815 Shall we dance?

We went to the dollar theater tonight and saw Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez in Shall We Dance. The minute it started I whispered to my husband, "Didn't we just see the Japanese version of this?" Well, I think it was about 8 years ago, but it was a really charming movie.

"On his evening commute, bored accountant Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) always looks for the beautiful woman who gazes wistfully out the window of the Kishikawa School of Dancing. One night he gets off the train, walks into the studio, and signs up for a class. Soon Sugiyama is so engrossed in his dancing he practices his steps on the train platform and under his desk, and becomes good enough for competition, compelling his wife to hire a private investigator to find out why he stays out late and returns home smelling of perfume."

In those days of the late 90s our Friday night date restaurant was Gottlieb's down on Third Avenue, because I remember we went there after that movie. We don't see many movies, but we've closed a lot of restaurants in our day--and it was one of them. For the last five years we've been going to Old Bag of Nails, a sandwich/bar/deli near here, so that's where we went to meet our son for dinner after this movie. Not only was Richard Gere not a good fit for this movie (just doesn't strike me as an uptight business man deeply in love with his wife, the always ugly Susan Sarandon), but worse, they've changed the menu at "our" restaurant. More dinners, fewer salads and sandwiches. It will probably close soon. I read that the owner tried to get a liquor license to set up shop in Westerville, Ohio, the home of the WTCU and Driest city in the country.