....is on Netflix. Not too shabby.

Damn it! I really like Jin-Roh, too. I just don't have Netflix. Hmm, I'll check iTunes to see if I can rent it.

Thanks for the heads-up!

I watched E1. Stopped. Too many things were annoying. Is it worth continuing?

I didn't realize it was a series. I don't know if I could stand that, either. The trailer makes it seem like a 2:40 movie.

I wondered if that's what that was. I'll check it out.

I should clarify....the Korean live-action movie is called Illang: The Wolf Brigade.

FWIW I think the anime is better, but the live adaptation was pretty good.

Started watching it. Interesting how some things were changed drastically, and then there will be 10 minutes that could be framed for frame from the anime.

I haven’t seen the original in probably a good fifteen years or so. I used to have a super compressed version on a burned disc, I’ll have to look around and see if it can be found online.

I looked up the remake and added it to the list. I’ll start it tonight.

My bad - it is a movie and not a series. I stopped watching after 30 minutes or so - maybe that's why I had the impression it was a series.

I finished. It was okay. Not sure what to expect. And I was kind of confused most of the time - not sure who was who. But seems like the good guy wins in the end.

Curious about the original story line now.

Watched it yesterday and I thought it was a pretty good rendition. There’s quite a bit of it that seems to be almost a frame-by-frame recreation of the original. I watched a few sequences from the original on YouTube after watching the Korean version and was surprised how dead-on some of the scenes are. As mentioned, there’s a fair bit of stuff that never happened in the original that I hunk they had to do in order to flesh out the change in plot from Japan to Korea and the time.

I have two major complaints about the film. One is a mild spoiler and the other a big one, in that order, so you’ve been warned.
1) Their Foley guy almost ruined the movie for me. A 1919 Browning or M60 shoot sound is played whenever one of the Slecial Unit guys opens up with his FUCKING MG42!!! The anime got it right, the rate of fire and sheer amount of lead flying. It’s the first thing I noticed that really bothered me, and continued to bother me for the entire film. You take one of the things about them that’s so intimidating, and you give it a rate of fire less than half of what it’s supposed to be. Can’t help but imagine how much better the film would have worked if they got this one tiny thing right.

2) They pussed-out on the ending. They really did. All I could think of was Bladerunner. I think I understand why they did it, but I think it would have been a much more powerful ending had they stuck with the way the original ended.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
I have two major complaints about the film...I think I understand why they did it, but I think it would have been a much more powerful ending had they stuck with the way the original ended.

Agree 100%

Yup, watched the original again last night and I concur.

Curious what's the original ending and what makes it more powerful?

I seem to have noticed that Korean remakes will tend to make storylines / endings a little more happy.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Curious what's the original ending and what makes it more powerful?

I seem to have noticed that Korean remakes will tend to make storylines / endings a little more happy.

Looks like the original with English Dubs is on YouTube. It’s very much worth a watch, but better in Japanese with subtitles. Anyways, if you want to skip right to it, the movie is basically the same as the anime until about 1:32:00 and then they diverge wildly.

https://youtu.be/ShSIz1Ekilo

Watched Jin Roh. I know that Illang is the same story but for whatever reason, I could follow storyline in the anime version better. The Illang version was very confusing for me. Although I do like some of the past works of the Korean actress - generally like her.

The endings are very different. And while the anime version makes tactical sense and hard to argue the outcome, I'm actual more partial to the Illang ending - those two have had such hard times, let them redeem themselves and live happily ever after.

One thing that is still not clear in either version to me (perhaps it doesn't matter) - aside from the tension and conflict between two gov organizations, is the government in the wrong here? Do the people / 'terrorists' have a justified cause or are they in the wrong?

I think “right vs. wrong” as a concept is entirely ancillary or unimportant, even, to the interplay between the two main characters. They’re both right and wrong, they’re both good and evil at the same time. I need to rewatch Jin Roh in full, but the study of two undercover representatives of warring factions trying to outmaneuver each other in a clandestine situation is more the focus. They’re both hunting each other, they’re both being used, but in the end, one is the wolf. It’s kind of like Infernal Affairs (remade as The Departed), but more gray and less black and white.

This video does a pretty good job of picking all that apart. Can’t embed from iPhone, apologies.
https://youtu.be/iRsCqCLnesE