Well, dear readers, I was so zonked that I got in bed three hours ago, fell asleep immediately, and woke up about thirty minutes ago and have been trying to get my wits about me but my wits have been elusively elusive. I believe my wits have finally joined me and I believe my eyeballs can focus just enough for me to see what I’m writing. And here is what I’m writing, if you must know, which you must. So, let me begin by saying that American remakes of foreign films are, for the most part, never as good as the original and frequently never good at all because they don’t find a way to make it work or they change so much that it’s just pointless. Is A Man Called Ove better than A Man Called Otto, it’s American remake? I don’t know, but I’d guess not – perhaps I’ll be surprised. Most of what gets remade, of course, are very recent foreign films. But there is one great foreign director who’s had several of his films remade, where the remakes stand tall on their own, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. That director is Mr. Akira Kurosawa. The first remake was of his classic Seven Samurai, which became the wildly popular and wonderful The Magnificent Seven. Yojimbo became the wildly popular and wonderful A Fistful of Dollars. The Hidden Fortress, while not really a remake, was major inspiration for a little film called Star Wars. Rashomon became The Outrage, which, while not a great movie, has its moments. And now, exactly seventy years later, Kurosawa’s wonderful film Ikuru has been remade, set in England, and retitled Living (Ikuru roughly translates as “To Live”), starring Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, and Alex Sharp, directed by Oliver Hermanus, whose other work I don’t know at all. Well, they got this one right. Living is a wonderful, simple film – a film of quiet, a film of no histrionics, a gentle film that manages to tell its moving story in 104-minutes (Ikuru runs 140 minutes, and most films today seem to run close to three hours). The script, by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro is lovely, but its Nighy’s performance that carries the film completely, along with the very lovely performance of Ms. Wood. I’ll just say that the time is nigh for Nighy to not only be nominated for this film but to win. I have seen no other performance by an actor that comes close. Will he be nominated for anything? That’s the question, isn’t it? He doesn’t schmact, it’s not an Oscar-bait turn, and that’s what the members of the Academy and SAG seem to think is acting. Subtlety doesn’t necessarily register with these voters, which is a shame. And I have a feeling the film simply won’t be watched, as voters are many times incredibly lazy. I hope I’ll be surprised, but I know what Hollywood responds to. The final scene of the film is quite touching and tear-inducing. The music’s a bit heavy-handed, but that’s typical of today and the fact is there is very little new score – most of the music is not by the film’s composer.
I also watched about forty minutes of a film called Everything Everywhere All at Once, the polar opposite of Living – a loud, busy, frenetic, relentless hipster thing which does get voters all jazzed up. I can’t stand these kinds of films and this one is no exception. Does it have a few amusing moments? Sure. But I don’t care about the metaverse or meta films or smart-ass films that scream LOOK AT ME, LOOK HOW AMAZING WE ARE. I’m sure the film has many devotees and that’s fine. Whether I can take another two hours of it is another story altogether.
Yesterday went by and then was done. I got only five hours of sleep (hence being zonked), got up, answered e-mails, made Wacky Noodles for food, the handyman came and replaced the shower part – that took about twenty minutes but seems to have introduced an annoying drip – if that doesn’t stop he’ll have to come back and fix it – then I went to the mail place and picked up some packages, including a lovely gift from dear reader elmore, a book about Meredith Willson, I got proactive with the song choices and now I just have to reacquaint myself with our young singers so I can assign them, but I’ve got all the sheet music gathered. I also have to find a musical director for the show. Then I viewed, napped, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, if the drip, drip, drip is still happening I’ll see if we can get the handyman back to see what’s what, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, not sure what’s happening on the weekend, other than I’ll probably see the first cut of episode four. And then we’re into two weeks of ME time, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the twisty Twist, for today is the birthday of our very own ChasSmith. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own ChasSmith. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN CHASSMITH!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, fix the drip if it’s still dripping, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What remakes of films have you enjoyed and which did you think at least were as good if not better than the original version? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finally seen not only a movie that I really liked, but a remake that actually works wonderfully.