Entertainment desk
< November 21	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 23 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 22[edit]

I have a question about Japanese shows that are westernize here in North America[edit]

So I have found out recently that the so-called Power_Rangers franchise is a westernize franchise of the Japanese franchise Super_sentai for English speaking countries. I'm just curious, how many Japanese TV shows besides anime of course are made for westernize English-language adaptions? Venustar84 (talk) 21:34, 22 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If by "Westernize" you mean taking existing footage and repurposing it into a new product, than the game show Takeshi's Castle became MXC. Mingmingla (talk) 22:27, 22 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What's Up, Tiger Lily? would be a pioneering effort in this field. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:44, 23 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If we're looking at movies, The Magnificent Seven (1960) is a remake of Seven Samurai (1954). HiLo48 (talk) 21:28, 23 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That was a remake rather than a recutting of the same film, but they're both great epics, the one following the other's general plot line pretty closely. (Given the setting, you could say it was literally "westernized".) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:20, 23 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I loved the fact that one of the seven in Seven Samurai was bald headed, and his first appearance showed him splitting firewood. Then the Hollywood producers used Yul Brynner for the equivalent character, and in his first scene, he was... splitting firewood. I thought that was the ultimate in being blatantly derivative. HiLo48 (talk) 03:11, 24 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, if you're going to do a remake, don't do it halfway! I wonder if the Japanese theme music for Seven Samurai was likewise used for advertising something in Japan? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:52, 24 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

HiLo you are mixing up a couple characters in Seven Samurai. When we first see Takashi Shimura who plays Kambei Shimada, the eventual leader of the seven, he has a full head of hair. He then has it shaved off so he can pretend to be a Buddhist priest in order to rescue a baby that is being held hostage by a crazed bandit. Later in the film Gorobei (who has become a sort of second in command) finds Heihachi Hayashida, played by the marvelous Minoru Chiaki, chopping wood in exchange for a meal - he has a full head of hair throughout the film. Gorobei recruits him to the cause in a humerous scene.. In spite of that you are correct that the leaders in both films have shaved heads - though Kambei's hair does grow back a bit as the film proceeds. I have always wondered if Brynner was cast because of his bald head or if it was just a coincidence. MarnetteD | Talk 05:49, 24 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In case the OP is curious, you can add endings onto wikilinked words simply by placing the ending on the other side of the square brackets, so that [[westernize]]d becomes westernized. You can also use what are called "piped links" to direct people to an article without going through the redirect, so that [[Westernization|westernize]]d also becomes westernized. Not a big deal; just FYI. Matt Deres (talk) 21:48, 23 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Not exactly a TV show, but Godzilla was Raymond Burrized, leading to a long trend of Westernizing the franchise, ranging from minor changes in translation to major revamps to a full-on movie about a large iguana. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:05, 23 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Several Studio Ghibli movies have been released by Disney with some Westernisation. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 00:55, 24 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]