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Hollywood remakes that fared well
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ORIGINAL
INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 95 per cent
Box office: US$8.7 million
Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays an undercover cop and Andy Lau is the planted mole in the police force in this tense thriller directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, which was both critically acclaimed and a box-office hit.
REMAKE
THE DEPARTED (2006)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 91 per cent
Box office: US$290 million
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon take over the roles played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau respectively, and the film by Martin Scorsese won four Oscars, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
While the new version was well-reviewed, many feel the original still stands taller; articles such as 6 Reasons Why Infernal Affairs Is Better Than The Departed are circulating on the Internet.
One detail that was definitely superior in Infernal Affairs was the use of Morse code as a means of secret communication, instead of just plain SMSing. It is highly improbable that anyone could text a coherent message in secret and under stressful circumstances.
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ORIGINAL
RINGU (1998)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 97 per cent
Box office: 1 billion yen in Japan and HK$31.2 million in Hong Kong
The scene of long-haired Sadako climbing out of a TV set was like a nightmare brought to life in Hideo Nakata's seminal horror flick about a cursed videotape. It broke box-office records in Japan and Hong Kong and led to a number of Japanese sequels and remakes in English and Korean.
REMAKE
THE RING (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 71 per cent
Box office: US$249 million
Naomi Watts takes over from Nanako Matsushima as a journalist investigating the videotape's deadly curse. Newsweek said Gore Verbinski's "visually stunning movie serves up generous dollops of designer creepiness".
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ORIGINAL
GOJIRA (1954)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 83 per cent for the re-edited version, Godzilla, King Of The Monsters!, released in the United States in 1956
Box office: 152 million yen
This was the first film to feature the giant lizard Godzilla and it has been dubbed the granddaddy of all monster movies. Not just escapist entertainment, it reflected the anxieties of Japan after the atomic bombings at the end of World War II and at a time of nuclear testing in the Pacific.
REMAKE
GODZILLA (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 74 per cent
Box office: US$529 million
Not to be confused with Roland Emmerich's 1998 version which was universally panned, Gareth Edwards' take was largely well-received.
Salon.com called it "one of the most intriguing big-budget breakthrough films since Steven Spielberg made Jaws", the 1975 classic thriller film.