I had some hopes for the American remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse in the early going. Wasn't a big fan of some of the casting but the early materials looked as though they were at least attempting to hold on to some of the subtleties that make the original great. Not any more. A new trailer is online and though it does have a glimpse of a fairly faithful recreation of the eerily swaying female ghost that freaked me out so badly in the original - I still swear that's the best ghost effect I've ever seen on screen - every other moment of this thing sells it as a typical no brain teen screamer. Sigh.
Pulse Trailer (downloadable Quicktime)
The question isn't "Is it will be good?". Its "How much CA$H will it make!?!?". Maybe, someday, american producer will have more respect for asian movies.... maybe..
The question isn't "Is it will be good?". Its "How much CA$H will it make!?!?". Maybe, someday, american producer will have more respect for asian movies.... maybe..
I dunno. If I were going totally by the visual aspect and ignoring the script, I'd say it actually looks kinda good. Not groundbreaking, not brilliant, but kinda good.
Also, I think the footage at the very end of the first trailer (here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/pulse/large.html) was the most intriguing to me. I haven't seen the original, but I'll be sure to rent it...
It seems they've missed the whole point indeed! Instead of focusing on one person who finds herself practically alone in a world where technology has driven us apart, the American version looks like the standard "group of teens find themselves in a scary situation" sort of thing.
Needless to say, I won't be seeing it.
The reality is that these remakes are made for an audience that doesn't know and doesn't care that they are watching remakes of usually better Japanese horror films.
ouch. this really hurts.
Peter has nailed this reality. It's an unfortunate but unavoidable one. But I think he's fair to qualify his statement that "usually" the Japanese originals are better than their remakes. I much preferred "The Grudge" to "Ju-On", for example, and as Kurosawa's "Pulse" was probably my least favorite of his ouevre, I'm holding some faith that the remake will at least startle me, if not scare me, more than the original. And that for me is an essential distinction: what made J-horror so fascinating for me was precisely that it scared me with minimal shock tactics whereas the American appetite is loud noises, explosive visuals, and a cultural narrative quite different than Japan's.
But.. but... It has KRISTEN BELL IN IT!
One thing funny in this remake is the fact that ghosts really looks to be dangerous. They are everywhere and seems to want to kill everybody. But, I'm sure of one thing, they'll be a lot less scarier than the ones in the japanese version.
theres lots of horror films that use the devisive music, harsh visuals, massive gore to great effect - for me the most interesting thing in kurosawas original 'pulse' (as in his other films) is the sober, careful, intelligent, subtle, layered stories about individuality, boundaries, influence, isolation, and generally just some really nice ideas about society... theyre not really films based around one idea as much as theyre films based around a concept or theory with many aspects to it.
Trailer looks "oke", but not at all in the spirit of the original.
Tyler Foster: The last few seconds of the first trailer (the plane) are from the original.
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