#“retelling” means “tell the story again” it doesn't mean “make it unrecognizable”!

[katerinaaqu]

It's hard talking about the disrespect to Greek mythology and religion when every argument people brings to the table is "look at this original novel that is adapted into a movie that is turned into a tv show that didn't follow the original plot" as if the Greek culture is on par with fictional story instead of a tradition and heritage of real life people.

A media that is broadcast to the public and make accessible to everyone that erased the values and lesson of a cultural story still can do harm when it feeds misunderstanding and misinterpretion of the culture it originated from.

Greek people has the right to be upset when their culture keeps getting misrepresented, doesn't matter the good intentions behind it, why must it be at the expense of Greek culture?

You can create arts that is so beautiful and so praises by many, and years from now you could look back and see what an amazing experience and community you have created out of it. But at the same time you also continue feeding the distorted ideas and flawed understanding about a culture as a whole.

All because you took from a culture and want to tell your own story.

Retelling is telling back the story. Any addition or new ideas you bring is when there's part in the original story that is vague or open for interpretations. Even then, when you elaborate, you follows the already presented ideas that the original story already established.

If it so beloved to you and so meaningful to you, why couldn't you be faithful when adapting and retelling with the talents you have?

Shouldn't it be better if you created an original story inspired by it? If you feels that the values and standards are not to your taste, but you so loved the stories and could related to it, isn't it better to create original characters and settings with your own voice and narrative with the story inspiration as the backdrop?

At this point, what is greek mythology and lore to you? That makes you so passionate so inspired, that spark your imagination that encourage you to be creative but it is at the ruin of old age history that is meaningful for the Greek identity. Do you really appreciate the values and moral that you gained from the stories, or did you forget yourself along the way?

I couldn't have said it better! I agree to all that because that is exactly my sentiment as well! On one hand of course I am proud that Greek mythology contnues to inspire and people want to create stuff on them or that even now there are people who think the values of Greek Mythology are universal and they are!

But as you said it pains me to no limits when stories that were literally created from people based on their culture and religion to pass on messages are not only distorted beyond recognition but also to a degree where nowadays most people of Greek mythology liking spectrum know only how terrible villains some men are (in actual mythology they are complicated personas) and how weak women are (there are literlly figures in Greek mythology that are so strong personas that honestly I am shocked. See Helen for example how she is the most projected persona as a pretty face that does nothing when Helen literally taks back to Aphrodite, she is the only one who sees through Odysseus's disguise, she has knowledge of medicine and so much more for once) Mythology loses all its meaning, all its allegory and all its cultural spectrum because as you said people do not use it to retell the story, they use the word "retelling" as their excuse to just tell a story that fits them by using the popularity of greek mythology and yes as you said why cannot they say their original stories while using inspiration from Greek mythology?

Honestly I have nothing to add! You said it all dear Anon!

[comics-mostly]

WHY the new Death Note film just doesn't hold up!

written on 08/25/2017.

So, I just finished watching Netflix’s Death Note film and.. well, where do I begin? Let’s start back at the end of June, when I saw the first trailer for the film. My first impression of it was less than positive. With the dour appearance of our protagonist, Light; the strange take on the would-be masked hero, L; and the abundance of action, for which the anime was not known for... I couldn’t help but be weary of this Americanized retelling of the Japanese classic. 

My weariness was compounded as the reviews started rolling in. While I avoided reading articles in their entirety – choosing to stick mostly to headlines and ratings – I could sense that the overall consensus from most reviewers was that the film was not only a weak adaptation, but that it was downright horrible. But still, I wanted to remain somewhat optimistic and not completely write the film off before seeing it for myself, which is why I waited until after seeing it to speak on it.

In short. I was right to be worried. I’ll explain.

While I don’t, by any means, spoil the main plots of the film or the manga/anime, I do discuss it in significant detail. So, I’ll put a SPOILER ALERT, just in case you want to hold off reading this until after you’ve seen the movie. 

You see, I have a serious issue with amazing properties being claimed by the Hollywood machine and bastardized to the point that they are practically unrecognizable from the property it originated from. It’s one thing if the changes prove to be beneficial – that changing an aspect of the story serves to enhance the overall tale – but when it’s done haphazardly, and without any clear, logical reasoning, I can’t help but get upset. It’s happened time and time again – do I really need to bring up Fant4stic again? But, it seems to happen frequently with American interpretations of anime adaptations. Need I remind anyone of Dragon Ball: Evolution? I didn’t think so.

A friend and I recently spoke on the topic – on how the world of anime is often difficult to bring to live-action. How the characters and animation are often so bizarrly fantastical, that trying to find individuals to adequately portray them in the real world is often an impossible task – even with the use of CGI. For example, even one of the more simple aspects of an anime, such as a character’s unique hairstyle, can be hard to imitate in the real world. But, I digress.

The manga/anime, Death Note, does not suffer from the aforementioned problem. Not only does it take place in the real world, but all of the characters – aside from the few Shinigami who make an appearance – are normal human beings who behave, for the most part, normally. There’s not much that’s fantastical about the world of Death Note… I mean, aside from the book that kills people. But, you get what I’m saying. Not only that, but the story itself is perfect in almost every way – never falling victim to the occasional plot holes that plague some anime/manga. The story is as close to perfection as you can get, and yet and still, we were given this.

