[KineJapan] Akira remake and flat characters in Japanese films

[Jun-Dai Bates-Kobashigawa]

Hi all,

I hope this doesn't count as trolling :-/  While reading about yet another
attempt to get a Hollywood version of Akira of the ground, this comment
really stuck out to me:

> Nobody’s interesting. Tetsuo’s interesting because weird sh*t happens to
him, and Kaneda is so two-dimensional. That’s part of the Japanese culture,
they never have strong characters. [1]

This seems fairly offensive, and also makes the director seem like an
incredibly poor choice for working on this material (not that a Hollywood
remake of Akira sounds promising to begin with). Luckily, it looks
like Collett-Serra is not going to be working on Akira, but I'm curious if
anyone knows what he's talking about? Is it total nonsense, or has Mr.
Collett-Serra captured something essential about Japanese film/literature
that has until now escaped me? Are the characters in Akira (or Japanese
films/literature in general) any flatter than, say, Hollywood?

Yours,
  Jun-Dai Bates-Kobashigawa


[1] source:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__comicsalliance.com_akira-2Dlive-2Daction-2Dremake-2Ddirector-2Djaume-2Dcollett-2Dserra-2Djapanese-2Dculture-2Dstrong-2Dcharacters_&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=e7qMG9KFq7WNnPQWULWHJA&m=XeFyXG_vlGAkaZP2mLAjmUHedFIzOo4atrqEXBMlOp4&s=j2X8_yMisQQgpq3dBirmdmEJy8TPkUJQSIeGLQqEYnM&e= 
)
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