Response Journal entry #6: Cultural Practices

The movie “Shall we dance” in both versions are a reflection of everyday life with certain humor about a men who apparently has everything, however, there is something missing in his life.

In the Japanese version was interesting to see the contrast of the oriental culture when the main character tries to adapt himself in different traditions that are not common mainly, breaking the strong traditional mentality of a business oriental man with exotics dancing adopting cultural events outside their own traditions, those kind of activities are the opposite of what a Japanese is used to do. Practicing this kind of dancing in Japan is not that common, however, it tries to consider (actually in both versions) that a successful man but with a plain life feels a void and wants to get something for him, discovering the pleasure of dancing.

In the American version, we as viewers watch more psychological acts regarding couple’s relationship, fidelity, frustrations, etc. This film, tries to put out little details about how hard it can get something we dream but we think is impossible to put into practice because of our fears , lack of talent or personal insatisfaction. However, in this American movie the different scenarios are more endearing; the person act with tenderness and on the other hand in the Japanese version, how the people act is static (the way they treat to each other). There is a very good example: when the main character’s wife, hired somebody to follow him. In the Japanese version, hardly appears. Suddenly we see the detective saying that her husband smells like perfume. But in the U.S movie is more complex, first we see their daughter saying her father is very happy lately, and then we see Susan Sarandon (the wife’s character) in her work, cheering a fellow worker up who believes her husband has an affair. Because of that personal situation with her coworkers, she starts having some doubts about her husband´s behavior, having a more interesting complex and complete situation.

The message in both versions at the end is not that different. Is that even the most successful men, who has “everything in life” is not happy. We see through the entire film the different dreams that are sometimes difficult to implement because of our own fear to failure.