Josie and the Pussycats, the satirical 2001 comic book adaptation, in which an innocent, unknown band becomes part of a media hype machine, only to discover their music is being exploited as a platform to subliminally sell styles and products, will be re-made in Korea. Except, without irony, and brazen advertisement, instead of just satirical or subliminal product endorsements.
Of course, this will not be a straight re-make: while in the original Josie and the Pussycats film, the band played their own instruments, and valued their music and friendship above fame or money, and they were unaware that subliminal messages were being planted in their music and videos. In the remake, however, the band will be assembled through auditions of ten-year-olds, with training sequences reminiscent of the brutal child training sequences of movies like 300 and Ninja Assassin. Then, instead of being best friends, the lead characters will be placed in a huge all-girl pop group characterized by rivalry and back-biting rather than friendship and support.
Also, the original film contained a company logo or brand-name mention in nearly every frame of the film: this was an ironic reference to the commercialization of music, and a satirical running joke throughout the movie. The remake, funded by SM Entertainment, managers of Girls' Generation, will be doing the same thing, "But we've decided not to make it a running joke, and just make it into naked advertising plugs," SM Entertainment's media manager said. In fact, the movie's plot will incorporate several of our sponsors as well: instead of the friendship conflict caused in the original movie by the record company trying to make Josie a star above the other Pussycats, the new plot will revolve around an article in the newspaper saying that one of the group members (no spoilers: we won't say which one) is prettier than the others, at which time several of the other girls ponder plastic surgery in a montage of advertisements for plastic surgery clinics; then another of the girls gets a nicer phone than the other 8, leading to a shopping montage of all the girls romping around electronics shops trying out phones, mp3 players, and other new-generation handheld electronics. No Sony products or I-phones, though.
As seen in the above video, which doubles as a phone ad and a trailer for the film, there will be frequent instances of shaking the video camera as a substitute for actual dance moves. The re-make will also involve more dance moves involving pointing fingers, and camera poses that involve touching one's face in different places, with different fingers.
While one industry insider who pre-viewed the script of what will probably be released as "Jessica and the Third Generation Phone by LG," and dismissed it as "A two hour product placement interrupted by songs that are extended commercials," SM Entertainment responded to the critique by saying, "So?" The SM representative then slipped while stepping off the press conference podium, revealing the platform to have been a huge pile of cash.
Saturday 16 January 2010
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5 comments:
Nice post. I wrote something on this too, but not as eloquently as you did.
http://joji1909.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/this-week-in-korea-december-17-2009/
Well done!
Haha, another hilarious post. Bravo!
(The word verification for this post was strangely apt: "great")
Yes, I've heard about this... Everyone's so excited about the remake that they've already started shooting the sequel. Apparently, the plot will center around a group of adolescent boys promoting phones and trying to prove they're not gay by having a dance-off to win the admiration of a girl. At the end, their sex appeal causes the girl to explode. And there's an evil clown. You can see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpz-kz9t2Zs
Wow. thanks for that Kya: comment of the year so far (but then, it's only january)
I'd heard buzz about Samsung anycall funding a Korean remake of Stephen King's "IT" but I didn't realize it would be a musical.
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