Thread by @originalspin

Asian Film Twitter needs a non-snipey discussion about Hollywood remakes of Asian cinema.

My possibly unpopular opinion: Remakes are great when they are significantly different from the original—while respecting and paying homage to their antecedent—and we should encourage them.

There’s little merit in being wedded to canon. That’s the attitude fueling the toxic fandoms that infest all too many franchises.

Meanwhile Asian creators constantly mine Hollywood for inspiration (even if their remakes aren’t official)

Lee Sang-il remake of “Unforgiven” 👇

Reflexively hating on every remake just because the original is beloved is an argument for isolating our creative innovation from the global conversation. It also means works with Asian cultural themes can’t be reframed and recast to make opportunity for Asian AMERICAN artists.

Remakes don’t erase the original! In fact they often encourage new audiences to seek the source material out. And when done properly they shed new light on the magic and glory of their inspirations.

So let’s talk about what it means to do cross-cultural remakes right.

1. Creators should immerse themselves in the original and the artists behind them. Where possible, draw from their direct insights on what informed their vision. Do NOT assert you’re “fixing,” “updating” or “elevating” the prior work. You’re a new voice in a dialogue. Be humble.

2. Recognize the unique cultural aspects of the original. Inexplicably transplanting ideas, customs, traditions native to a context where they’re clearly alien makes no sense. Even worse is stepping on culturally unique artifacts by renaming/reframing them to make them “familiar”

3. Instead of, say, transplanting “shinigami” to the Pacific Northwest, are there more culturally relevant ways to reinterpret the story? Would US Death Note have made more sense with “Fates” and a “Book of Destiny”? It would be a different story, but isn’t that what we want?

4. If you ARE reusing tropes from the original then at least make their origin clear and build it into the new version. This may mean delving into migration, colonialism, the history of plunder and conquest. If so, good! That’s valuable opportunity to make the story relevant.

5. But often the best way of remaking is to make a clean break with the original and use the key themes to tell a whole new story in a whole new milieu. Work hard to figure out what essential elements made the story work; then rebuild the world fresh.

6. If so, remember this: THE NEW WORLD DOESN’T HAVE TO BE WHITE. Or male or straight or cis or abled. Using a remake as an excuse to simply plug in status quo “bankable” Hollywood stars and wash out the “weird, foreign” taint of the original sucks. And 9 times out of 10 it fails.

7. So bring in diverse creators and cast, and ideally ones who can bring both familiarity with the original culture and a fresh take for the new one. That’s a key argument for putting Asian Americans in Asian remakes by the way.

8. And please demand that credit is given where credit is due. At some point, if you’re a Hollywood boldfaced name, something you’ve made will probably be remade; wouldn’t you want to be treated with similar respect?

The bottom line: For those of us who are critiquing these remakes, we should judge them individually according to how well they align with principles like the above, rather than rejecting them outright. And yes, we should celebrate and amplify the originals in the process.

But not every remake is bad or a bad idea. And again, the more we push for Asian work to be remade in the right way, the more opportunities can be opened for Asian/Asian American and other diverse talents in what is still the most influential culture industry in the world.