My immediate reaction to this can best be exemplified by this moment from Community. I am both furious and excited at the same time. I want to vomit in disgust but I also want to pump my fist in celebration. To be fair, there have been rumblings of a remake for quite some time, but the fact that there is actually forward movement on it makes the reality of it all finally set in. I have so many mixed emotions. Let me try to sort them.
First off, I love Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil. It was one of those filmwatching experiences I’ll never forget. I missed it in theaters and didn’t catch it until it was out on DVD. I watched that film(with my mom, she’s a trooper), and was so immediately gripped by it that I watched it again the next night. The way it was able to portray brutal violence, unrelenting emotion and dark humor all at once with its even, stylistic hand earns the title of “masterpiece”. Just about every scene is unforgettable and iconic. It was my favorite film of 2011. When I die, one of the last things I will do is recount all the films that had the biggest impact on me, and I Saw the Devil will certainly be mentioned. The very thought that somebody would attempt to recreate the mastery of that film sickens me.
On the other hand, I really like Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett. I LOVED You’re Next, and am a big fan of their work on the V/H/S films. Also, their segment in The ABCs of Death was one of the only truly great ones. I won’t see The Guest until likely this weekend, but I have nothing but enthusiasm for it. At this point, I’m game for anything these two team up on. But at the same time, do I want to associate exciting young filmmakers like these two with an ill-advised remake of a masterpiece? It’s like seeing a young franchise player for your favorite team get bought out by the Yankees. (Disclosure: I have nothing against the Yankees, but let’s not pretend this doesn’t happen.) But here’s the thing, the fact that these two are doing it says nothing but great things about a bad situation. These two doing it means that this movie could actually be great, even if it’s made with the asterisk of being an American remake of a foreign masterpiece. These two don’t do safe films, and they don’t do studio films. They experiment and innovate, and have a lot of fun doing it. Some bonus points? Keith Calder and Jessica Calder, who have produced You’re Next and The Guest will return here alongside producer Adi Shankar (Dredd, The Grey, Killing Them Softly). Let’s put it this way: If I’m being forced to give up my baby, at least it’ll be going to someone who can do a good job raising it.
I guess that I’ve long ago accepted that I live in a world where foreign masterpieces will be remade by American studios, and that there’s nothing I can do about it, and that’s okay. I’m one of the only people you’ll meet that was okay with Spike Lee remaking Oldboy, and thought the output was actually alright. But of course its no discovery that most American remakes just lack what made the foreign original so special, but it’s not all bad. Some of it’s actually incredible. After all, sometimes we get The Departed and Let Me In. And if worse comes to worst, we’ll always have the original to fall back on. In fact, I just realized I haven’t watched I Saw the Devil in a while. Excuse me while I go do that.
Source: Collider
