Must See: Trailer for Japanese Remake of ‘Sideways’

The Japan Times story:

The new version, directed by Cellin Gluck from a script by Takayuki Uesugi, follows the outlines of this story, though the main location has changed from Santa Barbara to Napa Valley, on the grounds, as Gluck has explained in interviews, that the latter is more familiar to Japanese audiences.

This is pretty much the approach of the entire film, which rounds off the original’s rough (that is, interesting) edges, particularly Paul Giamatti’s prickly wine-snob writer, while re-engineering the story for Japanese tastes.

This makes box-office sense, since a direct translation of the original would jangle local sensibilities like merlot in a sake cup. Gluck’s “Sideways,” however, has a play-pretend quality, like the Japanese boomers who dud themselves up in cowboy gear to listen to Hank Williams tunes at a club in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. Not that there’s anything wrong with it — but you would never mistake it for the real thing, would you?

In the new film, Giamatti’s character, Miles, has become Michio (Fumiyo Kohinata), a scriptwriting teacher who has come to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of Daisuke (Katsuhisa Namase), a pal from his exchange- student days, now two decades in the past. Once the star of a popular kiddie show, “Captain Ninja,” Daisuke is now the manager of a restaurant owned by his American fiancee’s father. His rambunctious personality hasn’t changed, though, nor has his appetite for sexual fun and games.

But when Daisuke suggests a final bachelor debauch in Las Vegas, Michio counters with Napa Valley, a place dear to his oenophile heart. Then they learn that Mayuko (Kyoka Suzuki), an object of their unrequited love (Michio) and lust (Daisuke) in their student days, is working at a wine shop there — and it’s Napa or bust.

Read the whole thing.