Transnational Remaking in East Asia: The Matters of Context of “12 Angry Men” (1957) and its Asian Remakes

Globalization has enabled a dramatic increase in transnational film productions, including remakes. The film industries continuously exploit the revision of previously established franchises, genres, and ideas. Remakes and adaptations are two forms of such repetition. However, despite the contemporary developments in adaptation and film studies over transnational cinemas, scholars have neglected to build systematic tools to analyze cultural and contextual adjustments in film remakes and the influence of their application on the potential audience.

This dissertation combines the preexisting scholarship, filmmakers’ insight, and film analysis. The research offers a new theoretical framework identifying “contextual remakes” as a subcategory of remakes among “film multiplicities” (e.g., reboots, adaptations, sequels). The close analysis of several transnational remakes will reveal core features of cultural and contextual re-making specifics necessary to address new cultural and social backgrounds. The dissertation will primarily concentrate on the East Asian film industries which showed stable growth, reflect original film elements, exist in a paradigm of a growing flow of ideas and retain their individuality.

The research cannot ignore recent economic and political events which highlight the signs of deglobalization processes which further elevate the importance of understanding the local cultural, social and economic developments and related topics, especially in the countries of East Asia. Some of them may be considered sensitive and may fall under the scope by the regulatory authorities. Film industries are not excluded from this scrutiny which limits their creativity. Such creative constraints take shape into state regulations and self-censorship. The latter signifies the crucial production steps where production and release risks are evaluated.