Darling wa Gaikokujin live-action film due out next yearAugust 26th, 2009 by Adamu |
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The news from Cinema Today (via @matt_alt). Here’s a quick and dirty summary:
Shooting has started on the film Darling wa Gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner) starring Mao Inoue and Jonathan Scherr as the featured couple, Saori and Tony, set for release in spring 2010 from Film Partners [the people who brought you live-action Gegege no Kitaro...].The film is based on the hit manga series. The first scene involved Tony reacting far too literally to Saori’s sarcastic humor. The two actors reportedly interacted with the same lighthearted sprit as the original.
The producer Kazuya Hamana (head of TV content at TBS) spent five years preparing for this film and plans to try and recreate the feel of the original comics for a story that everyone can relate to.
While the theme is international marriage and the culture barriers, it will no doubt include scenes that everyone can relate to even if their partner isn’t foreign. Expect both happy and sad moments as the couple faces ironic misunderstandings arising from their misguided attempts at being considerate to each other.
Can’t say I’m looking forward to this. It’s a Japanese film shot by a mainstream studio (and produced by a TV producer no less), strike one. The title role goes to a gaijin talent from a jimusho, strike two. And they promised touching moments, which means they will probably inject some dorama-style schmaltz that didn’t appear in the original (one of the few things going for it), strike three.
My verdict: Stop checking the Cinema Today site this moment and ignore all the hype. This won’t even be so-bad-it’s-good, it’ll just be a source of frustrated hair-pulling and ulcers.
It’s not my intention to offend people of course. But really, I have been burned so many times by having any expectation of quality from the Japanese entertainment industry that I trust nothing offered to me. I really hope I’m wrong.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Recategorize: *rant
I’m looking forward to it.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
You’ve gotta be kidding me. I must be a total snob but I find the dorama style of storytelling almost insulting
August 26th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I hate dramas, period, but see my previous comments on this topic in your prior post.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
After seeing Mr. James, I am more doubtful than ever that Darling was such a great step forward. Meh, it’s not that far from the truth but come on, that’s kind of a cheap shot.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
youre making me glad i didnt get the part!
August 27th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I don’t necessarily want to be mean, but if you can show me a decent dramatic performance by a gaijin tarento I will be very very surprised. It’s not all the actors’ fault exactly – it seems like a solid performance is just not allowed for some reason. Why does everything have to seem so damn stilted?
August 27th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Adamu, I am in complete agreement with you and glad I am not the only one. I find them utterly unwatchable for that reason. It’s like labuki, where the way the role is played has been set for centuries and so “anger” is shown in one set way, “sadness” in another, and so on. Ironically, I find more naturalistic acting in cartoons like Crayon Shin-chan.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:41 am
What about Tim Wellard in Hagetaka ?
August 27th, 2009 at 3:58 am
“I have been burned so many times by having any expectation of quality from the Japanese entertainment industry”
20th Century Boys was pretty good, I thought. Could have been way worse. I don’t think you really need the “Japanese” operator there- most films made from comics/books turn out pretty badly, I think.
I say knock back a few beers, decrease expectations by about half, lower IQ by about 50, and throw it on. I gotta say that I liked the little cartoon skits that used to show on the Yamanote line.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:36 am
“...if you can show me a decent dramatic performance by a gaijin tarento…”
Here’s one of the greatest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdRniLGHaP8
August 27th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Forget about Darling wa Gaikokujin! 南の島のフリムン is coming out this weekend, and it’s got Bobby Ologun playing some kind of American soldier (at least I assume so, because he’s trying to speak English).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcT022ZR8EI
August 27th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I’m reserving judgment until they cast Tony’s beard.
Seriously, it is indeed like kabuki, in the sense that it’s a different tradition, consumed and produced with different expectations. It’s no more insulting than being served raw fish instead of cooked.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Bobby Ologon was a sailor on aboard on an American AEGIS destroyer in one of the 釣りバカ日誌films.The film was aired on TV coincidentally on the same day when an American sailor of Nigerian nationality had murdered a taxi driver in Tokyo.
http://shadow9.seesaa.net/article/124620841.html
August 27th, 2009 at 9:59 am
The problem with the quality of TV media in Japan is flawed due to the quality of the people involved. Gaijin tarento are hired on the basis of their looks for the most part, not their acting ability, and the base pool of gaijin tarento is so small that there’s little hope for real acting ability.
