Intercultural Film Adaptations in China, Japan and the U.S.

In this paper, I will critically examine the medium of film to film adaptations. Drawing on the pre-existing scholarship in translation, cultural and visual studies, I argue that clarifying a film adaptation term is required to distinguish it from the synonyms and other terms widely used within academia, film industries, and popular media. Furthermore, I argue that the success of intercultural adaptations in films is based on the research of the target audience’s cultural, historical, and sociological environment and preferences. The alterations of the source material may be implemented at any stage of production. However, in cases like China, the political evaluation of an adaptation has a dominant impact. At the same time, unscrupulous casting decisions, misunderstanding of history, and current political, historical contexts may result in the audience’s reception resistance, unsatisfactory box office results, and even overall failure of the film presentation.