This was a great idea for an updated Americanized version, but it really irks me that, at least in the writing credits listed on IMDb and all of the reviews I've read of this film in print and blog media, no one mentions that this is an uncredited updating and remake/rethink of Kazuo Koike's LONE WOLF AND CUB series (manga and movies and TV show from the 60s/70s). I know it was commonly acknowledged that that's what Collins' graphic novel was based on. But here in the movie credits - nothing (unless I'm seriously missing something). It is so obvious to anyone who has seen this film as well as the LONE WOLF pix. Hanks is Itto Ogami, his son is Ogami's son Daigoro and Newman is Lord Yagyu. I hate sh*t like this where there is no credit mentioned. Like Collins and his partner Rayner and screenwriter Self and director Mendes just came up with this idea totally out of thin air. It seems likely Fox must have come to some kind of financial agreement with Toho, Katsu Productions and Koike about the film because, to me anyway, the similarities really are enough to be actionable in a legal arena. It's an even more blatant copy and much more obvious than when Kurosawa adapted (also uncredited) Dashiell Hammett's RED HARVEST to samurai times in YOJIMBO.
Review of Road to Perdition
