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jon_shimamoto
Reviews
Shall we dansu? (1996)
Definitely a must see...
Okay. As you can see this is one of my favorite if not favorite films. This is a character drama which is absolutely hilarious. The main character is a business man who is stuck in a "same thing, different day" mentality. He sees a woman looking melancholy out a window of a dance studio from his train everyday and wonders about her and decides to find out more about her. He decides to join the dance class only to find out she is not the instructor. From there he bonds with four other dancers and learns to enjoy dancing as well as finding out about the mysterious woman.
There is no gratuitous (or any) sex involved, just how a small group of people learn how friendships are formed and developed.
This film was remade with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez and the new one while appealing is nowhere as enjoyable as the original. The movie never made it big in America because it was not eligible for the Oscars since it was broadcast on television in Japan (movies cannot be released on TV or they are disqualified for Oscar nominations). It did win numerous awards in Japan for best film, cast, director etc for their "Oscar" awards.
Shall We Dance? (2004)
The original was better... still an okay chick flick...
Most of you already know that this movie is based on Masayuki Suo's 1996 Japanese "Shall We Dansu?". Most of the lines from the original film was used in this remake but somehow does not come across as well. The characters in the Japanese version were better developed and a lot funnier.
Richard Gere was adequate but J.Lo's performance seemed distant. Stanley Tucci's character was okay and the rest of the cast was adequate.
Still, it appeared most of the audience in my viewing enjoyed the movie but I think if they were to watch the original it would have been a lot funnier to them. Amazingly, the Japanese version is still NOT available on DVD, only VHS, especially since it won numerous awards in the Japanese "Oscars" that year. A bit of trivia, the film apparently was not eligible for any Oscar nominations for foreign film in the U.S. since it was aired on television in Japan before the Oscars. Oscars disqualify any film once it is shown on television.