John Wick director wants to make Ghost of Tsushima movie in Japanese

Chad Stahelski (the John WickSony assigns director to turn hit samurai video Ghost of TsushimaHe said that he would like to film the movie in Japanese with Japanese actors. And he noted that Sony is “on board” with the move.

Collider interviewed Stahelski to discuss the Netflix release. Day ShiftHe also produced.

“So, I think if we did this right, it would be visually stunning,” Stahelski said. “It’s character driven. It’s got an opportunity for great action, great looks. And honestly, we’d to try to do it, all in character. Meaning, it’s a Japanese thing about the Mongols invading Tsushima island. Complete Japanese cast in Japanese. Sony has backed us so strongly. 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.”

This is an incredibly bold move. Although Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite and Netflix’s Squid Game have shown that audiences’ willingness to watch subtitled films and TV is growing in the U.S. and elsewhere, it would still be new — and financially risky — territory for a Hollywood-made action blockbuster to be filmed in anything other than the English language.

Stahelski admitted this, and suggested that the film’s budget would be limited. However, he said that he is happy to compromise.

“No one is going to give me $200 million to do a technology-push movie without speaking English. I get it,” he said. “So, I have to be clever and I have to figure out what’s fiduciarily responsible to the property, to the studio and still get what I want out of it and still make it something epic. […] And I think America in general, or at least the Western audiences in general are getting more and more used to that because of the influence of Netflix and streamers and stuff, where we get so much more of world content.”

One angle is that this seems like a big gamble for Stahelski (Sony Pictures) and PlayStation Productions (the arm of the company that converts PlayStation games into movies, which, following the success of The Last Jedi, has also been successful). Uncharted Movie, Also has a Gran Turismo Film to be released in 2023 It is, however, the best option for them. The times have changed considerably since 2003’s film. The Last SamuraiTom Cruise starred in the movie, titled “The Movie.” What is the Making of? Ghost of Tsushima If a film is shot in English with Western actors it will likely be charged with inauthenticity and cultural appropriation.

Some of the criticisms levelled at the game were indeed aimed at it, although they were made to deference the classic samurai films of Akira Kurosawa by an majority of white employees in the Bellevue offices of Sucker Punch Productions. Ghost of Tsushima has both English and Japanese language audio tracks available, as well as a black-and-white “Kurosawa Mode.” But it is fair to say that the game shows only a surface understanding of the cultural and political significance of samurai.

How deeply to explore these themes in a movie with “great action, great looks” is a question the Massachusetts-born Stahelski — who says Kurosawa is “in the top five biggest influences of my life as far as film goes” — There will be many challenges. But in committing to making the film in Japanese, he’s cleared the first hurdle.