![]() I like what I’ve read of the manga (I think Isayama is a gifted horror artist). I guess that means that I’m pessimistic, but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong. Jake: I rather liked Mama but it didn’t really prove Muschietti capable of much nuance. (It’s truly a book designed to be a 10-part TV show.) I think The Flash will prove whether IT was a fluke or not, because I’ve heard very mixed things about his first film, Mama. (Ironic, I know, but I’m as surprised as you are that I’m discussing this comic with a skinless humanoid on the cover.) The first IT definitely impressed me with its humor and charm, the second less so because of how long it was, but even it had Bill Hader’s wonderful performance. What do you think Chris, is Muschietti a reliable talent? Do you think he’s going to be able to parse those tricky themes? Continued belowĬhris: I’m not the best person to ask, as I’m biased against horror films: they’re inherently bad because they’re gory or scary, unless they’re good. I’ve come to believe that this is because of Cary Joji Fukunaga, who wrote the screenplay to the first one, but not the second. I liked the first It film quite a bit, but the second one was a real letdown. But since Andy Muschietti is the name attached, he’s the one we should look at. ![]() I think I’d say they get more wrong then they get right. Hollywood as an institution has a mixed track record. I guess the big open question is how much we trust the movie to be thoughtful. Sometimes it’s successful and sometimes, less so. It can smooth out some of those messy things from the manga. That’s why I’m so fascinated with the cartoon as an adaptation. Attack on Titan is weird in that it’s a fantastic story, but the themes can get… muddy at times. And that includes bad stuff to bad people. But written poorly, it can mean anything to anyone. Written well, a metaphor can be a clear and powerful message, obvious to anyone who sees it. Attack on Titan is a fantasy story, so it deals in metaphor. But can people really say Attack on Titan is saying the Japanese are a persecuted minority after WW2 the way Jewish people have been harmed over the centuries? That’s not to say Japan doesn’t have a nationalist problem - the country has never reckoned with its history of fascism the way Germany has, and the current and last Prime Ministers are members of a revisionist cult. It’s unfortunate, yes, but no one bats an eyelid when X-Men portrays persecuted people - Jewish and non-Jewish - with dangerous superpowers. As I understand, the anti-Semitic interpretations came about from the depiction of a persecuted minority as having the ability to turn into actual monsters, as if that justifies their marginalization. There’s a lot of opportunity to explore how miserable these characters are, and how their loyalty to a terrible system of governance ultimately harms them.Ĭhris: I’m still unclear on that a lot of the story seems preoccupied with overthrowing a corrupt government that’s apparently unconcerned by the Titans eating all the poor people. I for one would be delighted by a Starship Troopers style deconstruction, one that uses the fascist politics satirically. The cultural context for that sort of thing is really different in Japan, so there’s a lot of thoughtful approaches a movie could take. But whether or not he himself is a straight up fascist is a little less clear. It’s undeniable that he seems to have… a predilection towards fascist imagery. I’ve been really interested in tracking the narrative surrounding the manga’s creator, Hajime Isayama. My big concerns would be how the show handles its politics. What I’m trying to say is, it’s the kind of setting I think could actually benefit from some specificity when it is put into live action. But even though it’s a fantasy story, Attack on Titan is a lot more specific - there are a lot of blonde characters with German names, and the fact that there is one biracial Asian character is something of an important plot point. A lot of anime uses what’s called Mukokuseki, which is a sort of ethnically neutral style. ![]() ![]() Jake Hill: Yeah! I’m a total anime noob, but I love ( and review) Attack on Titan and I think it is uniquely well-suited to get the Hollywood treatment. And yet: few manga would be so well suited to being adapted in America, given how much the story owes to northern European culture and mythology - it’s a Japanese cartoon where only one main character is a biracial Japanese person (Mikasa Ackerman). There’s no way you can make it into a PG-13 film franchise it’d be a guaranteed loss for the studio. Christopher Chiu-Tabet: An American Attack on Titan movie is a hilarious prospect on paper: it is arguably the definition of cultural differences between American and Japanese audiences, as it’s an extremely gory horror manga aimed at teenage boys. ![]()
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