This movie was cheesy and exploitative, with ridiculous logic and little character development. The laughable subtitled dialogue may have been lost in the translation, so that's excusable. Characters' motivations were paper thin, and there was simply not enough time to lay it out properly, leading to ridiculous interactions between almost everybody.
Okay, now that is out of the way, I have to say I LOVED this film. The premise is courageous and exceedingly captivating. The young actors pull off their roles tremendously well, especially the principle characters.
Highlights for me: The frightened and spastic ways that the children handled the weapons, i.e. missing 'easy' shots that scared kids would probably miss, too.
The lighting/scenery. It set the mood perfectly. I'm no cinematographer, but I love movies like this that look beautiful and don't draw the mind away from the plot. Music was appropriate.
I believed the relationship between the male/female leads. That sounds simple, but is very hard to achieve in this context.
Several moments of subtle black humor that were not 'comic relief' as in most American suspense films.
Did I mention the premise? It took balls to make this movie, period.
As for the issue of a remake. Let Tarantino have a go at this one. But please, God, not Oliver Stone. I think an independently financed, reasonably-budgeted movie could happen. Who has the courage? Yeah, it will probably never happen.
If I ran the circus........
I suggest not doing a strict remake. I would cut down on the number of characters, probably in half, to enhance the characters. I would make it a long film, perhaps 2.5 hours, and do something the Japanese filmmaker didn't: Make it believable. Show these poor children as they descend into madness. Show the inner conflict more. Keep the ages of the kids the same, but find a couple very young-looking adults so that seduction can be used to it's full extent (you know which character I mean). It's an exploitation film, no doubt, so go ahead and show some skin, and throw in lots of stuff to make people cringe. And don't go overboard trying to make a social or political statement. It works just fine as a "what if" experiment.
I don't condone remakes in most cases, but there are filmmakers who could do MUCH better that the awesome original.
Okay, now that is out of the way, I have to say I LOVED this film. The premise is courageous and exceedingly captivating. The young actors pull off their roles tremendously well, especially the principle characters.
Highlights for me: The frightened and spastic ways that the children handled the weapons, i.e. missing 'easy' shots that scared kids would probably miss, too.
The lighting/scenery. It set the mood perfectly. I'm no cinematographer, but I love movies like this that look beautiful and don't draw the mind away from the plot. Music was appropriate.
I believed the relationship between the male/female leads. That sounds simple, but is very hard to achieve in this context.
Several moments of subtle black humor that were not 'comic relief' as in most American suspense films.
Did I mention the premise? It took balls to make this movie, period.
As for the issue of a remake. Let Tarantino have a go at this one. But please, God, not Oliver Stone. I think an independently financed, reasonably-budgeted movie could happen. Who has the courage? Yeah, it will probably never happen.
If I ran the circus........
I suggest not doing a strict remake. I would cut down on the number of characters, probably in half, to enhance the characters. I would make it a long film, perhaps 2.5 hours, and do something the Japanese filmmaker didn't: Make it believable. Show these poor children as they descend into madness. Show the inner conflict more. Keep the ages of the kids the same, but find a couple very young-looking adults so that seduction can be used to it's full extent (you know which character I mean). It's an exploitation film, no doubt, so go ahead and show some skin, and throw in lots of stuff to make people cringe. And don't go overboard trying to make a social or political statement. It works just fine as a "what if" experiment.
I don't condone remakes in most cases, but there are filmmakers who could do MUCH better that the awesome original.
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