The entire point of remaking a movie – or at least it should be – is a confidence on the part of the studio and creative team that it’s got everything needed to improve upon the original. With that in mind, though, you’ve got to wonder why Sony has decided Chinese sensation Hi, Mom needed a do-over.
Of course, trying to figure out why the studio does the things that it does has proven to be a fool’s errand given its rampant mishandling of virtually every high-profile property at its disposal, but no matter how good the reinvention of the box office smash hit turns out to be, it’ll never match up to its predecessor.
For one thing, co-writer and director Jia Ling’s generational comedy hauled in a massive $850 million from home shores, which made it not only the second highest-grossing Chinese film in history at the time, but ensured Hi Mom streaked ahead of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman to become the top-earning feature ever helmed solo by a female director, a record it eventually lost when Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came along and utterly annihilated the existing benchmark.
It also landed some awards season recognition, too, and was enthusiastically greeted by critics in all corners of the world. The story of a grief-stricken daughter being transported 20 years back in time from 2001 to 1981 to befriend her mother decades before she was fatally injured in a car accident does have universal appeal, but why remake it if the original has already destroyed the box office and won widespread acclaim, especially when there’s no chance Sony’s version will fly anywhere near as high?