Different Angle Query on Japanese Film Remakes

[SYBIL.THORNTON at asu.edu]

Hi,
Check out Iwamoto Kenji's series of articles in _Firum sentaa_ (Film Center--
1970's) and aubsequently published as a monograph (title I do not know).  
There are many references to films modelled on/based on American and European 
films in Ozu, Inagaki, Yamanaka, etc.

Cheers,
SA Thornton


Quoting Michael McCaskey <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>:

> I'm still pursuing a study of recent Japanese/American remakes, and I am
> very grateful for a great deal of helpful information a while back from
> many people on this list about recently completed and planned American
> remakes of Japanese films.
> 
> As historical background, though, I'm also looking for some information
> about earlier Japanese remakes of US or European films, or vice versa.
> 
> I know that Kurosawa's Subarashiki Nichiyobi was, according to Kurosawa
> himself, a remake of a now pretty much forgotten American D.W. Griffith
> film about difficulties for a couple in post-World War I Germany. I
> think that Kurosawa's Lower Depths was a remake of an earlier French
> version, Renoir's les Bas-Fonds 1936, and that maybe Kurosawa's Idiot
> was based on Georges Lampin's earlier 1946 French version. High and Low
> was inspired by an American story by Ed McBain. I would greatly welcome
> any corrections or additions re Kurosawa remakes.
> 
> I also am trying to find some information, as historical background, on
> any significant pre-1940 Japanese remakes of any US or European films.
> There must have been some, I would think.
> 
> US and European films "set in Japan" before WWII were mostly about the
> doings of Americans or Europeans who happened to be in Japan, and I
> don't think more than one (Fanck's 1937 Atarashiki tsuchi/Tochter des
> Samurai) was actually filmed in Japan. I think the same was largely true
> of US pictures set in Japan after WWII, though Japanese locations were
> used, and some Japanese actors appeared. I don't know if there were any
> pre-1950s US or European actual remakes of any Japanese films.
> 
> Many Thanks for Any Help,
> 
> Michael McCaskey
> 
> 
> 
>