Shall We Dansu?

[Lori Hitchcock]

Thanks for your message; as I mentioned in my response to the previous 
email (which I sent privately), what I've read about such cuts by the
distributor seems to also indicate that they have been made largely in the
interests of time.  Also, I really have no idea about the cuts made to
"Shall We Dance"; but in the case of the Chinese films - in particular
FTMC - the cuts affected the way the films can be understood/appreciated
significantly (most notably in the removal of an entire sequence from
the end of the film).  Interestingly, the Japanese version of FTMC is a
full minute longer than the "authentic" Hong Kong/Taiwan version, and the
difference of a few more seconds running time in a couple of scenes also
affects the understanding of character development and motivation in
intriguing ways.                                                         

What I found to be of more interest in terms of the distribution 
of "Shall We Dance" in the US, and, in particular, on videotape, is the
almost complete obfuscation of the film's Japanese origins.  The video
packaging shows only the legs of a man and a woman on the
front, and has a very generic description of the film on the 
back (with smallish stills).  The only indications of its Japanese origins
are in the credit listing (in those high/thin letters used in film
advertisements) and tiny yellow (?) letters at the bottom of the back
reading "In Japanese with English subtitles."  This seemed also to be
an attempt at reaching a wider, more "general" audience for the film than
has been the case with other Japanese films distributed in the US.

(One last bit of video packaging trivia - I believe the US packaging for
"Himatsuri" (Kino Video) features a still from Chen Kaige's "King of the
Children" on the back cover).

Sorry for all this rambling!

Lori Hitchcock

On Sat, 13 Feb 1999, Sarah Frederick wrote:

> Unfortunately I can't find the old messages, but I believe there was a
> discussion of this about a year and a half ago on this list. I have only
> seen the Japanese version, but from what I remember of that discussion the
> cuts were made becasue of the the American distributor's requests to keep
> it under two hours.  I recall that the scenes where the main character is
> riding the train, looking up at the dance studio and trying to decide
> whether or not to start taking lessons are cut significantly.
> Maybe someone has those old messages?
> 
> >>In the case of the Chinese films,
> >>the distributor appears to be rather actively reframing the film for what
> >>they perceive to be a non-Asia literate, "general" audience
> >
> >Lori, could you go into specific detail over what was cut out of these
> >films? I know it's not really a KineJapan-related topic, so email me
> >privately if you think so. And are these cuts the same in the UK version?
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> *********************************
> Sarah Frederick
> 5211 S. Greenwood, Apt. 1
> Chicago, IL 60615 USA
> Tel/Fax 1-773-667-4007
> e-mail: s-frederick at uchicago.edu
> 
>