I’m vaguely interested to see how this is portrayed mainly because I’ve met Tony and he’s a genuinely interesting and likable person (if somewhat eccentric as portrayed by his wife.)
August 27th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Adamu: Why does everything have to seem so damn stilted?
Because of the influence of . . . drumroll . . . KABUKI
ducks
August 27th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Curzon, while I am looking forward to it in the sense that I will probably watch it, I have to agree with Adamu that it will most likely be a staggering crap-o-saurus of ill-conceived Japanese TV.
Right off the bat, Tony and Saori are in their mid to late thirties by now. Mao Inoue is 22, looking 17. It’s not a trivial detail, either.
From my wife, a Japanese, who has read even more of Oguri’s comics than I have:
“Wow, It seems from the article that they are going to focus on how they met than their actual married life, because it says 嫁入り前. Whatever they do though, it’s going to suck. I know it.”
August 27th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Well, a lot of the first volume is about how they met and their early life, and in fact the entire volume is before they got married.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
“I have been burned so many times by having any expectation of quality from the Japanese entertainment industry that I trust nothing offered to me.”
Come on, don’t throw the whole industry under the bus because TV dramas tend to be overly-compromised. Which I’m sure will be the case with this film, but there are nuggets of goodness waiting out there if you’re willing to sift through the cack.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
OK I’ll admit that condemning something just because it’s Japanese is problematic. Maybe it’s enough to say it comes from the same filmmaking machine that produces junk like Gegege live action.
One film that looked interesting was the one where Tsurube plays a doctor, but again I am so wary of current Japanese film I didn’t want to risk it.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Jade Oc,
True, although the actual naresome is only one small part of the first volume. And they weren’t in their early twenties. (Then again, the teacher in Dangerous Minds didn’t look like Michelle Pfeiffer either.)
I’ll still watch it, even if it blows, and even if McDonald’s is a sponsor and runs Mr.ジェームス commercials.
PS: While we’re on the subject of amusing manga, has anyone read “Nihonjin Ga Shiranai Nihongo” about Nagiko-sensei and teaching foreigners Japanese?
August 27th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
More from the wife, with a little cross-Kanto snarkiness thrown in for good measure:
Many times when they these movies or TV dramas, they just borrow the concept or title that is fairly known already and give it a commercial twist.
極道の妻たちwas just a collection of interviews of woman married to the yakuza, yet they managed to create a whole soap opera consisting of episodes not mentioned in the book at all.
The end result is nothing like the original. I’m sure the movies will attract all those Saitama girls who want to marry blue-eyed foreigners (oops, was that mean?).
August 27th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The Tsurube doctor film is “ディア・ドクター”, IMHO probably the best Japanese film of the year so far and well worth your 1800 yen if it’s still on near you.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Don,
That movie doesn’t look bad at all, and I will agree that Japanese film has its winners each year.
But here, we’re discussing adaptations of manga. Do you have any examples of decent adaptations of manga? Every one (an admittedly small sample size) that I can recall trying to watch has been fairly painful, with lots of goofy camera close-ups and Spike Jones sound effects.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Sorry, didn’t mean to go off topic.
Off the top of my head I can’t actually think of many recent manga adaptations that have worked for me, or at least didn’t conform to Peter’s description.
I will say that this year’s “Zeni Geba” TV series benefited from a great scenery-chewing performance by Matsuyama Kenichi and was surprisingly subversive and overtly misanthropic for a prime time show, despite being let down by the usual mediocre plotting and casting issues.
In terms of big screen adaptations, Tsuruta Norio’s 2008 film “Orochi” based on Umezu Kazuo’s manga was a mostly successful gothic melodrama about sibling jealousy that paid stylish homage to “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”. Well-acted and directed.
