May 2014

Angela Mara Pcsi Araujo

INTL 2990-001: Study Abroad to Japan
ePortfolio Signature Assignment

o Watch a Japanese film Shall We Dance? (1996) directed by Masayuki Suo and its remake Shall
We Dance? (2004) directed by Peter Chelsom. Compare and contrast between the Japanese
original edition and the U.S. edition. Write down some cultural differences between Japan and the
U.S. based on your observation.
The Japanese are more rigid when performing the movements principally when dancing.
The U.S.A. people are more loud.
The U.S.A. individuals do many jokes and they take things or issues in a more relaxed style.
The purpose in the movie for the main character is the same in both versions; he falls in
love with the instructor of the ballroom dancing studio and does whatever he can to get her
attention and impress her.
The two friends of the principal character are not too rigid in the English version.
The Americans do the movements more fluently than the Japanese.
The American way is to adopt a more relaxed posture.
The Americans are not so shy like the Japanese when it comes to the way of acting or how
to act.
The Americans are direct in the way of talking, such is when they perform a wrong step
while dancing and the other classmate corrects him and they argue to each other. The Japanese, in
the other way, tends to keep following orders and respecting the superior without protests.
The Americans take everything as if it was a party and they make jokes out loud, however,
still, they follow the steps of the dancing as they have to be.
In the American version there are many guffaws, while the Japanese version is more silent
along or during the whole movie.
The Americans use a slang language consisting of informality and words considered
inappropriate, as well as corporal expressions when in the classes of dancing.
The way or style of being of the funny friend of the main character in the Japanese version
is distinct because the Japanese is more loud and expressive but maintaining the rigid style at
making movements. Which surprises me because, basing on my comparison studies, I would have
the notion that it is the opposite way.
The wife of the main character is not too quite in the American version and the couple
does not show to each other mutual formal respect, such is when they talk with a style of much
confidence. The Japanese couple, instead, almost does not have direct word with each other and
are mostly entirely quiet between them, as if each individual do their things and tasks respectively,
having mutual respect.
The Americans are more easy when it comes to handle certain issues, such as in the hiring
of the detectives to follow and spy the husband.
The American bathrooms are more ample and wide but more dark, while the Japanese are
too illuminated.
The American parties are louder and the people perform extravagant movements without
much shyness.
The American individuals smile more in the movie than the Japanese do.
Basically, the Americans does not have much that sense of respect or formality when it is
about talking, performing certain things, dancing in this case, and paying attention, they murmur
to each other.
The Japanese teacher is too rigid and serious. The American teacher keeps her seriousness
but she is not too rigid when moving.
The Americans talk while eating, like when the other dancing class teacher, the blonde
one, makes a mess with the sauce getting dirty the teachers coat. However, this does not means
that they do not care about making mistakes.
The student and the professor talk to each other; such is in their encounter in the night
when going out from the class or exiting it, with more confidence in their conversation in the
American version, but still, she indicates him alerting or warning him that she prefers not to have
personal contact with the students and she decided not to go to the Chinese place along with him
for any reason. In the other hand, the Japanese replies him directly, very firmly, and she does not
accepts much help from his student.
The Americans make more body expressions when having conversations with each others,
like when using the hands and the arms.
The Americans show themselves with clothing that does not cover much their bodies
when it comes to parties.
The Americans discuss and argument or reply to each other when in a discussion, such is
when the huge friend is sweating and the teacher tells him that he looks like he is not married, and
his classmate, the main character, defends him with replying back to the instructor. The Japanese
tend to not to respond back. The form of the teacher of expressing her guiltiness and saying
sorry in the scene is not so formal or with much sentiment of respect as it is in the Japanese
version.
The American does not cares when he is eating, an example is when the one that is in
charge of hiring detectives is talking eating his food with the woman of the main character in his
office.
However, both the Japanese and the Americans are very expressive when performing the
dance and the rumba.
The Americans are less shy when it comes to the way of expressing themselves.
The Americans adopt more relaxed postures such as when sitting and laying or reclining to
the seat.
During the movie, the Japanese are never shown eating and talking at the same time, like
when, as an example, the student and the instructor, in the American version, do when they go
walking through the street. And, they encounter themselves more frequently and talk to each
other with more confidence as if their affair is getting stronger every time.
The Americans recline on the objects and have touch with them without caring too much.
There is more illumination in the scenes in the Japanese version than in the American
version.
The Americans smile more.
Both in the way and accent of talking of the Americans, comparing to the Japanese, it is
more slang or informal and not too rigid or straight as in Japanese.
As I could listen, the narrator in Japanese is tacit, while in the American version, the main
character is the one who describes and narrates in specific scenes of the movie.
Both wives in the movies are flexible; however, the American is less rigid and shy than the
Japanese one.
Also, the Americans in the movie are shown driving modern automobiles, such as trucks
for example, and in the Japanese movie the persons are shown mostly walking and taking the
train.
The Americans make use of rude words.
However, it is important to note that the American version of the movie was released a
couple of years later, in 2004. This could have to be with the innovations that came later, such as
in new models of cars.
The Americans try to take things easily, this is as well demonstrated when one of the
actors scores a piece of garbage in the trash can in one of the scenes of the movie when they are
altogether.
I do not consider differences concerning to the aesthetic in the letters or handwriting, such
as in the advertisement that said Shall We Dance Mr Clark? placed in the window of the
ballroom dancing school and the letters written in both versions of the movie, in English and in
Japanese. Knowing already that the Japanese have been adapting through time to a Western style
and they do not care much about the beautifulness of the calligraphy seen in the letters, in this
particular case.
In both movies, the ends, from my point of view, are appealing to the audience.
The American couple kiss too passionately and it is demonstrated to the public, with this I
mean or refer to the spectators who are watching the film.
The American daughter does not has much involvement with her parents, the couple. The
Japanese daughter is more direct and firm when referring to join her parents.
It was easy for the timid friend of the main character to get a girlfriend in the American
version after all.
The Japanese film is named Shall We (Dansu)?, runtime 119 minutes. The
American film is named Shall We Dance?, runtime 1 hour 47 minutes.