one of my favorite Disney movies recently.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure Shakespeare counts. They're pretty universal. But yeah, Magnificent Seven is good.

It works with things that are very universal themes (West Side Story/Romeo Must Die/etc), but not with things that are really incredibly rooted in a particular culture.

[sildil]

True Grit. It was excellent!

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Joyce's Ulysses doesn't have all that much in common with Homer's epic, but modernists tend to prefer it. At all of twenty-eight words, I like William Carlos William's version, "This is just to say" best of the bunch.