I've mentioned my love of Takashi Miike before. And while I'm a huge fan, he has over ninety credits to his name (and at least half of those – though probably more – are full feature films), so I haven't had the chance to see everything he's made. And one film in particular that went under my radar was his 2013 action film SHIELD OF STRAW. So when I heard about news of an American remake, I looked up some info on the film, and…holy shit. I need this movie in my life.
Apparently the plot of SHIELD OF STRAW concerns a team of cops who must protect a criminal accused of killing the grandchild of a powerful billionaire, and when said billionaire puts a billion-dollar bounty on the criminal's head, the job becomes all but impossible. Also the action looks completely f*cking insane. But insanity is one of the best things about a Miike film, so that's to be expected.
Anyway, it seems an American remake is on the way, which is…I mean, it could be good. While American remakes of foreign films (especially Asian films) – like THE RING and THE DEPARTED – can be excellent, often times (like THE GRUDGE and OLDBOY) they are not. And seeing how crazy, bloody, and intense the original SHIELD OF STRAW looks, I can just imagine the American version being a quick-cut, blurry PG-13 nightmare. But who knows? As I said before, it's not a given it will suck. Although, I do often wish more moviegoers could handle subtitles…
No release date is set for the remake, but the original SHIELD OF STRAW is out now.
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