Over the years, Hollywood has remade many Japanese movies and also made original movies that were inspired by Japan.
Here’s a list of some of them that I thought of. Tell me if you can think of others that I may have forgotten.
First, HOLLYWOOD REMAKES OF JAPANESE MOVIES:
- U.S. remake: “Gatchaman”
Gatchaman (scheduled for release in 2011)
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ガッチャマン」 (Gacchaman)
Original Japanese movie: 「科学忍者隊ガッチャマン」 (Science Ninjas: Gacchaman)
科学忍者隊ガッチャマン
(Click here to see my “Gatchaman” stamps.)
- U.S. remake: “Astro Boy”
Astro Boy
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「アトム」 (ATOM)
Original Japanese movie: 「鉄腕アトム」 (Powerful Atom)
鉄腕アトム
- U.S. remake: “HACHI: A Dog’s Story”
HACHI: A Dog's Story (release date 2009 Aug 8)
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「HACHI: 約束の犬」 (Hachi: A Faithful Dog)
Original Japanese movie: 「ハチ公物語」 (Hachiko’s Story)
ハチ公物語
(Click here to read another post I wrote about this movie).
- U.S. remake: “Shall We Dance?”
Another US remake of a Japanese movie starring Richard Gere.
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「Shall We ダンス？」 (Shall We Dance?)
Original Japanese movie: 「Shall We ダンス？」 (Shall We Dance?)
- U.S. Remake: “The Ring“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ザ・リング」 (The Ring)
Original Japanese movie: 「リング」 (Ring)
- U.S. remake: “The Grudge“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「The Juon」
Original Japanese movie: 「呪怨」 (Juon (Grudge))
- U.S. remake: “Dark Water“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ダーク・ウォーター」 (Dark Water)
Original Japanese movie: 「仄暗い水の底から」 (Dark Water From Below)
- U.S. remake: “Last Man Standing“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ラスト・マン・スタンディング」 (Last Man Standing)
Original Japanese movie: 「用心棒」 (The Bodyguard)
- U.S. remake: “A Fistful Of Dollars“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「荒野の用心棒」 (The Bodyguard Of The Wilderness)
Original Japanese movie: 「用心棒」 (The Bodyguard)
- U.S. remake: “The Bodyguard“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ボディガード」 (Bodyguard)
Original Japanese movie: 「用心棒」 (The Bodyguard) - “Eight Below“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「南極物語」 (South Pole Story)
Original Japanese movie: 「南極物語」 (South Pole Story)
- “Magnificent Seven“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「荒野の七人」 (Seven Men Of The Wilderness)
Original Japanese movie: 「七人の侍」 (Seven Samurai)
- “Dragonball“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ドラゴンボール」 (Dragonball)
Original Japanese movie: 「ドラゴンボール」 (Dragonball)
(Click here to see an earlier post I wrote about this movie).
- “Speed Racer“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「マッハＧＯＧＯＧＯ！」(Mach GoGoGo!)
Original Japanese movie: 「マッハＧＯＧＯＧＯ！」(Mach GoGoGo!)
- “Godzilla“
Japanese Translation Of US Title: 「ゴジラ」 (Godzilla)
Original Japanese movie: 「ゴジラ」 (Godzilla)
(Click here to see an earlier post I wrote about this movie).
—-
And, HOLLYWOOD MOVIES THAT WERE INSPIRED BY JAPAN:
- Gung-Ho!
- The Karate Kid
「ベスト・キッド」 (The Karate Kid)
(Click here for my post about this movie).
- Lost In Translation
Lost In Translation
- Ramen Girl
Ramen Girl
(Click here for my post about this movie).
- Mr. Baseball
Mr. Baseball
- Toxic Avenger II
Toxic Avenger Part II
- Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D.
Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D.
