Sorry. The title’s a Last Dragon joke that only certain children of the 80s might get.

For the record, I don’t dislike remakes, and I don’t dismiss them out-of-hand whenever they’re announced. I’m actually intrigued by the potential that remakes hold. Put into the hands of a talented filmmaker with a distinctive creative vision, a remake can take the source material and create something new and impressive that stands on its own. And then there’s Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween. But I digress.

In the last few years, there have been remakes of two Kurosawa films — Sanjuro (1962) and The Hidden Fortress (1958). I have seen both of these officially-sanctioned retreads; neither come close to matching the quality of its predecessor. But if I had to force you to watch one, The Last Princess would be the one, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan and want to play “spot the reference.” In addition, Hiroshi Abe does a good Toshiro Mifune impression, and I liked Masami Nagasawa as the title character, as I still have quite a bit of residual good will built up for the actress post-Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (I even bought the domestic abuse drama, Last Friends! Someday I’ll tell you about that)

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more about this Kurosawa “re-imagining,” you can check out my just-added LoveHKfilm.com review here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Remakes, Akira Kurosawa, Japanese cinema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.