The “Detroit Metal City” movie had its moments too, but it does overdo the manic gurning at times. I don’t think that’s necessarily because it was a manga adaptation though – most of Kudo Kankuro’s work is ostensibly original material but it could do with a heroic dose of ritalin.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bepsgt3794g
no really, they said i was too tall
August 27th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Clips of “DTM” made me laugh when they were shown as part of public service messages before other movies, but I was dismayed to find out that they would turn it into a live action flick.
Is it possible to make an amusing full-length animation flick out of manga? If it is, then why do film makers opt for the crappier product of actors and actresses trying to portray the characters from the manga?
I’m sure there are answers to these (partly rhetorical) questions, perhaps pertaining to animation costs, or the appeal of the actors and actresses (like Mao Inoue), but in a country that has done so well with animation as a genre, it seems a waste to let a good manga get turded on in the adaptation…
August 27th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
“decent adaptations of manga”
Kekko Kamen, while hardly quality, at least doesn’t take itself remotely seriously and shows plenty of fantastically gratuitous boobage, which is always a plus….
August 27th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I’ll watch it because I am a 外国人 and my wife calls me ダーリン. This makes me feel like a savant on the gaijin guy marries Japanese girl concept.
I am annoyed but not surprised the producer is a TV power broker who will cater to the only audiance he understands; the domestic market. (common gaijin stereo types will be exploited for entertainment value).
Johnathan Sherr’s resume looks a little interesting. All his roles were in English so japanese language is surely weak or average but more than enough to get by – perfect for the role. He comes from a jimusho because that is all there is if your a gaijin and want to enter the 芸能界. His most valuable experience is having cut his teath in the Tokyo Comedy Store. Funny or not, improv performance experience is not scripted thus brings out the actor’s creativity. He might shine in this movie because having lived here for so long, he’s a natural Japan based foreigner not a Hollywood actor acting like a local gaijin.
If this movie is a success, it might become a boom for Japanese to marry foreigners.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
How much input do you think Saori and Tony will have in the making the film? Do you think they just sign away the rights and deal with whatever gets spewed out?
August 27th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Well, as my wife mentioned, Shoko Ieda was apparently fine with “Gokudo no Onna-tachi” being transformed into a fictional drama instead of an accurate depiction of her non-fiction novel. She probably made gads on it as well, and with the notoriety went on to write Yellow Cab and other strangeness. And isn’t it industry standard to compromise the integrity of the original story in order to have the screen sell your name? (Cf. Bernard Malamud’s “The Natural”)
I’m guessing Saori and Tony have realistic expectations about how mangled the manga will end up. Like I said, the casting alone has already made it a different story altogether.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:13 am
KogaK: “I am annoyed but not surprised the producer is a TV power broker who will cater to the only audiance he understands; the domestic market. (common gaijin stereo types will be exploited for entertainment value).”
Exploited stereotypes aside, what other market could you possibly imagine as a good one for this project? I don’t see the “bearded European marrying an Asian manga artist” vehicle as a good one for breaking out to international success, especially not when the entire thing is based on comic books that have been read only in this country to begin with.
And in any case, the whole raison d’être of the comic series is to take “common gaijin stereotypes” and turn them on their ear. I’d wait until the film is actually out before you accuse the director of trashing Oguri’s beneficial cross-cultural messages in favor of LOL gaijin buffoonery.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Aww, Durf. You bought into Tony Lazlo being European…you played right into the trap. The whole “born in America of Hungarian and Italian ancestry” line.
If he’s European, then I’m a Hapsburg.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Sorry, I did an Ellis Island maneuver on his name: Tony László
August 28th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
@Peter: Well let’s be fair then; Saori isn’t Asian, she’s Japanese! (I was getting more at the ethnicities involved, but of course you’re right about his nationality.)
August 28th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Perhaps he means “European” as in racial / ethnic ancestry. As opposed to African or Asian.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Naw, I’m just being a pissant, laughing at the fact that the comic always qualifies his nationality with his ethnicity. (As if to bust through that stereotype that all Americans look and talk like Dave Spector.)
August 28th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
That’s absurd. Everybody knows all Americans look and talk like Mr. ジェームズ.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Durf, it’s Mr.ジューム*ス*
Show some respect!
Mr.ピーター
August 29th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
@Durf. My comment was a prediction based on the background of the film’s final decision maker – not an accusation. As I said, I will watch it.