- Star Wars
Star Wars
- Memoirs Of A Geisha
「SAYURI」 (Memoirs Of A Geisha)
- Last Samurai
Last Samurai
- Ronin
Ronin
- Fast And Furious 3: Tokyo Drift
「ワイルド・スピード」 (Fast & Furious) 3: Tokyo Drift
Also, I just found this “Pixar ‘Cars’ X ‘Tokyo Drift’“:
- Black Rain
Black Rain
- Blade Runner
Blade Runner
- Austin Powers: Goldmember
Austin Powers 3: Goldmember
- The Simpsons: 30 Minutes Over Tokyo
(It’s not a movie…just one episode of a weekly U.S. TV show. But I wanted to include it since the characters go to Japan. And it’s funny.)
The Simspons "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"
- American Yakuza
American Yakuza
- The Hunted
The Hunted
- Rising Sun
Rising Sun
Gung-Ho!
Tokyo Five 
There are a couple more recent Japan-inspired movies:
“47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves, and
“Emperor” starring Tommy Lee Jones.
LikeLike
I just remembered another “Japan inspired” movie:
“The Bad News Bears Go To Japan“.
LikeLike
I never thought about all the remakes of all these movies, it’s very interesting.
LikeLike
Yeah, a lot of movies are remakes of other movies.
There are many more … not only Japanese, but Hollywood has remade movies from other countries too.
For example, “We’re No Angels” with Robert DeNiro and “Three Men And A Baby” with Tom Sellick are both remakes of French movies.
LikeLike
so many good movies on here, I read dragonball manga (and dragonball z) but I don’t like Astro Boy or speed racer that much. I could go on forever about movies that are on this list but nioticeable ones that I have seen include The Last Samurai, Gojira and godzilla, dark water, the karate kid, and eight below, I proabbly wont see dragonball evolution, cpeed racer, or astro boy, but gatchaman looks interesting, what is a science ninja?
LikeLike
>gatchaman looks interesting, what is a science ninja?
The full name of the Japanese cartoon that is commonly just called “Gatchaman” in Japan is 「科学忍者隊ガッチャマン」 which means “Science Ninjas: Gatchaman”.
I used to watch it as a kid in Florida. It was titled “G-Force” in America, if I remember correctly.
LikeLike
G_Force sounds familiar, maybe I have seen some clips from it.
LikeLike
I liked it a lot when I was a kid.
LikeLike
I see
LikeLike
Wasabi is a French movie, spoken almost entirely in French. Isn’t it kind of a stretch to call it “Hollywood?”
LikeLike
You’re right. I knew that was a French movie.
I wasn’t thinking when I added it to this post, I guess.
I just removed it.
LikeLike
Which Japanese Movie was the inspiration for Star Wars?
LikeLike
The Akira Kurosawa film 「隠し砦の三悪人」 (“The Three Thieves of The Hidden Fortress“).
Star Wars director George Lucas has said that besides the similarities in storyline with Kurosawa’s movie…”Darth Vader” also wears an outfit inspired by Japanese samurai armor, “Light Sabers” are inspired by 刀 (samurai swords), “Yoda” has a Japanese last name, and the teachings of “The Force” have similarities to Buddhism.
Star Wars was inspired by Japanese traditional culture as well as the Kurosawa movie 「隠し砦の三悪人」 (“The Three Thiefs of The Hidden Fortress“)…so I wrote in this post that it was inspired by Japan.
LikeLike
I just added “Gatchman” (I was surprised that Hollywood will use the Japanese title for this movie) and “Astro Boy” to the top of this list.
LikeLike
I really do not understand why American try to make Japanese movie(remake).
In Japan, sometimes people laugh at that… especially horror movie.
LikeLike
Hollywood remakes many countries movies…Japanese, Korean, French, English, etc.
I think most people in Japan are surprised about some of the movies that Hollywood directors chose to remake. And they want to see the movie to see how a foreign country interprets a Japanese movie (that often have peculiarities of the Japanese culture in them).
Sometimes Japanese people are disappointed with the outcome. A big disappoint was the Hollywood version of “Godzilla“.
And Disney’s “Eight Below” was an over-sanitized version of 「南極物語」.
“Speed Racer” and “Dragonball” were also disappointing.
But I thought “The Ring” was just as good as 「リング」.
