Eighteen Springs
vs
Shall We Dance(1996)
Eighteen SpringsThis is the fairly simple story of a man and a woman who work together. They fall in love, but he doesn’t act soon enough, and things happen. Problems arise, people say the wrong thing, and the romance never reaches the conclusion it perhaps should. It’s a melodrama, but, for the most part, it manages not to fall into the traps of the soap opera.
And that’s one of the best things about it. It plays out, especially in the first half, so, so subtly, and that’s really beautiful. The development of these relationships between the characters is slow and careful, and it paints a picture of love lost.
Except I never felt I was watching a film I hadn’t seen before. And that was a problem for me. This is a story that’s been told before in another film (
Written on the Wind, maybe?) and nothing new is really added.
There’s also problems when the melodrama goes over the top. It’s mostly in the scenes with the sister, and when it happens, it goes way, way, way over the top, and its not fun or interesting to watch.
The second half is too long as a rule also, and it’s full of the stuff I mentioned above, the stuff with the sister. This is kinda long. I mean, it’s only just over two hours long, but it could easily lose twenty minutes or so, and would be a far better film. The tone changes also really make it drag.
It has problems with the timeline, and the setting. It’s set in China, in Shanghai and Nanking, I believe, but there’s nothing specific to these places and the culture presented that cement these stories. It would have to be set around 30 years earlier, but it could be set as easily in England or America and nothing major about it would have to be changed. I don’t know if that’s a terrible thing, but it doesn’t feel good.
As for the timeline, well, it starts in the winter of 1933. At the end, we’re told it’s 14 years later, and the only indication we really have of this is the aging of child characters. There’s a few more, I suppose (we do see summer once) and the characters have aged a little by the end, but there’s major stuff missing. LIKE WORLD WAR II. I mean, really. It’s probably the single biggest problem I have with the film.
I make it sound worse than it is. It is a nice, relatively entertaining piece of populist film. But it’s just not that good either. And the problems are kinda major. It also doesn’t seem to have any real heft. There doesn’t seem to be any overriding themes or messages, and while I don’t know if I really need any, it’s kinda disappointing.
Shall We DanceIn an attempt at full disclosure, I will reveal that yes, I have seen the US remake with Richard Gere and J-Lo. I think it was on TV. And I remember it being relatively entertaining, at the least.
Like
Eighteen Springs, this is populist entertainment. It’s not setting out to be great art, or change the world, or anything like that. It’s shot and edited pretty conventionally. But it is very entertaining. Really, I had a lot of fun with this. Yeah, it’s a very simple film, about a man and a woman who connect, not in a romantic way, despite initial expectations, and help each other reconnect with their lives.
It’s simple, and it’s really effective.
I don’t think I stopped smiling once during this. It’s just that fun, that nice, that simple and effective. The story develops simply and well, as do the characters, and the actors have really great chemistry, which isn’t obvious at first, but develops with a really slow burn and becomes obvious when it needs to.
There’s also something that works better with this film in terms of the cultural problems related to dancing. An opening voice over explains how dancing is basically shunned in Japan. We then see a middle class, white collar, respectable man being drawn into this world that is on the cultural outside. There’s something compelling in that, and it makes more sense than it does in the US version, where we never quite understand why he’s so uptight about the dancing.
VerdictThis turned out to be a really well matched couple. The ideas are sorta the same between the two, and the intentions. But really, it should be obvious where I stand on this one. It’s a simple film, and I really don’t expect it to go to the end, but
Shall We Dance is a fine film, and deserves a spot in the second round.