Masayuki Suô’s beloved romantic comedy “Shall We Dance?” is lastly getting a correct U.S. launch. The 1996 characteristic stars Oscar nominee Kôji Yakusho in considered one of his breakout roles as a married accountant who turns into intoxicated by the world of aggressive ballroom dancing. Yakusho most lately led “Excellent Days.”
The official synopsis for “Shall We Dance?” reads: “Shohei Sugiyama (Yakusho) appears to have all of it — a high-paying job as an accountant, an attractive residence, a caring spouse and a doting daughter he loves dearly. Nonetheless, he feels one thing is lacking in his life. Sooner or later, whereas commuting on the practice, he spots an attractive girl staring wistfully out a window and finally decides to search out her. His search leads him head-first into the world of aggressive ballroom dancing.”
Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eri Watanabe, Yû Tokui, Hiromasa Taguchi, Reiko Kusamura, and Hideko Hara additionally star.
The Japanese movie was launched within the U.S. with out 18 minutes of its unique minimize. Author/director Suô informed IndieWire in 1997 that distributor Miramax suggested him that a world movie wouldn’t enchantment to American audiences if the runtime was too lengthy. “I used to be informed that subtitled international movies that take greater than two hours is a message to the viewers that they don’t have to return,” Suô stated on the time. “So in
order to suit into this requirement, we minimize it 18 minutes.” Whereas Suô cited that a number of the minimize scenes had been “repetitious,” additionally they had the “affect of Ozu [the] most.” The narration was additionally modified for the U.S. launch. The movie grossed practically $10 million stateside, and led to an English language remake starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez in 2004.
Now, Movie Motion is releasing a brand new 4K restoration of the unique, 136-minute movie, which is obtainable uncut for the primary time in North America. The restoration is 17 minutes longer than the Miramax model.
“Shall We Dance?” is produced by Shôji Masui and Yûji Ogata, with Kazuhiro Igarashi, Tetsuya Ikeda, Hiroyuki Katô, Shigeru Ohno, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, and Seiji Urushido govt producing.
As Suô beforehand informed IndieWire in 1997, he took ballroom dancing classes to jot down the movie, and later resolve learn how to movie the stage sequences. “The impression I had to start with was fairly completely different from once I had really danced,” he stated. “The viewers, sitting within the theater, usually are not dancing with the characters, so my problem was learn how to make them really feel as in the event that they had been. I considered some ways to shoot the dancing. We made a big disk, 2 meters in diameter, and put wheels with swivels on the underside and the assistants moved it round. That made all of the dance scenes very vigorous.”
“Shall We Dance?” premieres at Movie Discussion board Could 30 in NYC earlier than going large to extra markets from Movie Motion. Try the trailer under.