So what went wrong? You mean besides everything? I’m sorry. I’m going to try my best not to just rip into and actually explain the issues I have with the film. The first of which is, the character you see above, that’s not Light. Don’t misunderstand me, that young man’s name is definitely Light (Turner), but he is a shell (if that) of the man that Light (Yagami) was. Yagami was such an amazing character because of his incredible level of cunning and ingenuity - he not only used the Death Note for the first time through his own volition, but he mastered it before Ryuk initially appeared. Not only that, but he was intelligent enough to understand the risks that came with using it - he didn’t dare use it in the same reckless manner that Turner did. Yagami was so fun to watch because he was meticulous in his thought process, and never did anything without considering the potential consequences. He was, without a doubt, an absolute genius. 

Turner, on the other hand, is careless. We’re led to believe he’s intelligent due to the fact that we see him, in the opening scenes, working on his other classmates homework for extra income. In fact, other than that implied intelligence, everything else he does throughout the film is incredibly stupid. The only time we see Turner reach the same level of ingenuity as Yagami is the end sequence, and that was such an unbelievable smorgasbord of ridiculousness that I can’t believe made it into this movie. Then again, I also can’t believe that this movie exists at all. 

Well, it’s not meant to be a carbon copy of the original! Oh no, I understand that. But, I also imagine it’s not meant to be a steaming pile of.. ahem. Look, I completely understand that, as a director, it isn’t necessarily his goal to recreate the series in its entirety. For one, it’s not possible to do that within the scope of an hour and half. The series went on for thirty seven episodes - multiply that by twenty you have 740 minutes of story that needs to be condensed down to 90. It’s just not feasible, and so I understand that a great deal needs to be changed. 

What I don’t understand is, why change everything good about it? Such as the dynamic between Light and Ryuk, between Light and L, between Light and Mi(s)a. I mean, every single relationship was changed in a way that only detracted from the overall story. One of the most dynamic relationships in the story is that of Light and Ryuk; how Ryuk wants to be entertained, and Light aims to entertain him by showing him the creation of a new world. The two develop a unique friendship, one formed out of necessity, but one that works nonetheless. This movie does nothing to establish that - instead, the two seem to be enemies, which is extremely bothersome. 

Then there’s the relationship between Light and L; which lasted a considerable amount of the original manga/anime; however, in the film, it’s boiled down to a couple of scenes that don’t hit the mark they were aiming for - if they were aiming at all. And don’t get me started on little Miss Mi(s)a. She was perhaps the most different from her original character. However, she seemed to be more like “Light Yagami” than Mr. Turner - though, not by much. 

All in all, the Death Note film is a wash. And, no, I’m not talking about race-washing - though it has issues with that too. The film was a bad idea simply due to the fact that trying to create a movie from a one hundred and eight chapter manga/thirty-seven episode anime series is just not practical. If something such as this was going to be attempted, it should have been a thirteen episode series. That would have at least given the writers more room to develop the relationships between characters and tell a much more cohesive and well-rounded story. But, that’s not what happened, and instead of something that might have been good we got.. well, we got Death Note. 

But, let me know what you think of it. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did it do right by the original series - or was it a disservice? I really would like to know. Also, if you like the content of the post, feel free to check out some of my other posts here. And feel free to follow my blog!

Also, other pet peeves I just really want to mention. 

As awesome as Willem Dafoe was as the voice of Ryuk, I couldn’t help but think of him as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man - “God Speed, Spider-Man.” 

Why did Nat Wolff (Light) dye his hair - he looked much more like Light Yagami with his normal hair color than he does with the blonde dye. 

I hated the “shock factor” kills - I don’t need gruesome murders in lieu of a cohesive story. 

[wordsmithic]

When people ask "But what's the harm?" It's literally this:

You can create arts that is so beautiful and so praises by many, and years from now you could look back and see what an amazing experience and community you have created out of it. But at the same time you also continue feeding the distorted ideas and flawed understanding about a culture as a whole.

And, mind you, and we're talking about a real culture with real people, whose culture has been historically used against them by the Big Powers (Greek historical term). If it looks like "no harm" to you, you are obviously on the side which is entertained, not the one that's hurt. Of course you don't see the harm.

It's hard talking about the disrespect to Greek mythology and religion when every argument people brings to the table is "look at this original novel that is adapted into a movie that is turned into a tv show that didn't follow the original plot" as if the Greek culture is on par with fictional story instead of a tradition and heritage of real life people.

A media that is broadcast to the public and make accessible to everyone that erased the values and lesson of a cultural story still can do harm when it feeds misunderstanding and misinterpretion of the culture it originated from.

Greek people has the right to be upset when their culture keeps getting misrepresented, doesn't matter the good intentions behind it, why must it be at the expense of Greek culture?

You can create arts that is so beautiful and so praises by many, and years from now you could look back and see what an amazing experience and community you have created out of it. But at the same time you also continue feeding the distorted ideas and flawed understanding about a culture as a whole.

