Another Round and Other Remakes

The 2020s could end up with the title of being the decade of remakes. 

2021 alone will include big-named remakes like Dune and The Suicide Squad, and it seems unlikely that the movie industry will slow down. The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the film industry may even fuel this trend throughout the decade; reboots and remakes seem to be box office successes regardless of quality, which could bring a much-needed jolt to box office sales as theaters across the country reopen.

Shortly after the 2021 Oscars, it was announced that the winner for Best International Feature, Danish film Druk (Another Round in English), will be remade as an American production. This news spurred some controversy on social media sites like Twitter, as people expressed confusion on why an acclaimed film released only a year ago needed an English remake. The debate surrounding Another Round raises the question of what path can a remake take?

Remakes, especially ones that are based on a foreign film, have the potential to be creative and offer something new to the original. Remakes could adopt parts of the story but change the central narrative and the other components in ways that allow the film to hold its own. Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is a great example of a remake that uses a foreign film as a source for the story but diverges into an exemplar film on its own. The Departed is a remake of Infernal Affairs, a Hong Kong film released in 2002. The story centers around a cop secretly working for a prominent gang, while another cop works undercover to infiltrate the same gang. 

While The Departed still presents itself as a thriller like Infernal Affairs, Scorsese expands on the themes of loyalty and identity, and considers how both can be undermined and subverted for the characters in the movie, as well as the audience. Similar to his other films like Taxi Driver and The Wolf of Wall Street, masculinity plays a major role in the protagonist's characterization. In The Departed, Colin Sullivan (played by Matt Damon), exerts a masculine bravado on the surface, emboldened by his status as a high-ranking cop, but his insecurities are revealed through his frequent use of homophobic language and impotence. 

Another way that Scorsese distinguishes The Departed from other remakes is through the setting. Scorsese moves the location to Boston and changes the gang to an Irish one fronted by a man named Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson), reminiscent of real-life Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger. Putting the movie in the backdrop of a distinct city and its organized crime syndicates makes it more memorable. From the shots of the Boston Police Academy graduation to Damon and Mark Wahlberg’s accents, it’s impossible to not associate the film with Boston, which is exciting for both Bostonians and anyone in other parts of the world.

While remakes can be critical successes, they can also completely falter if little attention is paid to actually create something significant. A remake that does not aim to put another artistic flair into the story at hand and instead values style over substance renders it useless. It comes across as a cheap attempt at producing a box office success without examining why the original movie was acclaimed enough to be remade. Infernal Affairs is an exciting action film that had a memorable story, characters, and tone, and Scorsese recognized that. A remake that threw away everything that made the original movie special is the infamous Ghost in the Shell. 

The 2017 remake of the 1995 Japanese anime sparked controversy before the movie was even released. The casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role of Major caused accusations of whitewashing, as the original film had a Japanese cast and lead. The movie received negative reviews upon release, particularly because of the way it handles the themes that were present in the original. The Japanese film deals with identity in a world of advanced technology, contemplating what makes a human and what makes a machine. Philosophy is at the forefront of the anime, while the remake removes this element to make it easier to follow for American audiences. This leaves the story hollow—dumbing down the narrative to make it digestible transforms the movie into a basic action film with nothing outstanding about it. The cinematography and the cyberpunk aesthetic can’t be fully praised either, since the remake lifts numerous shots from the 1995 film. The accusations of whitewashing are worsened with the remake’s twist ending. Johansson’s character is revealed to be previously Japanese before she became a cyborg, a fact that was not in the original movie. This change was interpreted as an attempt to dispel claims of whitewashing, even though it only specified the race of her character, which still differed from Johansson. 

With the remake of Another Round currently in the works, it may be tricky to predict how  successful the Hollywood version will be. Personally, I believe that Another Round does not need a remake. Its themes on being middle-aged, companionship, and life itself are universal and clearly felt through the story and the actors, regardless of language. Another Round also uses the consumption of alcohol as an important catalyst for the plot, showing the motivations certain age groups may have to drink. The teenagers turn to alcohol to have fun and celebrate, while the ensemble cast uses it to cope with the sadness that comes with self-loathing and dissatisfaction with life. While alcohol use is certainly accepted in both Denmark and the U.S, the U.S is slightly more conservative compared to Denmark; there isn’t a widespread drinking culture for teenagers in the U.S due to the legal drinking age being 21. The remake may struggle with their depiction of alcohol use by this younger age group, since teens in the U.S may have stark differences with each other regarding how they consume alcohol. Lastly, Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the lead in the film, speaks English fluently and has acted in several American films. Why create an American version of this successful film when the lead actor of the original is well known in the U.S?
Although I disagree with the need for an Another Round remake, I am curious to see the end result. The remake may take a different cinematic direction or explore ideas that were not touched upon in the original. While Hollywood ends up reproducing films for financial reasons more often than not, all remakes have the potential to be special on their own and incorporate the elements that made the original successful. But in the meantime, do not wait for Hollywood to make an English-language remake of a foreign movie you are interested in. As Bong Joon Ho said in the 2020 Oscars, “once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” The language in a movie may be different than your own, but the emotions it will invoke will not be.