Hit Girl in American remake of "Let the Right One In"

Thanks ProbeDroid. I had never even heard of this film, so I streamed it on Netflix last night. Great film.
 
Run, don't walk. I don't want to oversell it, but...well, it's pretty friggin close to perfect. I just got the book, which I was toldd might be one of those rare cases where I like the movie better, but I'm gonna give it a shot. Usually I prefer the book, but in this case the actors were so strong, and the direction so subtle, that the story might just work better for me in the film's interpretation. We'll see.
 
You'll possibly prefer the film's interpretation. A lot more is open to interpretation. How Eli became what Eli is is spelled out in the book and removes the doubt that the film allows, also the nature of Oskar's relationship with Eli is beautifully double-edged; the film has simultaneously a happy ending and the darkest ending possible. The nature of Eli's relationship with Hakan is also made much more explicit (and grim) in the book.
 
Ah crap. From a Wiki article on the film:

"Before the release of Let the Right One In took place, Cloverfield director Matt Reeves had signed to write and direct an English-language version for Overture Films and Hammer Films.[93] Hammer Films acquired the rights at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and Overture films plans to release the film in 2010.[94] Alfredson has expressed unhappiness about the idea of a remake, saying that "Remakes should be made of movies that aren't very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong" and expressing concern that the end result would be too mainstream.[17][95][96] Lindqvist, in contrast, says that Reeves "will make a new film based on the book, and not remake the Swedish film" and so "it'll be something completely different, but it's going to be really interesting to see."[9] According to Hammer Films producer Simon Oakes, who referred to the project as a remake of the film and not an adaptation of the novel, the adaptation will stay relatively close to the original, except that it will be made "very accessible to a wider audience".[97] The film will also omit the subplot involving Eli's ambiguous gender."

OK, we have up-front confirmation of planned dumbing-down. Just wonderful. Love ya, Hollywood.
 
I would expect such a mangling.

Gawdamnit!

The ambiguousness is critical! It's one of the reasons the damn movie works.
He/she isn't a relevant state anymore after so much time. It's part of the story that makes the audience start to realize this isn't a girl or a boy, or even human anymore.
It's an IT! a murdering of innocents vampire monster! Illusions are part of a vampire's powers.
The mastery of this film is it seduces the audience just as the vampire seduces the boy You actually want them to be together! yet this is a horrible outcome. He is a slave, more innocents will die horribly, but part of us is pleased with the ending.


Ahhhhh eff them to hell for this.

Once again we will be saying to people, you should watch the original.
And nobody will listen to us.
 
Read the book... but they'll just look at us weird asking: what's a book?

Still planning on reading it though and watching the movie...
 
Too Much Garlic said:
Yeah. The American remakes of foreign films often falls flat... for various reasons... but mostly because they are afraid to retain the edge the original had. That's why I prefer the Danish version of Night Watch to the American remake... even though it was the same Danish director directing both, iirc. There was just a whole layer of small things missing from the American version.
Click to expand...

Night Watch is Russian, and the director is from Kazakhstan... unless you're talking about a different movie with the same title.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403358/

I really enjoyed Let the Right One In and after hearing about the American remake, have no plans to watch it. Nine times out of ten, I get bitten in the ass by those.
 
cayman shen said:
I have to wonder why Americans are resistant to subtitles to the point where we require remakes. The rest of the world watches our movies with subtitles, but the American audience for foreign films is very small. It's a shame, really, because beyond the usual art house stuff, there's no end to great foreign genre films that would no doubt please populist tastes as well. But we seem (as a whole) to be very reluctant to place ourselves outside of an American context. Heck, even films SET in foreign countries need to have an American character for us to palate them (The Last Samurai's injecting Tom Cruise as the hero of Meiji era samurai in revolt was completely unnecessary, though I guess the foreign character's learning of events allows the audience to as well, serving as a touchstone. Still...)
Click to expand...


"When I go to the movies, I don't want to have to read! That's why I go to the movies: so I don't have to READ!"


That's pretty much the main reason I've heard.

Personally, I won't watch dubbed foreign films. It strips the film of MAJOR portions of its character, which are often culturally influenced, and which come through in the delivery of dialogue. Emotions on the face of the character may not match to the emotion that the dubbing artist tries to interject -- even of the emotions are analogous in a basic sense, they may NOT be analogous in terms of how they are expressed in each culture.

American remakes often end up being, well, Americanized. They strip from the foreign film the very things that make it FOREIGN. And that goes well beyond the language that's spoken (as I alluded to above). Also, many times the mere situations and how characters react is highly dependent upon the culture of the country from where the film originates.

Now, sometimes, "translated" versions work fantastically well. Yojimbo into Fistfull of Dollars/Last Man Standing. But that's because the changes in settings are actually pretty analogous. Other films, however, don't translate as well.

In other cases, the American version may actually be better than the foreign version for American viewers, precisely BECAUSE they "translate" cultural elements. I found Ringu to be goofy and weird. I didn't really get it. Mostly that's because the cultural touchstones, the imagery that Japanese folks probably find scary I found merely odd and/or goofy. The Ring, on the other hand was ****ing FREAKY. One of the VERY few horror movies that "Stayed with me" after viewing (to the point where I unplugged the TV and computer monitors in my apartment...What?! It was freaky!!).
 
Solo4114 said:
The Ring, on the other hand was ****ing FREAKY. One of the VERY few horror movies that "Stayed with me" after viewing (to the point where I unplugged the TV and computer monitors in my apartment...What?! It was freaky!!).
Click to expand...
I haven't seen it, because what I read about it scared the **** out of me... don't think the movie can live up to that. I fear it will show too much and I'll just be WTF? What did they have to go and do that for?
 
One of the tings I like so much about this film is that it works on several levels; it's both at once a traditional and nontraditional vampire tale, but also a coming-of-age story, and arguably even a romance, and all of those facets are handled beautifully.
 
Nwerke said:
You'll possibly prefer the film's interpretation. A lot more is open to interpretation. How Eli became what Eli is is spelled out in the book and removes the doubt that the film allows, also the nature of Oskar's relationship with Eli is beautifully double-edged; the film has simultaneously a happy ending and the darkest ending possible. The nature of Eli's relationship with Hakan is also made much more explicit (and grim) in the book.
Click to expand...

After watching the movie that was fantastic, I was compelled to immediately go out and get the book and give it a read...

And IMO the original movie is one of the best adaptations of a book in a long time, there wasn't a ton lost or a drastic change when they took this to the movie... They just didn't spell out everything like the book did... The biggest difference is that the book is a lot more graphic and detailed in some objectionable material that simply wouldn't have flown in a main stream movie release and was thus removed and left for speculation and interpretation in the film version...

As for the American remake, it will probably destroy the story but oh well it's about making money not staying true to the story...
 
Solo4114 said:
I found Ringu to be goofy and weird. I didn't really get it. Mostly that's because the cultural touchstones, the imagery that Japanese folks probably find scary I found merely odd and/or goofy. The Ring, on the other hand was ****ing FREAKY. One of the VERY few horror movies that "Stayed with me" after viewing (to the point where I unplugged the TV and computer monitors in my apartment...What?! It was freaky!!).
Click to expand...

I have to agree here, I suggest anyone that has seen The Ring to also watch Ringu, same with The Gudge and Ju-on, they both have their charm in different ways... And I found that after watching both, I actually appreciated each version a little more as a slightly different take on the story, not a total abomination of the story but more so a cultural shift of the story to sell to appeal to a different culture...
 
Oh... okay. Strange. 'Cause I recall they removed the sex scene.

I don't much pay attention to male nudity in flix. It just isn't such a big deal here.
 
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