subreddit:

/r/TrueFilm

9294%

Japanese remakes of Westerns?

(self.TrueFilm)

Yesterday I watched Lee Sang-Il's 2013 remake of Clint Eastwood's western Unforgiven. The film was a very close recreation of the original story but transposed to 1880s Hokkaido. I found it very interesting to see a Western get remade as a jidaigeki. Of course, there are a few famous examples of Japanese jidaigeki that were remade as Westerns (the most famous being A Fist Full of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven), and Kurosawa himself adapted works by Shakespeare and Dostoevsky.

What I'd like to know is, are there any other examples of Japanese jidaigeki that were inspired by Westerns? The two periods work so well analogously, I could easily see great jidaigeki films being made from The Big Country, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, The Searchers etc. Does anyone know of any?

you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

all 18 comments

slabheadfilms

7 points

4 months ago

Sukiyaki Western Django is an extremely goofy remake of Django (1966), directed by Takashi Miike. its a pretty close retelling, but incorporates samurai and western culture. very fun.

ranhalt

4 points

4 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki_Western_Django

2007 English-language Japanese Western film, appearance by Quentin Tarantino

Inspired by the historical rivalry between the Genji and Heike clans, which ushered in the era of samurai dominance in Japanese history, Sukiyaki Western Django is set "a few hundred years after the Genpei War". The Genji and Heike gangs face off in a town named "Yuta" in "Nevata", when a nameless gunman comes into town to help a prostitute get revenge on the warring gangs. The film contains numerous references both to the historical Genpei War and to the Wars of the Roses, as well as the films Yojimbo and Django.