Ken Watanabe to Headline Japanese Remake of 'Unforgiven'

Now, normally we abhor all remakes, and you might expect us to spend our next two to three hundred words bemoaning the project's vulgar lack of originality. And wishing a swift and sudden death at the box office, if it even gets made at all. However, for a variety of reasons, we feel differently about this idea, and kind of hope it somehow makes its way into American cinemas. 

Why the sudden reversal? For one thing, while Hollywood has a long-standing tradition of remaking just about any mildly successful foreign film ("Let Me In," "The Departed," and "The Ring" and "Taxi" are just a few notable examples of this), it's exceedingly rare for anyone else to ever remake one of our projects. Or, at least, it's rare for us to ever hear about it. And perhaps we would never have heard of this film's existence, either, except for Watanabe's not-inconsiderable profile here in the States. For another, like a lot of westerns, "Unforgiven's" storyline would seem to translate pretty well to samurai-era Japan. (See also: "The Magnificent Seven," a wildly successful proto-remake of Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai." Or Bruce Willis's "Last Man Standing," a proto-remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo." Or...)

Can Watanabe fill Eastwood's formidable shoes? Perhaps not, but we look forward to seeing him try. Will this flick, "Yurusarezaru Mono" (directly translated: "A Thing That Can't Be Forgiven") live up to the lofty example of its spiritual predecessors? Again, perhaps not, but we're still guardedly optimistic, even if watching it requires us to (shudder) visit one of those pretentious art-house cinemas we're normally loathe to attend, or scour the import bin at our local, independently-owned DVD rental place/coffee shop, er, thing, where we know the clerks quietly judge us every time we sheepishly ask for that last VHS copy of "Judge Dredd."