All because you took from a culture and want to tell your own story.

Retelling is telling back the story. Any addition or new ideas you bring is when there's part in the original story that is vague or open for interpretations. Even then, when you elaborate, you follows the already presented ideas that the original story already established.

If it so beloved to you and so meaningful to you, why couldn't you be faithful when adapting and retelling with the talents you have?

Shouldn't it be better if you created an original story inspired by it? If you feels that the values and standards are not to your taste, but you so loved the stories and could related to it, isn't it better to create original characters and settings with your own voice and narrative with the story inspiration as the backdrop?

At this point, what is greek mythology and lore to you? That makes you so passionate so inspired, that spark your imagination that encourage you to be creative but it is at the ruin of old age history that is meaningful for the Greek identity. Do you really appreciate the values and moral that you gained from the stories, or did you forget yourself along the way?

I couldn't have said it better! I agree to all that because that is exactly my sentiment as well! On one hand of course I am proud that Greek mythology contnues to inspire and people want to create stuff on them or that even now there are people who think the values of Greek Mythology are universal and they are!

But as you said it pains me to no limits when stories that were literally created from people based on their culture and religion to pass on messages are not only distorted beyond recognition but also to a degree where nowadays most people of Greek mythology liking spectrum know only how terrible villains some men are (in actual mythology they are complicated personas) and how weak women are (there are literlly figures in Greek mythology that are so strong personas that honestly I am shocked. See Helen for example how she is the most projected persona as a pretty face that does nothing when Helen literally taks back to Aphrodite, she is the only one who sees through Odysseus's disguise, she has knowledge of medicine and so much more for once) Mythology loses all its meaning, all its allegory and all its cultural spectrum because as you said people do not use it to retell the story, they use the word "retelling" as their excuse to just tell a story that fits them by using the popularity of greek mythology and yes as you said why cannot they say their original stories while using inspiration from Greek mythology?

Honestly I have nothing to add! You said it all dear Anon!

[katerinaaqu]

Unfortunately that is true too. I remember that many times over I heard from people like "you Greeks have more important things to worry about" and I am standing there knowing that the ancient past was literally what persuaded the european countries that Greeks have the right to exist as a country and brought up histry and mythology still taught at their schools to persuade them that their cause during the war at the 19th century Revolution was simply their right to exist as a country not just as an ethnicity within an empire.

It's hard talking about the disrespect to Greek mythology and religion when every argument people brings to the table is "look at this original novel that is adapted into a movie that is turned into a tv show that didn't follow the original plot" as if the Greek culture is on par with fictional story instead of a tradition and heritage of real life people.

A media that is broadcast to the public and make accessible to everyone that erased the values and lesson of a cultural story still can do harm when it feeds misunderstanding and misinterpretion of the culture it originated from.

Greek people has the right to be upset when their culture keeps getting misrepresented, doesn't matter the good intentions behind it, why must it be at the expense of Greek culture?

You can create arts that is so beautiful and so praises by many, and years from now you could look back and see what an amazing experience and community you have created out of it. But at the same time you also continue feeding the distorted ideas and flawed understanding about a culture as a whole.

All because you took from a culture and want to tell your own story.

Retelling is telling back the story. Any addition or new ideas you bring is when there's part in the original story that is vague or open for interpretations. Even then, when you elaborate, you follows the already presented ideas that the original story already established.

If it so beloved to you and so meaningful to you, why couldn't you be faithful when adapting and retelling with the talents you have?

Shouldn't it be better if you created an original story inspired by it? If you feels that the values and standards are not to your taste, but you so loved the stories and could related to it, isn't it better to create original characters and settings with your own voice and narrative with the story inspiration as the backdrop?

At this point, what is greek mythology and lore to you? That makes you so passionate so inspired, that spark your imagination that encourage you to be creative but it is at the ruin of old age history that is meaningful for the Greek identity. Do you really appreciate the values and moral that you gained from the stories, or did you forget yourself along the way?

I couldn't have said it better! I agree to all that because that is exactly my sentiment as well! On one hand of course I am proud that Greek mythology contnues to inspire and people want to create stuff on them or that even now there are people who think the values of Greek Mythology are universal and they are!

But as you said it pains me to no limits when stories that were literally created from people based on their culture and religion to pass on messages are not only distorted beyond recognition but also to a degree where nowadays most people of Greek mythology liking spectrum know only how terrible villains some men are (in actual mythology they are complicated personas) and how weak women are (there are literlly figures in Greek mythology that are so strong personas that honestly I am shocked. See Helen for example how she is the most projected persona as a pretty face that does nothing when Helen literally taks back to Aphrodite, she is the only one who sees through Odysseus's disguise, she has knowledge of medicine and so much more for once) Mythology loses all its meaning, all its allegory and all its cultural spectrum because as you said people do not use it to retell the story, they use the word "retelling" as their excuse to just tell a story that fits them by using the popularity of greek mythology and yes as you said why cannot they say their original stories while using inspiration from Greek mythology?

Honestly I have nothing to add! You said it all dear Anon!