By the way, today is opening day of “HACHI: A Dog’s Story” (the Hollywood remake of 「ハチ公物語」 starring Richard Gere).
(This day (August 8 ) was chosen as the opening day because the date is “8/8” and “eight” in Japanese is pronounced “hachi”.)
LikeLike
I just remembered another Japan-inspired American movie…
“Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D.“.
I added it to the list (just below The Toxic Avenger, since both of those movies are from the B-movie company: “Troma”.)
LikeLike
Nice list. You might also want to add American Yakuza 1 & 2 and The Hunted on it. There are 2 Hollywood movies called the Hunted I think but the one that is set in Japan (in Nagoya) stars the French actor Christopher Lambert. I used to love it when I was younger… until I saw it recently and I realised just how badly it sucked lol!
LikeLike
>Nice list.
Thanks.
>You might also want to add American Yakuza 1 & 2 and The Hunted on it.
Thanks again.
I added American Yakuza and The Hunted to this list.
>There are 2 Hollywood movies called the Hunted I think
Yes, the other one stars Tommy Lee Jones and has nothing to do with Japan.
I also just remembered the movie Rising Sun starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. I added it to this list, as well.
LikeLike
Yes it is 🙂
LikeLike
Someone should’ve told “Homer” and “Bart” not to wear zori sandals on tatami. 😉
LikeLike
whoops, the episode I mentioned was “In Marge We Trust.”
LikeLike
I changed the image for “The Simpsons“.
Is it OK now?
And I added a YouTube clip of Pixar Cars Meets Tokyo Drift.
LikeLike
“You liked Rashomon!”
“That’s not how I remember it…”
BTW, while the Simpsons episode in question is the one where they go to Japan, the image you’re using is from “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blowfish,” where the family goes to The Happy Sumo, a sushi restaurant in Springfield. Homer ends up eating fugu which turns out to possibly be poisonous.
Besides those two episodes, the only other Japan-heavy episode that I can of right now is Japanese cleaning product Mr. Sparkle, and its infamous commercial.
This has been a comment from the resident Simpsons Geek. 🙂
LikeLike
Did I use the wrong image?
I didn’t know there are three Japan-related Simpsons episodes.
(I moved to Japan when The Simpsons was a fairly new series in America, so I haven’t seen many episodes).
(edit.: I changed the image).
LikeLike
Very interesting and complete list. Wondering if there are any big Hollywood movies that have been remade in Japan?
LikeLike
>complete list
Thanks, but no…I just realized that I forgot a few:
* Black Rain
* Austin Powers “Goldmember” (the one where he goes to Tokyo)
* Bladerunner
and it’s not a movie, but a U.S. TV show:
* Simpsons “30 Minutes Over Tokyo”
I just added them to the list.
>Wondering if there are any big Hollywood movies that have been remade in Japan?
I heard that there’s a Japanese remake of the U.S. movie “Sideways“.
I haven’t seen either version.
LikeLike
“The Bodyguard” is not a remake of “Yojimbo”. The only thing they share is a similar title. There is no romance in Yojimbo, and Kevin Costner does not trick to rival gangs into destroying each other.
LikeLike
Actually, I knew that “The Bodyguard” isn’t technically a remake of the classic Japanese movie 「用心棒」 (“The Bodyguard“) like “Last Man Standing” and “A Fistful Of Dollars” are.
But I heard that the director of the U.S. movie “The Bodyguard” said that his movie was inspired by the Japanese movie. And in the U.S. movie, Kevin Costner’s character takes Whitney Houston’s character on a date to watch his “favorite movie”…which was the Japanese movie 「用心棒」 (“The Bodyguard“).
(Also there’s the scene with the samurai sword 😉 ).
LikeLike
“The Last Samurai” seemed more like a Japanese version of “Dances with Wolves” I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t seen DWW first.
Very complete list, Thanks!
LikeLike
I also thought that “The Last Samurai” was similar to “Dances With Wolves“.
A soldier in the U.S. Army meets warriors from a culture that was considered to be uncivilized by American standards at the time..and decides to give up his Army uniform and learns to become one of them.
I enjoyed both movies.
LikeLike