Last week we tackled the movie PARALLEL, the American remake of a 2019 Chinese sci-fi film, PARALLEL FOREST.
Welp, we then found the Chinese movie on YouTube and watched that as well. And they were both very similar, and very different.
How does a story translate between cultures? In what specific ways do they seem to pander to their audiences and in what ways do they happily challenge them? And what is a key sin in any remake, at least insofar as we could tell from putting these two films against each other? Then we say if the original deserves its own wine pairing and if so what wine (one of us said yes, the other said no.)
We strongly recommend watching both films. The Chinese flim is on YouTube (link above) and the American remake is streaming on Paramount+ and/or can be rented On Demand wherever digital rentals are offered. We strongly recommend watching them in reverse order: remake, then original.
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We hope you enjoy! We LOVE comparing works like these and diving into why they work (or possibly not) and for what reasons. We hope you enjoy as well, and consider if we’re worth your two bucks.
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