A second trailer for Shinji Higuchi's The Last Princess has been added to the official site. As mention before, the film is a remake to Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress about two peasants caught in the middle of territory wars which George Lucas acknowledge as influential on the making of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Its been fifty years since the release of the black & white original and while it stills hold up very well, I'm sure the remake will utilized Shinji's extensive background in special effects to add some exciting sequence and it certainly shows in the trailer.
The Los Angeles premiere screening of the remake will be held at the USC School of Cinematic Arts on April 27th. Director Shinji Higuchi, Jun Matsumoto and special guest Anthony Daniels (played C-3PO in all the Star Wars films) will participate in a Q&A session after the screening. Click on the link below for more details. You'll find the second trailer as well as the others after the break.
I noticed that Japanese in the movies speak using weird intonations. Do they speak the same way in real life?
Japan premiere news report: http://youtube.com/watch?v=M1_C_MBDnvs
No, it's just a combination of bad acting and poor direction.
Some things just shouldn't be re-made, and this is just one example!!!
These AK remakes are like Norman Bates: remembering mama by putting on her dress and a ratty old wig.
Don...your response is very informative...however the fact that you know so much about him troubles me.
The recent samurai movies out of Japan all have a quasi-manga feel to it...whatever happened to that gritty realistic take? I have yet to see anything close to that "lived-in" feel of Seven Samurai that i love so much...just felt so authentic (at least to my foreign eyes)
Samurai movies or "jidaigeki" these days are generally either fairly subdued affairs aimed at older audiences or flashy genre-bending revamps for teens like the Hidden Fortress remake, which from what I've read is more influenced by Star Wars than Kurosawa's movie, or the "Azumi" movies and the upcoming Ayase Haruka-starring female Zatoichi flick "Ichi". Simply put, gritty realism doesn't put bums on seats, and talent agencies are more interested in cultivating pretty young non-threatening multimedia idol actors than old school macho badasses. One reason is that big-budget films and television dramas tend to be skewed towards female audiences, whereas the straight-to-video market panders heavily to males (which explains the prevalence of yakuza stories, horror and soft-porn).
One of the best jidaigeki of recent years, Kore-eda Hirokazu's "Hana", failed precisely because it didn't fall neatly into any of those categories, and despite the presence of another Johnny's idol in Okada Junichi in the lead role.
hmmm.. now i'm interested to watch "Hana". Okada Junichi is a big motivation.
I've been reading mixed reviews by the some Japanese bloggers. Purist Kurosawa lovers of course bashed it but the other half really enjoyed the film. With the hype of the US screening, maybe it'll have a US release.
I wouldn't be so quick to put such harsh judgments on this movie. This remake looks awesome. Not to mention it has Matsumoto Jun as a lead, and with him theres no way this movie could be bad. If you know anything about him, then you know he is an amazing actor with several well-know doramas up his sleeve Gokusen, Kimi wa Petto, Hana Yaori Dango just to name a few. All I hope is that if there's even a small chance of this being released in the US, that they will.