Van's Antigone Asian movie adaptation

Antigone is based on Greek culture but now it is to be adapted into Asian culture for another Asian movie version. The country within Asia I choose is Vietnam. The cultural aspects of Vietnam are influenced by the Chinese culture a lot due to the 1000 years of Chinese invasion. Therefore, the adaptation is to be likely a mixture of both Chinese and Vietnamese which the Vietnamese audience might find it quite different.

The king is considered to be the son of God, the ‘Sun’ in Vietnamese and Chinese culture which shows that the importance of the king is as a god.  Therefore, there are no other characters to have raised voices while talking to the king. The costume is all yellow, not necessarily with a crown though. The chair and background would be in golden colour because gold shows wealth within the tradition, thus the king is associated with gold. His stance would always have his two hands crossed at the back with two legs apart as shoulders as though he is a very stable man to increase the appearance of a reliability king. His speeches will be more of conversational rather than the original script and what contradicts himself would also be the speech with hasty decisions and the use of words that lower other people around him. This shows his emptiness inside so there is only appearance that he cares for. The religion is mainly Buddhism but the mention of God would not affect a king’s decision. The people around him would have to address him as “dear King” before any speeches or information allowed due to tradition of absolute power of the king. For example, the sentry is not allowed to talk about his background in front of the king but only to inform what the bad news is. It depends on the king to make the decisions so the sentry speech only involves the problem. The punishment for Polynices would not be left unburied but hanging him in front of public to remind citizens the prices needed to pay for going against the king. This is extreme humiliation for Polynices.

There would be no chorus but just rumours spreading around the citizens through conversation because there are no representation of normal citizens within the political system.

Antigone and Ismene would have gone to solve the problem of their brother rather than just Antigone because the bond between biological sisters is really strong even though Ismene is a weak person.  This is because the king is able to have many wives in the society so the most treasured siblings are blood-related. The costumes for both of them would be in bright colours and with many patterns on them. They will have to wear small shoes due to the tradition of: the smaller the feet, the prettier it is. They are never to be allowed to raise their voices if talking to the king. Their punishment would be cutting off their heads instead of locking in the cage, which is a traditional punishment for severe crime in China. They have to act as feminine as possible.

All the characters would speak in a Middle Region of Vietnam’s dialect because this is where the king system really ever started in Vietnam. The dialect sounds very elegant and smoothing which suits how the king system should work.

There are many aspects to be considered within a production. However, if Antigone is made in an Asian version, it would be very different to the original Antigone.