[cstaylor]

More importantly, who will play Richard Gere's wife?

[gomichild]

For some reason I loved this movie...I just can't see it being "Hollywood-ized"...

[American Oyaji]

Yeah.

I loved this movie too. The DVD is on sale here in the states with subtitles.

GREAT GREAT GREAT movie.

I really don't want to see it put through the hollywood machine and all hashed up.

[Steve Bildermann]

[kotatsuneko]

i HAVE to see this cop movie... guys/gals. please see if you know the title!!! theres 4 or 5 rental shops near me!!

[American Oyaji]

Taro, you know this flick?

[Big Booger]

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/shall_we_dance.html

This VERSION is much better, at least what I can tell from that trailer...

Fred and Ginger did it first.. but still.. why remake what is a great Japanese film? I think the J film will be much better.

[AlbertSiegel]

[leathernick]

is gere even relevant these days? I agree that this is gonna be another j-rip, but at laest get another actor that is more younger.

[Mulboyne]

I know the instant reaction to a Hollywood remake is negative but the recent interest in Japan is a major boost to the Japanese film business.

As some other people have said in posts on this site, the Japanese film industry has no real idea how to make money and leaves a lot undone.

Take the case of "The Ring". We got the book, TV show, Film, sequel, prequel and success in Asia. So with all that cash coming in, the sale of remake rights was seen pretty much as a cherry on top. Then we get the remake and it takes around $230 million globally on a $45 million budget. Dwarfing the income from all the Japanese "Ring" formats.

No wonder Kadokawa wants some of this action - they are spending $100 million on a stake in Dreamworks.

http://www.adn.com/24hour/business/story/1322105p-8484130c.html

So I'm not upset if there is a remake of "Shall We Dance?". It is good news for the writer and production team. Even if it isn't as good as the original, don't forget that "The Magnificent Seven" was still a pretty decent film.

Actually, it is getting even better for remakes. The new version of "Ju-on" is due for release later this year; I think the premiere will be in Japan. Under the title "The Grudge", the production company decided to retain the original writer/director, Takashi Shimizu, and keep the Japan location. So we'll see Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman as expats in Japan.

"The Grudge" Link

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0391198/

We may also see A film of Robert Whiting's "Tokyo Underworld", Barry Eisler's "Rain" series, a live-action Lupin III and a version of Natsuo Kirino's "Out"

Unfortunately, the fall-out from "Last Samurai", "Lost in Translation" and "Kill Bill Vol. 1" is that we will probably have to put up with "Memoirs of a Geisha" on film.

"Memoirs of A Geisha Link"

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0397535/

I'm still puzzled how they intend to put this on.

(a) in Japanese with English subtitles? (unlikely, although Paul Schrader did that for "Mishima")
(b) American English accents? (apparently possible)
(c) In Japanese-accented English? Probable, but odd if the casting goes for the usual hodge-podge of Korean-Americans and Chinese-Americans. Also, at least "The Last Samurai" characters had a reason to be speaking in English since there was a key non-Japanese character. Bertolucci got around this problem in "The Last Emperor" with a foreign character/narrator.
Hollywood has tended to shy away from accented-English so we don't get Germans saying to each other "Ve haf to vait!" anymore. Although "Schindler's List"is a recent high profile exception.

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

ComingSoon.net: Gere and Sarandon on Shall We Dance?
In this remake of the Japanese romantic comedy, Gere plays lawyer John Clark, who realizes he's not fully happy with his life and his marriage to Sarandon, so he takes up ballroom dancing without telling her.
...Was it really necessary to do a remake? "Every piece of art is culturally based," Gere explained. "So if you just took it shot by shot and did the same movie in a new culture and a new language, it's guaranteed not to work. A script has to stand on its own based on its culture and the people and the story. This is a radically different story, if you look at emotionally what is going on from the Japanese film, although the plot is pretty much the same." Gere liked the original movie and saw a lot of possibilities with the new script. "We ended up doing a lot of work on the script to bring some themes out. The translation culturally from Japan to America was tricky, since the original was so based on cultural reticence of not being able to express physical expression. A man touching a woman is a very big deal there. Dance is a big deal."...more...

[dimwit]

Sounds like a movie I will never watch in a million years. Richard Gere would seem to be about the most horrible miscasting I could think of.
Has there ever been a Hollywood remake of a foreign film that was better than the original? They are famous for ruining French sex farces.

[American Oyaji]

Taro, we never got an answer from you as to the name of that flick above.

[Taro Toporific]

Shall We Dance?
Rolling Stone - Oct 14
Miscast, misguided and woefully misbegotten, this clumsy American remake of the deftly delicate 1996 sleeper hit from Japan is too blah to bludgeon. ...


Shall we dance?
Newsday, NY - Oct 14
...this version of "Shall We Dance?" tosses circumspection out of the window, milking every ounce of sentimentality, pathos and thrift-shop idiosyncrasy from the story line. Suo's movie was sentimental, but it never sat on your head, as this one does, like a lead weight with delusions of buoyancy ...

[Steve Bildermann]

I'll follow up and ask Chisato what that cop movie was called.

She has almost encyclopedic memory for actors and actress in movies.

She picks out the smallest bit player in a movie and can tell you just about every movie they have been in - it's unnerving.

[Steve Bildermann]

Ok - We found it. Masahiro Motoki from same troupe that did 'Shall we Dance"

Asobi no jikan wa owaranai

A serious-minded policeman plays the role of robber in a police training operation against bank robberies. He's so good his fellow policemen can't catch him. TV networks begin to broadcast the operation nationwide. TV audiences are amused and root for the runaway robber and police grows desperate to arrest him to save their face. However the robber remains at large...

This is a rare comedy gem I'm saving to pitch in Hollywood with Chisato in the leading lady role....Watch it and see who youn think the robber should be.

[gomichild]

Shall We Dance?
Rolling Stone - Oct 14
Miscast, misguided and woefully misbegotten, this clumsy American remake of the deftly delicate 1996 sleeper hit from Japan is too blah to bludgeon. ...


Shall we dance?
Newsday, NY - Oct 14
...this version of "Shall We Dance?" tosses circumspection out of the window, milking every ounce of sentimentality, pathos and thrift-shop idiosyncrasy from the story line. Suo's movie was sentimental, but it never sat on your head, as this one does, like a lead weight with delusions of buoyancy ...

Well no surprises there really.

[American Oyaji]

SWEET!!

Thanks Steve!

Thank your lovely wife as well!

[kotatsuneko]

cheers from me too! i hope amazon sell it!

[Taro Toporific]

"Shall We Dance Prime Minister Koizumi?"

Yahoo! News - Reuters, Tue Mar 29,12:16 AM ET

[Mulboyne]