By MARK SCHILLING

   正如好莱坞热衷于翻拍日本恐怖片，现在是动画片（《Speed Racer》是最近的一部，但不会是最后一部），日本电影圈则不断翻拍黑泽明的经典。去年的《椿三十郎》是森田芳光对1962原版的亦步亦趋的消遣，然而织田裕二对三船敏郎扮演的狡黠、邋遢的浪人作了更为轻浮的演绎。
   现在我们又看到了《暗堡里的三恶人：最后的公主》（或译《战国英豪：最后的公主》）的翻拍，黑泽明1958年的版本是乔治·卢卡斯《星球大战》的一个灵感来源。然而，新版采用了另一种致敬形式，导演通口真嗣和编剧中岛一树(Kazuki Nakajima)的版本是一个过份的重拍，它似乎是有意激怒热爱黑泽明的传统主义者影迷。
  我倒没有恼怒到拂袖而去。原版拍出半个世纪之后，现在25岁以下的大多数影迷甚少知道黑泽明的名字，遑论他的电影。如果通口这部明星云集、以动作作包装、以CG技术为驱动的版本能够推动他们中的一些人尝试进入黑泽明的世界的话，那我们要祝其一帆风顺了。
   我将以整篇的篇幅详细探讨新版如何偏离了原版本，但最重要的变化是岚乐队的松本润（松本也是炙手可热的电视剧明星）扮演的角色武藏。
   在黑泽明的版本里，秋月部落被山名部落打败后，其公主和将军以及随从隐藏在一个暗堡里。两个鸡手鸭脚的农民偶然发现部落的财宝--公主和将军护卫的金色子--他们提出为公主及将军逃到另一部落的领土带路，条件是获得藏在柴堆下的黄金。
   这也是新版的基本设定，不过片中年轻热血矿工武藏取代了原来的一位农民。（他的同伴又七[宫川大助]，仍然是原版那种毛手毛脚的模式）他在片中成了占中心地位的、他的前辈不可能如此演绎的充满罗曼蒂克气质的角色。
  武藏谋划运送秋月部落的金子穿过山名部落的领土--也就是敌人的领土--到秋月部落的联盟部落早川部落的领土上去。这个计划是绕道走而避开早川和山名之间的边界上的一万名山名军人（类似于从意大利绕道瑞士进入法国）。样貌憔悴的秋月将军真壁六郎太（阿部宽）同意了这个计划，只要他的哑巴弟弟（由雪姬公主假扮，长泽雅美饰公主）认为没问题就行。
   四人很快就启程出发，冷静的山名疤脸将军鹰山刑部（椎名桔平）发现他们藏身的暗堡，杀死了所有的守卫。他很快发现公主和将军已经逃走，因此和其手下展开搜查。与此同时，雪姬要说服一个对她的身份加以怀疑的山名边界守卫（高岛政宏）她真的是男人。
   在黑泽明的版本中，上原美佐扮演的公主，是一个争强好胜且又傲慢的人物，在新版长泽雅美的演绎中，她的性格大部分也保留了下来。对于那些只知道长泽雅美在镜头前甜美的青春偶像身份的粉丝而言，看到她在片中的变化一定会大表惊异。对于那些经常阅读街头小报、了解明星与镜头中形象大相径庭行为的读者，看到她在片中大发雷霆，一定会会心而笑。无论如何，她都比我想象的演得好，尽管剧情需要她展现脆弱的一面，这按照好莱坞动作片中的女人标准来看，很显然不是那么自信。
  通口以特效师的身份成名，参与的电影包括“哥斯拉”和“加美拉（Gamera）”系列，在成为导演前，曾为包括潜艇动作电影“Lorelei”(2005)以及卖座的灾难片《日本沉没》设计特效。因此，《暗堡三恶人》中的CG奇观，例如山名部落险恶要塞的第一个场景，非常吸引眼球。然而，整个故事，特别是雪姬和武藏之间慢慢萌生的罗曼史，却是为了经过票房算计而设的把戏。
  不过通口对原版的崇拜贯穿全片，例如对武藏所属的山上的村民们在篝火前围成一圈跳舞进行庆祝以及对他们苟活于战争的描绘，无不表现了这一点。他们的活力使人联想起了《七武士》终场农民插秧的场景。在这个场景中，黑泽明对于农民的忍耐精神，也作了类似的描绘。
  然而黑泽明拍《暗堡三恶人》的主要目的是娱乐--通口的版本则与此不同。不过黑泽明厌恶陈词滥调，然而通口却大力欢迎，包括动作电影类型中最大的一个滥调--大规模的充满破坏力的爆炸场景。如果黑泽明仍在生看了通口的版本，向以发脾气闻名的他会不会暴跳如雷呢？无从知晓，然而大师的坟头上冒出的呼呼怒气我们似乎听得到。

It's futile to challenge Kurosawa and Mifune
By MARK SCHILLING

Just as Hollywood loves to remake J-Horror and, now, anime ("Speed Racer" being the latest, but unlikely to be the last), the Japanese film industry has taken to remaking classics by Akira Kurosawa. Last year's "Tsubaki Sanjuro" was Yoshimitsu Morita's shot-by-shot recreation of the 1962 original, though Yuji Oda gave a lighter spin to the role of the canny, hygienically challenged ronin (masterless samurai) played by Toshiro Mifune.
  

