Sundry Sundays: Remember the Japanese Remake of SIDEWAYS?
…probably not. but SAIDOWEIZU is indeed a thing that exists.
i stumbled upon a knock-off DVD of this thing at my local JAS Mart about 2 years ago, and clearly had no choice but to drop $10 and own it forever sight unseen. it’s SIDEWAYS — practically beat for beat — but everyone is Japanese. it even takes place in Napa! and nobody is drinking any fucking merlot. i can’t remember what sort of spurious excuse they use to get the Giamatti stand-in over to the States, but the film starts with him at the airport and then just finds its way into Alexander Payne’s story, from there.
…except for the fact that it exchanges all of Payne’s character-driven comedy and resonant pathos for slapstick and Rinko Kikuchi, and half of that is a pretty raw deal. so yeah, this movie — directed by a guy named Cellin Gluck, who’s presumably not Japanese, but did do 2nd AD work on SURF NINJAS, so… yeah, he’s pretty qualified — is not so good, but the fact that it exists is kind of incredible. sorry the trailer above doesn’t have subs, but, um… their saying the script from Sideways.
