Perhaps one of the most telling displays of a sense of western “identity” is the adaptation of internationally successful (but ultimately foreign) films. Whether motivated by capitalism or an inability to relate with characters outside of our own cultural context, a trend has risen in the remaking of eastern films for western audiences rather than importing the original. What transformations, however, are deemed necessary for the transition to western screens?

The most well-known examples of this process have been the recent string of horror films with Japanese predecessors. Films like The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water all achieved box office success in their new market. The Grudge, unlike The Ring and Dark Water, does not even attempt to make a break from its Japanese origin. Set in Tokyo, the film is directed by Takashi Shimizu and features a cast of both Americans and Japanese. The film is set within a house haunted by the vengeful ghosts of a slaughtered family. The original plot remains relatively intact, the only real difference being the physical western invasion in the form of American professors and exchange students.

The Ring and Dark Water take further steps towards “Westernisation”. Both films are located in American cities (The Ring is set in Seattle, Dark Water in New York) and headed by western directors (Gore Verbinski and Walter Salles). Despite these changes, the storylines and even emotional contexts remain unaffected – Dark Water in particular still follows the life of a woman caught in a bitter custody battle with her separated partner over their young daughter. Here, the difference between the Eastern and Western versions appears only to be a matter of location rather than any significant alterations in the values and motivations of the characters.

Yet the plots of the remakes themselves reveal both films to be adaptations. The Japanese have mastered an eeriness in their horror films that has yet to be rivalled by the American Slasher films. The Grudge, The Ring and Dark Water all feature the lone and terrifying ghost child – a deceivingly innocent figure that puts any character who tries to care for them in danger. The Grudge and Dark Water in particular feature a figure almost identical to their Japanese counterparts – a ghostly white woman with dark wet hair covering her eyes. The image is eerie, terrifying and oddly displaced. This element of the films – the true source of terror – is completely alien and unsettling (which no doubt adds to the fear the films arouse). Despite having been relocated to America, both The Ring and Dark Water follow suit with The Grudge in (at least indirectly) crediting Japan with alien and truly haunting plot elements.

Another example of the cultural fusion of East and West is Gurinder Chadha’s 2004 film Bride and Prejudice. Of an entirely different genre, Bride and Prejudice is a Bollywood adaptation of the very English Pride and Prejudice. The film is bright and light-hearted, alternatively mocking and celebrating the cultural clashes between the East (India) and the West (the U.K. and America). Though it shows a reverse of Westernisation – it reworks the renowned British novel thoroughly – it is still an extremely playful example of cultural identities compromising and coexisting within a film, which makes it appealing to new audiences.

Martin Scorsese’s 2007 gangster film The Departed is an even more unlikely addition to this category. Unlike the aforementioned horror films, The Departed is virtually unrecognisable as a remake. It does not, within the film, acknowledge any previous source, not even an Eastern one. The film is recognisable as a gangster film and as a Scorsese, but it is so quintessentially Western in its conflicts, character motivations and setting that it is almost inconceivable for the original plot to be based on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Irish-American culture is so pervasive in the film with the priests, the bagpipes, the pubs, and Jack Nicholson as the overlord of the Irish mafia offhandedly singing Irish limericks to himself throughout the film. Boston itself plays a crucial role, being such an essential active setting for the plot that it seems that the film and the West are inseparable. Even the bare framework of the story seems entirely interwoven in Western culture. But it directly follows the plot of Infernal Affairs with every plot shift and the same intertwining tension between undercover policemen and undercover criminals. Even the final showdown on the rooftop is identical. This story, however, seems out of place against the Hong Kong cinematic backdrop to a biased Western viewer. Though The Departed features Irish-American gangsters instead of their ubiquitous Italian-American counterparts, they display greed and gun-slinging as well as Deniro and Pacino had ever done.

It is shown here that what seems to be “Westernisation” is really a violent reclamation of a definitively Western genre. The film opens with footage of race riots in Boston to the soundtrack of the Rolling Stones, the band itself an emblem of Western rock and roll. From the start, the plot focuses on its social setting, portraying the tensions and conflicts within Boston culture, particularly the ongoing tension between the degenerate ‘Southies’ and affluent North Shore. Matt Damon, a crooked cop who rises quickly in the ranks (legal and illegal) through his connections, buys a flat with a stunning view of the Capitol building, a gaudy gold dome that symbolises at once both the American mantras of liberty and justice, along with sinister implications of the corrupt and power-hungry.

Within this fiercely Western production, a slight and somewhat double-edged homage is paid to its predecessor in the form of a standoff between Nicholson’s Irish gang and a Chinese triad society. However, the Chinese are mocked within this western context as foreigners and even as gangsters. Nicholson ridicules them for their ostentatious use of oversized automatic weapons, contrasting them with his subtle and practical handguns. The implication is that the Chinese are attempting to play the role of gangsters without actually grasping the real concept. After ridiculing his Chinese counterparts, Nicholson ultimately triumphs over them and the police by selling them fraudulent goods.

Even now, while we are willing to associate the East (in this case Japan) with the eerie and the alien, we are unable to entirely let go of “our” genres. Gangster films are one of the first entirely American creations in cinema, dating back to the 1932 version of Scarface. Along with Westerns they have become almost a sort of cliché, the generic “shoot ’em up”. But although gangster films generally portray a very un-Western hierarchy of power – usually ruled by a cruel dictator – we are fiercely proud of them. They are, for the most part, intelligent, with continuous plot twists and fascinating depictions of the criminal industry. Because of this pride, we are uncomfortable with other cultures adapting and even perfecting the genre – Infernal Affairs as a gangster film is almost too good not be a Western film, so it has been reacquired and completely Westernised.