International remakes of previous movies are not unusual as they were - indeed many an eastern movie has been remade for western audiences to significant acclaim. But it's still a little unusual for an Oscar-winning film to be genuinely reimagined for an eastern audience with the same amount of budget, care and attention as the original. However all indications are that Unforgiven could be a significant hit when it is releassed in October, with Ken Watanabe taking the equivalent role eassayed by Clint Eastwood - and also featuring the likes of Kunimura Jun, Yagira Yuya,Sato Koichi, Emoto Akira, Koike Eiko, and Kutsuna Shioli.
Directed by Lee Sang-il (Hula Girls), the story is essentially the same, with Watanabe now a samurai living near the Japanese island of Hokkaido in the 1880s. He has sworn off violence forever but finds himself dragged back into a world of conflict and ultimately finding the possibility of redemption for the sins of his past.
The original Unforgiven, released in 1992, won Eastwood the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director with Gene Hackman taking the statuette for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (it also won best Film Editing). Its cast also included Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Frances Fisher and Saul Rubinek and is often cited as one of Hollywood's best westerns and one of Eastwood's best outings.
After some ealier publicity, here is the full subtitled, international trailer which certainly whets our appetites...
