Back in after work today again and only one film. This one was a remake (or a new version, might be more appropriate) of the 1992 Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood starring Western Unforgiven. Having never seen that one before, I took a couple of hours earlier in the week to watch it. So it was fresh in my memory when seeing this new take by director Sang-Il Lee.
Unforgiven - taking the original story of a (retired, although not for long) cowboy, his old friend and young wannabe who set out to make some money by killing two lowlifes who cut up a whore's face. Desperate to get some justice the woman of the brothel collect their earnings to put up a reward, much to the disdain of the town sheriff. Displacing the action from the mid-west, this version takes place in 1880s Japan with samurais rather than cowboys.
This was one of the less enjoyable films so far and although there were some redeeming qualities, there were also some that let it down. The plot feels dragged out a bit scattering the action at points few and far between, the long sweeping landscape shots are infinitely better than the dry, dusty western but not enough to warrant the long running time. Ken Watanabe is a favourite actor of mine, however he does not have the same menacing presence as Eastwood, so it is late on when you finally understand not to mess with this guy with an effective showdown, with blood and gore in typical samurai fashion, within the brothel. Overall this wasn't bad and perhaps it's just me who finds it hard to relate to the main character within this story (as with both versions). I do prefer the slightly less optimistic ending of Sang-Il Lee's samurai version, with such a damaged character it seems going back to the life he had before or finding redemption would be a step backwards.
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