Living in Hollywood?

[Don Brown]

>I'd like to see a remake of _Ikiru_, but only to update the quality of
>print/sound... There's nothing in the film's construction that requires
>any sort of "updating", otherwise, and the thought of Tom Hanks as
>Watanabe really is depressing...

Come on, it's just another Hollywood remake. It's highly likely that it 
won't be called Ikiru, and Hanks' character certainly won't be named 
Watanabe. It's not as if they're taking the original film and re-editing 
it, or adding a hip-hop soundtrack as Miramax is wont to do. Lighten up 
here people. There's more than enough to be depressed about in the Japanese 
film industry right now without worrying about Hollywood all the time...

Fortunately, there are a few positive things happening, such as the wide 
domestic release (including regional mass-market multiplexes) of Koreeda 
Hirokazu's Dare mo Shiranai (Nobody Knows). How many people here have been 
able to see this? For me, it's without a doubt one of the best Japanese 
films of the year; mind you, it's not had much competition so far. This is 
turning out to be an even more sparse year than the last one...
Don Brown