Live Action Movie: Akira

[Sapphire]

But it has the Japanese Inception guy.

[Animeniax]

That was the analogy I was thinking. And yes, it is ridiculous that they retained the names, yet are casting white people. It is pretty blatant whitewashing, probably because the producers figure that Americans would not flock in droves to see a movie about a bunch of Asian kids (although apparently, they are making everyone adults [ugh]). Maybe it was based on ability, but I don't know...if you saw those The Last Airbender, for the leads the casting call was for "Caucasian people, then everyone else", I don't know what the casting call looked like, so I can't say.


I would also liken this to if someone made a documentary about Eminem starring Morgan Freeman as "Marshall Mathers" and it is set in Toronto (or a Manny Pacquiao movie starring Joseph Gordon-Leavitt).

If they made a live action of Akira with Asian actors, it would sell pretty well in Asia. And if the movie is made well with a compelling storyline, it could do well in the US, same as Akira is so popular as an anime. The movie with white actors could be successful for the same reasons, but selling the soul of a work to make money is what we're upset about.

Contrary to what Sapphire says, these are Asian inspired and themed stories. They could translate to a western white culture, but probably not since cultural cues are prevalent in the story that help fill out the story and atmosphere. It's like when they dub anime... they remove the original soundtrack, ambient noises, and voices, and only replace the voices. The end result is a terrible adaptation.

But it has the Japanese Inception guy.

He's the requisite Japanese guy in Asian-themed movies. He was also in the Last Samurai and I wouldn't be surprised to see his name on Last Airbender or DBZ Evolution.

[Y]

To me, the thing that makes Akira so uniquely Japanese is how eerily it prefigures the economic and social devastation about to happen in Japan. Akira was released in 1988, about a year before the Japanese Finance Ministry popped the asset bubble and sent the economy into a deflationary spiral that ruined economic growth for Japan for a decade. Things like the unfinished Olympic stadium in Tokyo that features prominently in the final act of the original Akira, or the society of disaffected youth that Kaneda and Tetsuo belong to, are such awesome set pieces in hindsight because of things like this. The thing is, after the twin bursting bubbles of the dotcom and housing sectors in 2000 and 2008 respectively, the US is primed to enter a lost decade of its own now, and the themes in Akira resonate equally strongly here.

This is different from something like the film adaptation of Avatar. In the Avatar TV show, the Southern Water Tribe's ethnic background and influence was important to Sokka and Katara. In the movie, everyone is lily white except the villain, which really hurts the characterization.

[Sapphire]

Above is probably the first strong case for Avatar that I've heard in over two years. o_O

I'm inclined to agree with you, now.

[Animeniax]

To me, the thing that makes Akira so uniquely Japanese is how eerily it prefigures the economic and social devastation about to happen in Japan. Akira was released in 1988, about a year before the Japanese Finance Ministry popped the asset bubble and sent the economy into a deflationary spiral that ruined economic growth for Japan for a decade. Things like the unfinished Olympic stadium in Tokyo that features prominently in the final act of the original Akira, or the society of disaffected youth that Kaneda and Tetsuo belong to, are such awesome set pieces in hindsight because of things like this. The thing is, after the twin bursting bubbles of the dotcom and housing sectors in 2000 and 2008 respectively, the US is primed to enter a lost decade of its own now, and the themes in Akira resonate equally strongly here.

This is different from something like the film adaptation of Avatar. In the Avatar TV show, the Southern Water Tribe's ethnic background and influence was important to Sokka and Katara. In the movie, everyone is lily white except the villain, which really hurts the characterization.

That would be one way to stomach a whitewashed Akira, but the fact that they are changing the story and the character backgrounds means that factors less in the producers' decisions than to make something appealing to your average moviegoer who isn't necessarily affected by the economic and social collapses affecting America, but instead can still afford to spend $10-17 a person to see a movie.

[Sapphire]

They're probably affected and don't know it.

See: Hoards of protesters now rampaging across the streets and blaming corporations. (Or maybe because I'm in Manhattan, but I'm running into protests like every other week now...)

[Animeniax]

They're probably affected and don't know it.

See: Hoards of protesters now rampaging across the streets and blaming corporations. (Or maybe because I'm in Manhattan, but I'm running into protests like every other week now...)

If they don't know, then how can a movie about disaffected youth resonate and appeal to them?

[Sapphire]

They probably know they're disaffected but have the wrong reason why.

[Animeniax]

You're seriously fishing for excuses here.

[Sapphire]

.

[rockmanj]

If they don't know, then how can a movie about disaffected youth resonate and appeal to them?