Now we have "Kakushi Toride no San Akunin: The Last Princess," which is based on the 1958 Kurosawa film known internationally as "The Hidden Fortress" that was an inspiration for George Lucas's "Star Wars." Instead of another homage, however, director Shinji Higuchi and scriptwriter Kazuki Nakajima have delivered a radical reworking that is likely to outrage Kurosawa-loving traditionalists.

I am less outraged than resigned. Half a century after the original film came out, many under-25 filmgoers barely know the Kurosawa name, let alone the films. If Higuchi's star-studded, action-packed, CG-driven version can persuade some of them to check out the Kurosawa section at Tsutaya, more power to it.

I could spend this entire review detailing how the new film departs from the old one, but the most important change is the character of Takezo, played by Jun Matsumoto of the boy band Arashi (Matsumoto also has a thriving career as a TV drama star).

In the Kurosawa film, a princess and general of the Akizuki Clan are holed up with their fellow clansmen in a hidden fortress after a disastrous defeat in a war with the rival Yamana Clan. Two bumbling peasants stumble upon the clan's treasury — gold that the princess and general are safeguarding — and offer to guide them to the territory of an allied clan, in exchange for a share of the yellow stuff, which is cleverly hidden in sticks.

This is also the basic set-up of the new film, but Takezo, a hot-blooded young miner, has taken the place of one of the peasants. (His traveling companion, Shinhachi [Daisuke Miyagawa], is played in the old bumbling mold.) He has a central, romantic role in the story in a way his predecessor certainly did not.

Takezo hatches a plan to transport the clan's gold through the Yamana domain — that is, enemy territory — to the lands of the Hayakawa Clan, an Akizuki ally. The idea is to evade the 10,000 Yamana soldiers guarding the border between the Hayakawa and Akizuki domains by going around them. (Think of traveling from Italy to France by way of Switzerland.) The gaunt-looking Akizuki general, Makabe Rokurota (Hiroshi Abe), agrees, as long as his mute younger brother (Princess Yuki in disguise, played by Masami Nagasawa) can go along.

Soon after the doughty foursome departs, the cold-eyed, scar-faced Takayama Kyobu (Kipei Shiina), a Yamana general, finds the hidden fortress and kills all its defenders. He soon figures out that the princess and general are missing and he and his men set out in hot pursuit. Meanwhile Yuki has to persuade a skeptical Yamana barrier guard (Hiroshi Takashima) that she is really a guy.

The princess in Kurosawa's film, played by Misa Uehara, was a feisty, imperious type and so, mostly, is Nagasawa in the new version. Fans who know Nagasawa only as a smiling teen idol on camera may be surprised at this transformation. Readers of the tabloid weeklies, which have detailed her difficult behavior off camera, may nod in recognition as she rages about. In any case, she's more convincing than I would have thought possible, though the plot requires her to display weaknesses that, by Hollywood action woman standards, are definitely uncool.

Higuchi made his name as an effects whiz, including work on the "Godzilla" and "Gamera" series, before turning to directing with the submarine action flick "Lorelei" (2005) and the hit disaster pic "Nihon Chinbotsu (The Sinking of Japan)." Accordingly, the CG marvels of "Kakushi Toride," such as the first shot of the forbidding-looking Yamana stronghold, are eye-catching enough. The story, however, particularly the budding romance between Yuki and Takezo, has the tinny ring of box-office calculation.

Higuchi's admiration for the original shines through, though, as when the mountain villagers, of whom Takezo is one, dance in wild abandon around a bonfire to a celebrate a festival — and their survival in the war. Their energy recalls the final rice-planting scene of "Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai)," in which Kurosawa made a similar point about peasant endurance.

Kuorsawa's main aim in "Kakushi Toride," however, was entertainment — and Higuchi's is no different. But Kurosawa hated cliches, while Higuchi embraces them, including the biggest of all in the action genre — massive, apocalyptic explosions. Would Kurosawa's famous temper blow if he could see Higuchi's version? No way of knowing now — though the sound of whirring can be heard above the master's grave.