Ghost of Tsushima Movie Director Wants Japanese-Language Film & Japanese Cast
104Back when the surprise hit Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Film in 2020, internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bong Joon-ho reminded viewers that “Once you overcome the one inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Now, in an exclusive interview with Collider, film director Chad Stahelski (John Wick: Chapter 4) is echoing those words and teasing that he intends to prove Bong right by filming the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima movie adaptation entirely in Japanese.
Inspired by the body of work from legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, Ghost of Tsushima was released for PlayStation 4 in 2020, and has since become one of the video game’s biggest, most acclaimed, and fastest-selling titles, with over 9 million copies sold within two years of the game’s release. The game’s audio options came with a Japanese track (and English subtitles), in order for players to have a much more immersive experience when embodying a character from 13th-century Japan. The film's adaptation with Stahelski was announced earlier this year, much to the excitement of fans of the video game.
The director talked to our own Steve Weintraub during a press tour for Day Shift, and revealed that, like most of us, he’s “super excited” for the Ghost of Tsushima adaptation. Stahelski also took a little time to talk about the movie’s influences, and how the spoken language plays a pivotal role in the story:
“[W]e'd to try to do it all in character. Meaning, it's a Japanese thing about the Mongols invading Tsushima island. A complete Japanese cast, in Japanese. Sony is so on board with backing us on that. I've been going to Japan since I was 16. I have a love of the country, love of the people, love of the language. To try to direct not only in my language, but someone else's, and culturally shift my mindset to bring a part [of] that in a cool way that still entices a Western audience. […] That seems a really good challenge. […] And yes, look, there's a long road to go in development about that. Will it affect us? Yeah. I mean, no one is going to give me $200 million to do a technology-push movie without speaking English. I get it. So, I have to be clever, and I have to figure out what's fiducially responsible to the property, to the studio, and still get what I want out of it and still make it something epic.”
Stahelski also suggested he hopes that Ghost of Tsushima can be a part of the cultural change when it comes to American audiences getting more used to subtitles. He said he’ll “read subtitles all day” and mentioned that highly popular productions from other countries, such as Netflix’s hit series Squid Game is opening doors for “so much more of a world content.” At the same time, the filmmaker admits that decision to film Ghost of Tsushima entirely in Japanese is a huge risk: “Will [audiences] show up in the theaters for that? I'm banking on yes.”
While an adaptation like this might be a risky one, both the video game and Stahelski have built-in fan bases that are certain to help make the film a success. Sony has yet to reveal further details from the Ghost of Tsushima movie adaptation, but the excitement is real. Watch what else Stahelski had to say about the film in the player above.
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