MovieChat Forums > Shall We Dance? (2004) Discussion > The three versions....

The three versions....

posted 9 years ago by ranb40
3 replies | jump to latest

Shall We Dance? (1996) 136 minutes
Shall We Dance? (1996) Mirimax version 119 minutes
Shall We Dance (2004) 106 minutes.

The original unedited version had much more back story for Mai. More about her motivation to dance as a child and how selfish and bitter she was as an adult. The greatly cut down Mirimax version of the original removed most of Mia's flaws and made her a one dimensional character for the most part; which made the Paulina character of the remake rather uninteresting also. The 2004 version also lacks details on the lives of the other characters and removes most of the humor in Stanley Tucci's role as Link. Bobbie's character suffered as well.

The American version was not bad, but not good enough to watch for more than the wonderful two and a quarter hours of the original. If the American producers wanted to copy the original, they should have used the unedited version instead.

Ranb

[–] DamianGein 9 years ago

I loved the Japanese version but this was a good remake IMO

Esta es mi firma

[–] Noufa 8 years ago

Nailed it. I recommended this movie to a lot of people back in the states. Thought for sure they'd like it. None did.

I appreciate those who defend the American version. The cultural difference between America & Japan is overplayed. Both are post-industrial, highly literate nations. We wrestle with the same paradox of modern life: an abundance of chances to connect with others made possible by an ethic of fierce individualism.

But there's a reason the Japanese version inspired an American remake. Mai was magnetic despite being stand-offish. She was interesting. Paulina, OTOH, came off bitchy. In turn, John seems like he just wanted to screw her. Not that there's anything wrong with bitchiness or wanting to screw. There was more to the original than that. Mai's character was the key.

[–] spookyrat1 7 years ago

Paulina, OTOH, came off bitchy.

I haven't seen the original version and whilst I quite like the American version I feel it does have its faults. However one of them is not Pauline. I found her character the most interesting and wish she had had more screen time, with less devoted to the plethora of somewhat stereotypical supporting characters. I found her mesmerisingly enigmatic and certainly not bitchy and could easily understand how John's character is attracted to her.🐭