« Christmas in August » Japanese Remake

422,930 admissions in seoul '98 is "not great"? you're really nothing unless you've made the HOST in this world, eh?

"it is said..." by the promo campaign? good lord, it's a shot-by-shot remake, w/ only small alterations. the original fought irate neighbors in the small town they filmed, charted unknown waters (for the newbie director & most of crew) to find its own texture and rhythm. the remake just takes it verbatim, and transpose it to the typical japanese indie aura you can find in any number of "pastel" romance about 20-somethings. sometimes these word for word filtering is just...infuriating:-)
then again it's probably futile: yes the original is psychologically obtuse, sell tickets sell sell sell! YAH!

Having not seen the Japanese remake, I did want to defend the original just a bit. In regards to box office, as ed mentioned above, Christmas in August was the third best performing Korean film of the year at a time when films like Titanic and Armageddon were dominating the charts. Also, in regards to the "psychological evolution" of the characters, it's such a subjective issue that a) I would like to know who the source is, and b) I would say that part of the original's charm is its obtuseness in storytelling where the audience is forced to infer quite a lot of the underlying mood.

Either way, I will probably give the remake a shot as the original remains one of my favorite Korean films of all-time.

It is said that Rhythm-X is a multi-millionaire who lives in an invisible fortress on top of the Chrysler Building, with a pet unicorn that feeds on the flesh of his enemies. Don't believe me? Good. Apply the same skepticism to anything that "some people say".