Movies - Shall We Dance

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	Movies - Shall We Dance

Shall We Dance? is the fully-Anglicized title of Shall We Dansu? (also known as Dansu wo Shimashou ka), a 1996 Japanese film directed by Masayuki Suo. The movie was extremely popular in Japan upon its release, and it won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture for that year. It subsequently performed strongly in American art-house theaters when it opened there in 1997. For a time, it was the top-grossing foreign movie in American cinema history.

The American cut of the film differs from the Japanese version in several ways. First, its running time is 118 minutes, vs. the Japanese film's 136 minutes; the director cut twenty-six scenes from the film after market research screenings found that many people in the audience felt the movie was too long or dragged in spots. Second, the voiceover narration at the beginning is different; the American version explains that ballroom dancing is considered shameful or embarrassing by some Japanese.

The critical and commercial success of the American cut inspired a 2004 Hollywood remake, which proved less successful among critics, but which earned about $170 million worldwide (including about $57 million in the U.S., compared to the original's roughly $9.4 million earnings there in much narrower release).

Plot

A successful but unhappy accountant begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons because he feels an attraction toward the dance instructor. The instructor quickly sees through him, but Sugiyama stubbornly continues the lessons, and eventually dancing reignites the missing passion in his life and among his family.

Cast

Koji Yakusho
as Shohei Sugiyama
Tamiyo Kusakari as Mai Kishikawa
Naoto Takenaka as Tomio Aoki
Eriko Watanabe as Toyoko Takahashi
Yu Tokui as Tokichi Hattori
Hiromasa Taguchi as Masahiro Tanaka
Reiko Kusamura as Tamako Tamura
Hideko Hara as Masako Sugiyama
Hiroshi Miyasaka as Macho
Kunihiko Ida as Teiji Kaneko
Amie Toujou as Hisako Honda
Ayano Nakamura as Chikage Sugiyama
Katsunari Mineno as Keiri-kachô
Tomiko Ishii as Haruko Haraguchi
Maki Kawamura as Eiko Miyoshi
Takako Matsuzaka as Fusako Fukube
Kôichi Ueda as Torakichi Kumada

The Remake

In the 2004 remake of "Shall We Dansu?" most of the original characters are well preserved, despite small changes.

The character Shohei Sugiyama becomes John Clark. He now is a lawyer. The biggest change is that his reason for not telling his wife about taking dance classes is his attraction to Paulina. In Japan, ballroom dance is scandalous; in America, many wives would be impressed if their husbands took dance lessons. It is because of the cultural differences that the character John Clark, and the whole movie, doesn't hold the same weight as the original.
The character Mai Kishikawa is retold as Paulina. One difference between the two is the fact that Mai's father owns the Kishikawa school while Paulina's father works in a dry-cleaning spot.
Tomio Aoki is now Link Peterson. This character has the best excuse for covering his dancing: he's a sports tough guy and being a dancer would make every one think tights instead of footballs.
Lisa Ann Walter breathes life and attitude back into Toyoko Takahashi but as Bobbie. She's still loud and rude and hasn't changed a bit.
The character Tokichi Hattori is replaced with a closet homosexual by the name of Chic. One thing hasn't changed, he still acts as if he knows everything and is still annoying.
Masahiro Tanaka is now Vern and he's still in it for exercise.
Tamako Tamura becomes Miss Mitzi. In the remake, she owns the school and is an alcoholic (possibly to provide comic relief).
Masako Sugiyama is Beverly Clark. She has more screen time and we see that she is not a stay-at-home mom but a part of the work force. (In the original, Masako Sugiyama was not a stay-at-home mom either, but in the US release of the film, the scenes with her working were cut out).
Chikage Sugiyama has not changed but now she has a brother.

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