Yes, I agree with you on this as well...I don't know, but something tells me this might not be a film about the disaffected young adults. Maybe it will be, but so far it seems like a bastardization of a story that I love.

[XanBcoo]

Why did they keep the names? Is it not weird how the names are Japanese if the actors are not? They should have just adapted the plot and theme of Akira and renamed it into something else.

This is really baffling to me. It's like if in The Departed they kept all the Chinese names. Why can't they do a complete American adaptation?

I have literally no problem with a movie about psychic kids that was "inspired by" the graphic novel Akira, but what we're getting is a half-assed copy of a copy. An adaptation of a movie trying to appeal to as many people as possible - using the title and character names for recognition, and nice pure white actors for the sake of marketing.

[Sapphire]

I highly doubt that.



If they wanted white people for whatever sake they would just cut looking at thousands of other applicants and write Caucasian in the casting call. I don't think it's a good idea to just look how things turned out and make up reasons for why they happened

[Animeniax]

They might have learned from the uproar around the other whitewashed movies and put "any ethnicity" when they already knew what they were looking for. You shouldn't take things on face value, Sapphire dearie.

[Sapphire]

You have no idea what you're talking about. Casting directors have no problem saying Caucasian's only if they want the part to go to a white person.

[XanBcoo]

Looking at the casting call is not the smoking gun, Sapphire.

Perhaps it was for Avatar, but not for every movie. Yes, the actors are white, recognizable, salient actors for the sake of selling the movie.

Once again, it's not the whiteness of the actors that makes this dumb. It's the fact that everything is likely going to be quite similar to the original movie, but they're keeping insignificant factors like the names and title the same. So we've got Tron boy running around with everyone calling him CANADAAAAA!

For example, if I showed you this trailer:



You'd likely recognize that it's inspired by some pretty iconic imagery and borrows plot points from Akira. Otherwise it's its own movie and actually looks sort of interesting. But this isn't the movie we'll be seeing.

[Sapphire]

That movie looks awesome, but Cloverfield/Blair Witch Project films are -_-.

[rockmanj]

This is really baffling to me. It's like if in The Departed they kept all the Chinese names. Why can't they do a complete American adaptation?

I have literally no problem with a movie about psychic kids that was "inspired by" the graphic novel Akira, but what we're getting is a half-assed copy of a copy. An adaptation of a movie trying to appeal to as many people as possible - using the title and character names for recognition, and nice pure white actors for the sake of marketing.

I like how you used the departed as an example, as I feel that was a pretty good adaptation that kept the core elements that made the original good while not changing things around too much. This whole Akira thing is just absurd to me on many levels (including them probably making some PG-13 bullshit so that they can sell it to the masses).

Now this doesn't seem so ridiculous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd9...ayer_embedded#!

another read on this: http://www.racialicious.com/2011/12/...ed/#more-18344

[Sapphire]

Not sure how I feel about that.

On one hand, I remember being a young, young babe and being raged when they totally raped the Earthsea movie on Sci-Fi that I had been waiting for, for months. They changed the names, changed the looks, changed massive plot points and intricacies just to substitute them with movie cliches. They managed to cut out a lot of shit in the book with content-less content, even though the movie was quite long.

On the other hand from the actor's point of view, it's terrible the flack that the actors who worked their ass off to get the role get from the Japanophiles who think it's OK to rip on them for being white, as if that's not racist. From the production companies point of view, it's my movie and I'll adapt it how I want, make your own damn Akira.

My overall feeling is it's sickening how everyone is preemptively getting raged about how shit it's going to be without even seeing a fucking trailer, just based on the color of the actor's skin. While it's entirely likely that the changes were totally nonsensical and it could have been better to follow the movie down to the teeth, like we're used to seeing in the [manga <-> anime] equilibrium, maybe they will make the changes seem fucking awesome like in Walking Dead (minus this season >_>).

Still standing by my point that a homogenous society would obviously have a homogenous race by default in their story telling, and people are just saying the actors should be Asian (though I don't see them bitching that its not set in Japan, and why is it ASIAN and not Japanese? It's all about looks to you? It's as if using the Western framework of bland "Asian" suits your needs, which seems vague) is some sort of compensation for whatever racial issues they have. I suppose I personally have trouble with acknowledging race as a concept so any sort of "affirmative action" raging seems like racism and force to me, in the end.

Perhaps the wisest choice is to have the author join as a consultant. But the Japanese have a history of not only wanting their stuff adapted, but being VERY particular with any changes, thus making an adaption quite difficult. Or even a translation.

Edit: Holy shit, these have the writers from Children of Men, things are looking up.

[Carnage]

Why cant you just accept that this movie is going to be shit? We all know it.