The remake of Takashi Miike's One Missed Call hit theatres this past week, and needless to say, the critics hated it. Overall, on Rotten Tomatoes, it was univerally panned and garnered a 0% rating. Nonetheless, people went to see the film, with it debuting at #5 in this past weekend's ratings, pulling in $12.5 million dollars.
- National Treasure: Book of Secrets - $20.1 million
- Juno - $15.9 million
- I Am Legend - $15.7 million
- Alvin and the Chipmunks - $15.5 million
- One Missed Call $12.5 million
There's no word on how much the film's budget actually was, but it's still made a strong showing for the first week. Word of mouth will likely kill the film from now until its departure from theatres. The practice of remaking Japanese films looks like it might finally be coming to a close. While Takashi Miike's films are good, they are not the type of blockbusters that can be remade here in America.
I'll admit, though, that these remakes do help bring peoples' attention to some of the original works. Watching The Ring got me interested in J-Horror, leading me to all the fun Miike films that now adorn my DVD shelf. How about you? What was your first J-Horror, or remake of?