FrieAaron wrote:thomchatt3rton wrote:FrieAaron wrote:
Good point. And a question I definitely am not very equipped to answer. The most noteworthy thing about the movie I think is that it's a blockbuster with a largely non-white cast (Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis have pretty large parts). Which I don't mean to downplay at all - it's a big deal. It also touches on colonization a bit, so that's another issue that could definitely strike a chord. From a filmmaking standpoint, I think the most noteworthy thing about the film are the production design and costumes. Those are both very good.
Idk why, but that stuff is interesting to me. When I lived overseas, I would amuse myself trying to figure out why certain American cultural exports were really big and others were total non-entities despite being big deals in the US and elsewhere too.
Sometimes it seemed like there was an obvious reason, sometimes it made no apparent sense at all.
Like China not really caring about Star Wars and loving the Fast and Furious movies?
Is that true? I had no idea. But yeah, that's probably the best example I've ever heard of the thing. Can you imagine? Those poor people ...
But seriously, that kinda makes sense to me. Star Wars is a work of imagination. All of its charms (as far as I'm concerned) stem from the quality of Lucas' imagination and the world he created (its charms certainly aren't plot or acting or dialogue right?)
My intuition is that really imaginative things rely on cultural signs being still recognizable somehow, despite being changed and presented in interesting new forms via the imagination. That's what imagination is right? A new vision you've never seen but one that still makes sense or is appealing or immediately "familiar" somehow. We had never heard of Jawas before, but we were able to immediately understand them and take them for exactly what they are, because they're archetypal.
I can see how the imaginative vision Star Wars relies on might not translate well to certain cultures. Maybe Jawas would be baffling to them (a response I guarantee no western viewer had) Maybe Wookies wouldnt be endearing and cool, maybe they'd be stupidly laughable with their weird voices. Et cetera. And what good is Star Wars without it's Jawas and Wookies? No good at all, really.
On the other hand, the F&F franchise's charms (and they must have some) are all right on the surface and no translation is required- cool cars, chases, action, and hot women. That's pretty easy to import world-wide, I think (in fact I think F&F is particularly popular and successful all over the world).
ETA: I should note that I just made all of this up now and it may be totally untrue.
