Shall We Dance? Movie Review 1996

A timid Japanese businessman (Yakusyo) is lured to ballroom dancing when he glimpses a beautiful, sad-eyed teacher (Kusakari) through a window. As much commentary on controlled Japanese society as a spirited discovery of learning to live and dance. Well-drawn, quirky characters and good humor amid the observant social commentary should put this one at the top of the anyone's foreign film dance card. In Japanese with subtitles.

Distribution

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-1120, Toll-free: 800-723-4763, URL: http://www.bvhe.com

Available on VHS
Running time 118 minutes.
Originally from Japanese.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Dance Fever, Japan

Screenplay

Masayuki Suo

Cast

Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Akira (Tsukamoto) Emoto, Eriko Watanabe, Yu Tokui, Hiromasa Taguchi, Reiko Kusamura

Cinematography

Naoke Kayano

Director

Masayuki Suo

Music

Yoshikazu Suo

Producer

Miramax Films

Awards

Natl. Bd. of Review 1997: Foreign Film; Broadcast Film Critics 1997: Foreign Film.