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INTEREST: Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Director Criticizes Upcoming Live-Action Film


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Felicity dash





PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:57 am Reply with quote
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Seeing a Japanese director criticize a movie for not having diversity actually surprises me. Not that I`m disagreeing though, because that was my biggest complaint about the AOT live-action movie.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:22 am Reply with quote
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Especially after it was stated that Edward isn't Japanese, so the casting already committed a fundamental flaw.

Though, on the other hand, if they were to cast European actors, wouldn't they need to be fluent in Japanese for this to work?


Last edited by belvadeer on Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jppcouto



Joined: 28 Apr 2013
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:24 am Reply with quote
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Finally someone important tells the truth that needs to be heard. Fullmetal Alchemist needs western actors, not asians. The comment ends up gaining more appeal when you know that it's the director from the FMA anime adaptation.
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#861208



Joined: 07 Oct 2016
Posts: 423
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:30 am Reply with quote
Quote:
“2D is freer than live action,” was the consensus. “You can express more with it.”


This, though.

Can we just... this.

I don't really have a problem with the race thing (it's standard in stage productions to just ignore that, and I watch more stage productions than live action), but it is just one of the many areas in which animation is totally superior to live-action. Live-action just seems pointless to me, especially since so much of it is basically just CG animation now. If you're not going to have it live on stage, why not just make it animated? The only reason for live-action is the stigma against animation.

I just want to world to see that animation is the greatest art form of the modern age, and to really appreciate it. I want there to not just be this one little country with a decent, varied animation output. I want the whole world to appreciate animation.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2335
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:40 am Reply with quote
No complaints about whitewashing here.
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WANNFH



Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 1695
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:44 am Reply with quote
Well, most of his opinion is completely legit: you can't do the most things in live-action so simply that allowed in animated media, if you don't have the ridiculous budget. Japanese movie industry can't get the same budget and level of scale that Western blockbuster movies gets - and if it gets, it cannot be so simple to revenue that pile of money by being the japanese movie.

But there is a real cons of his words:
Quote:
It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.
And there we go - if you use the western actors, you need to scale the budget drastically, because even western TV series actors nowadays cost a good price. And it's not only about their salary - the script translation (because well, there is not many Western actors that know japanese in the world), increase in the production team to coordinate the actors, and much, much more. That all cost money and time - and for more, it's all can be the bigger loss of money - because japanese movies get most revenue from it's home market (and well, the China, if it's going to be hit there). For the producers that all surely will be the madness, and even the animation director should know how can it be.

Quote:
“Gintama just looked stupid,” he complained
Well, if it comes to Gintama, the word "stupid" is more a compliment that complain. Even Sorachi acknowledges that by saying that movie will more looks like the comedy cosplay party.

Quote:
The producers shared his sentiments about live-action films, mentioning that Terraformars was a bad adaptation of a great manga.
C'mon, the story about the gory rampage of martian cockroaches that looks like muscular afro-american people versus insect-powered humans is so ridiculous and B-grade, that even in the animated form it doesn't do well, left alone the movie.
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MadHi



Joined: 10 Mar 2014
Posts: 188
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:47 am Reply with quote
It would be a little disorienting to see Japanese actors portraying supposedly white people and speaking in Japanese. But I have to bear in mind that the series only draws inspiration from Europe, it's the original anime that more directly linked them with European culture.

Having said that, I prefer the original series, I don't like Brotherhood or the manga so I hope it takes some liberties in adapting the manga into a movie.


Last edited by MadHi on Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:52 pm; edited 2 times in total
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hehe652



Joined: 24 Feb 2014
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:08 pm Reply with quote
So you mean to tell me that they need to find someone from Resembool, Amestris irl that is white and an actor and lives in Japan and speak Japanese to act as Edward? Wow~
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michaeltanzer



Joined: 25 Nov 2010
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:36 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Especially after it was stated that Edward isn't Japanese, so the casting already committed a fundamental flaw.

Though, on the other hand, if they were to cast European actors, wouldn't they need to be fluent in Japanese for this to work?


Now that you've mention it, they SHOULD be perfect to speak Japanese. So yeah.
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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 826
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:56 pm Reply with quote
Is this part of the movie's marketing buzz?
My hunch says it is.
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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:01 pm Reply with quote
I can't really wrap my head around live action anime/manga adaptations, it's just always disappointing because it just works better to me in animated form. Maybe it's because the animated form can express emotions in a better way sometimes than a live action actor or in a way that a live action actor can't. Also often the special effects for something from the anime looks really bad to me, or the makeup job on someone, like DragonBall Evolution taking a stab at what a Namekian would look like for real. Or the fact that in a live action version of Death Note ,Ryuk looks fake constantly.
I mean I guess for somethings it works like Rurouni Kenshin I guess. I do also enjoy the cheesiness of the Riki-Oh live action movie.

And I kind of feel like if they tried getting actual western/European actors to play Full Metal Alchemist on this, it could turned into G-Saviour real quick.
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nhat



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 922
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:12 pm Reply with quote
jppcouto wrote:
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Finally someone important tells the truth that needs to be heard. Fullmetal Alchemist needs western actors, not asians. The comment ends up gaining more appeal when you know that it's the director from the FMA anime adaptation.


It's not as practical to have different ethnicities as it is in the West. JP barely have any asian minorities let alone west and their movie budgets aren't as big as Hollywood. It's easier to compare and complain but in reality it's not that simple.
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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:24 pm Reply with quote
nhat wrote:
jppcouto wrote:
Quote:
“It was a bad idea to only use Japanese actors.”


Finally someone important tells the truth that needs to be heard. Fullmetal Alchemist needs western actors, not asians. The comment ends up gaining more appeal when you know that it's the director from the FMA anime adaptation.


It's not as practical to have different ethnicities as it is in the West. JP barely have any asian minorities let alone west and their movie budgets aren't as big as Hollywood. It's easier to compare and complain but in reality it's not that simple.

The only way they could do it and it would probably turn out bad, is to G Saviour it and have it be a co-production with Canada or something.
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silentjay



Joined: 12 Dec 2003
Posts: 304
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:32 pm Reply with quote
Felicity dash wrote:
Not that I`m disagreeing though, because that was my biggest complaint about the AOT live-action movie.


Though it was interesting that they cast a non-Japanese (albeit, using a Japanese stage name) actress for Mikasa, so at least they had some clue that it was a bad idea, like when WB pushed for Schwarzenegger to play Sgt. Rock.
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silentjay



Joined: 12 Dec 2003
Posts: 304
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:40 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
Though, on the other hand, if they were to cast European actors, wouldn't they need to be fluent in Japanese for this to work?


They've been doing foreign language productions for ages, and don't generally have a bias against dubs or subtitles. There's a reasonable enough chance that all-Japanese FMA will flop because of the casting, because it makes The Last Airbender look like a minor misjudgment. Japan may be culturally homogeneous, almost to a fault, but it's generally not blindly so when it comes to the movie's target audience.
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