I watched 'I Am Number Four' recently but I decided not to post about it because it was like a lot of other chick flicks with a similar storyline - a good looking and a pretty girl fall in love but they have to overcome huge obstacles in order to get together e.g. Twilight, Vampire Diaries.Anyway, this post is about the movie remake of the classic 1990 'Ghost' starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It is always very dangerous to make a remake version of an original movie or song. It is inevitable for the audience to compare the original and the newer versions to see which is better or worse. Just like Simon Cowell said on American Idol, more often than not, the cover versions are not as good as the original. But sometimes there are exceptions.
However, this is not one of them. This Japanese version starring Korean actor Song Heung Heon and Japanese actress Nanako Matsushima as the leads Juno and Nanami fell so flat that it could not go any lower. It has to be one of the worst movies I have seen so far, especially when it was from these two distinguished stars. The plot is so unbelievable, predictable and wafer thin that a leaf can cut through it. They copied the original right down to the pottery scene, song 'Unchained Melody' and the main difference is the dead protagonist is the female lead in this japanese remake instead of the male in the original movie.
At 36, Nanako looks tired, especially around the eyes, compared to the more youthful looking Song at 33. When Nanako appeared initially, I almost thought Sadako, the ghost in the more famous 'The Ring', would appear out of the corner of my eye. She was much more convincing as a ghost-plagued mother in that movie series than in this as a CEO of a billion-dollar making company. Song's performance wasn't much better and I couldn't feel his grief in the death scenes when he found his newly wedded wife Nanami murdered and thereafter. All he did was to show his lovesick puppy eyes whenever there is an emotional scene.
And don't even get me started on the psychic. In the original, Whoopi Goldberg was simply out of this world. To me, she was the success story behind the movie because for weeks after, my classmates and I were still laughing in stitches over some of the scenes involving her. She was absolutely the scene-stealer even though that was the first time I saw her. She was so hilariously natural and good that it spawned some other comedies after that e.g. Sister Act. In this japanese movie though, the psychic looked ridiculously stupid than funny.
They even dared to play the oldie but hauntingly beautiful song 'Unchained Melody' by the Righteous Brothers from the original movie. 9 out of 10 times, the cover versions are more inferior and sad to say, this one has no depth.
I rarely criticize a movie but seriously, this one is so bad and one needs to see it to believe it. If the original is a 10, this one is just a 1. Okay, I am too mean but it would at most be a 3 for me. If one has seen the best, in this case the original 1990 'Ghost', then one would know how terrible this one is and it would never come close to the former. Watch this for one reason and one reason only - if you are a fan of Song Heung Heon and Nanako Matsushima.
