Hollywood Problem - Plagiarization and kidnapping of foreign movies

There is a problem in Hollywood, a serious one. Major houses they have too much money and very little courage and I guess some very bad business practice. I already ranted about the capability of those corporate monsters to sue helpless families for copyright infringment but now let's take a look at what happens behind the creation of much of this so called copyright content. Take in account that I am not talking about every american movies, but only about the vaste (waste) part that we enjoy in europe. I am sure many talented artist are there and some times something good even reaches us... but most of the times bad things happen...

So let's start taking for granted the basic rule of the great american cinema "industry corrected" it is: "if you duplicate something is a STEAL and when they do duplicate something then it is a REMAKE". American industry always Remakes european and asian movies. But why do they have to steal ideas from foreign movies? Well from a economic point of view there are two basic and outstanding reasons.

• The first one is that the american movie industry is very happy to produce a few multimillion worth pieces of C.R.A.P. (Content Realized for American Public) and hold onto this CRAP and try to make every possible cent out of it. This would now be possible if decent movies were around. This year I witnessed some pieces of CRAP like the "TRASFORMERS" and I still remember with sorrow the day that I wasted my money on the "TITANIC" and similar masterpiece of CRAP enjoied worldwide courtesy of the MPAA
• The second reason is that people from time to time becomes disaffectioned by watching too much CRAP and needs a break. So to stop it decent movies have to be made a thing of the past. The industry so performs a "REMAKE" or a Movie realized under the "Content Remaked for American Public" scheme. This causually sound exactly like CRAP and for this reason I am going to add a F in front of it: F. CRAP (What the F stands for you can imagine yourself.)

As much I don't have a problem with the original CRAP that might be funny to watch from time to time... I see that are serious implications in the F.CRAP. Lets run a mental example of one of the many issues behind the plagiarization of world movies. You probably have seen "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci. What would you think if a museum director stopped you from watching the original locking that in the basement and substituded it with a "Remake" wearing fancy rapper clothes on order to charge you the museum ticket? What would you think if the very same director tried to make you believe that the fake picture was indeed a original? Well you could thing bad things but consider that a movie is a moving Picture and the hollywood people are doing this to movies. They are what you were thinking.

CASE N°1 - Il Mare (Siworae) copied as "The lake house"

One of the many victims is "Il Mare" di Hyun-seung Lee that's a very successful Korean movie it was actually so succesful that some greedy "talent scout" from hollywood decided to make a Remake and market it with a almost identical story as "The Lake House" with a screenplay copied by Alejandro Agresti. Now this Agresti is named as director, but really the sceenplay was there, the storyboard was there and the actors were different. The big innovation being that the house is not on the SEA but on the LAKE. Let's hail to the creativity of Mr. Agresti and to the corporate movie industry that prevented so many peple to watch a Korean original masterpiece.

See for yourself. I watched them both and frankly I am quite disgusted by the american transliteration of this piece of art. Here below a music video with pieces of the original movie and the the hollywood remake trailer.

Did you see any reference to the original movie in the trailer? I didn't.

CONSIDERATION ABOUT THE F.CRAP CREATIVE PROCESS
Then what's up with creativity and all the bullshit about the Good American Movie Industry producing quality movies and new stories? In this case and in many others the process of realasing a picture is plain and easy:

1. Find a good foreign picture to rip off
2. Offer a sum of money in order acquire the rights for distribution
3. NEVER distribute the picture to the outside world so that it can't compete against Hollywood CRAP Blockbusters
4. Wait
5. If a profit opportunity for a F.CRAP arises then make it and distribute otherwise go back to point 4.

I am very uncontent with this strategy. The italian, european and american public lose the possibility of watching a large number of movies just because those corporate businessmen need to push for Spiderman IV or similar crap. It's the parallel of the stuff happening on the music front with the payola stuff.

KIDNAPPED MOVIES
Then there is a problem with movies stuck in the loophole number 4. KIDNAPPED forever and never released to the public to make room for the CRAP marketed by hollywood executives. And so the world goes, to see excellent pictures as HULK, TITANIC and others we are simply denied real masterpiece on the account that if We (the consumers) don't know they exist we won't complain and above all don't hurt the sales of the CRAP.

I have this issue with one of my most loved movies that is "My Sassy Girl" by Jae-young Kwak that is a Korean Movie that hasn't been distributed anywhere and possibly will never do. It is deeply rooted into korean culture and a simple remake is not possible without wasting 90% of the qualities of the original. This is a vicious shame. There is namely a F. CRAP in the making but having seen the original I am quite sure that I will be much disappointed by the F.CRAP version if it ever makes out, that's it.

CASE N°2- L'ultimo bacio REMAKED AS "The last Kiss"
Here we go again. Brilliant italian movie by Muccino, a director that is specialized in moving emotions throught personal stories and a witty use of the camera. Everything in his art is about contrast. The filthy personal stories of the characters contrast against the beauty of the actors the scenes. The music contrasts with the moving takes and the final feeling is deeply touching. At least if you see the original. I'm not quite sure about the hollywood version even if people on youtube seem to agree that it's crap. Here you go again and well at least Gabriele Muccino is mentioned in the titles.




CASE 3° TAXXI by Luc Besson REMAKED AS "Taxxi" Tim Story
This is getting pathetic. Well the French style of mr Besson is not easy to copy. Impossible I dare to say. Een on youtube if you look for taxxi you can't find the trailer of the american copy. The IMBD who's actually quite keen on votes gives a poor 4 considering that it is a USA based website and voters are used to watch CRAP everyday you could consider that they have been desensitized by now... but not :D there is still hope. BTW the original took a 6.7 so also considering there could be no voters it's not bad by any standard. I found the trailer for the Taxxi4 movie of the series that now by coincidence in france is in the fourth iteration and just a F.CRAP experiment in the USA.


AND THE LIST GOES ON
Yes the list goes on... movies like "the ring" and many others are constantly F-CRAPPED in the states. See four yourself using the IMDB. Everytime you want to check out a movie see for yourself if you are going to see the original or some imitation.

Of course I believe that this has to be stopped and the way is already there. Don't go to see F.CRAP stick with the original content. There are websites releasing the Kidnapped movies already subtitled and if you want you are free to buy your own original HongKong (just look on ebay there are hundreds of shops).