More Asian remakes

With the Asian horror genre getting drained of viability by Hollywood for remake material, it looks like they’re turning attention to action and crime movies. The latest up for big-screen perforation is Johnny To’s excellent gunman movie EXILED, which is coming to our shores courtesy of Media Asia (who was behind INFERNAL AFFAIRS and its US remake THE DEPARTED). SILENT HILL producer Samuel Hadida is putting the gang together for one last job.

The original 2006 ballistic flick (a spiritual cousin to To’s own THE MISSION — once planned as a Hollywood remake from USUAL SUSPECTS writer Chris McQuarrie) is a tight, well-balanced action-thriller about several hitmen at odds concerning a target who’s also an old friend.

I’m also hearing through my own personal grapevine (which actually speaks to me in the form of a Captain Morgan bottle) that a remake of John Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW is in the works. The movie that perhaps best established Chow Yun-Fat (pre-THE KILLER), TOMORROW revolves around gangsters and cops forced to choose their loyalties.