[KineJapan] Akira remake and flat characters in Japanese films

[Mark Mays]

Collett-Serra’s focus is on low-budget horror films. He should know about one-note characters as leads, who usually have some rote backstory (cop with son who died tragically, etc). That’s likely what he means re: Kaneda. That said, I can’t imagine Studio Canal will give him enough money to make AKIRA. I’m not sure what he means nor would I want to try to parse his statement regarding “Japanese culture.” 

 

From: KineJapan [mailto:kinejapan-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Jun-Dai Bates-Kobashigawa
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 1:27 PM
To: Kinejapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: [KineJapan] Akira remake and flat characters in Japanese films

 

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=v0kUJryYFtyJTwvSL5aH_APo6BILDYwF6OfaoqHv3u8&s=xihzHBnx0XVYkbinMAINZOStu5KVzOTHcQUkQKDU1wY&e= )

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20160414/2f70de86/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.osu.edu
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lists.osu.edu_mailman_listinfo_kinejapan&d=CwICAg&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=e7qMG9KFq7WNnPQWULWHJA&m=v0kUJryYFtyJTwvSL5aH_APo6BILDYwF6OfaoqHv3u8&s=h--b-ATSpPY2JoraYmEnudDeI09bkl4FmDOHzvIRe9U&e=