Shall We Dance? Movie Review

In 1992's Strictly Ballroom, competitive dancing was an obsession for its amateur contestants. In 1996's Shall We Dance, it functions as a key to unlock deeply hidden dreams and emotions. Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) is a middle-aged married businessman with an adolescent daughter. His spirit has been ground down by years of repetitive routines. And then he sees the silhouette of a graceful dancer (Tamiyo Kusakari as Mai Kishikawa) through the window of a dancing school. Impulsively, he enrolls in classes, keeping his attendance a secret from his wife, his daughter, and all but one male colleague (who's also a dance student). Like his colleague, Shohei isn't much of a dancer at first, but he sticks with it. His wife is convinced that he's having an affair and she hires a private detective to investigate. (The detective becomes an enthusiastic and knowledgeable ballroom buff.) Shohei is rebuffed by Mai when he pays her a compliment, but as she helps him prepare for a competition, she learns again through him her own deep love of dance, something she thought she'd lost during her early days as an unhappy competitor. Naturally, Shohei can't keep his obsession with dance a secret forever, and there is the inevitable encounter between the people in his two separate and very compartmentalized lives. Shall We Dance? struck a nerve with international audiences, who made it an art house hit. Expect an American remake, sans subtitles, but it would have to go a long way to capture anywhere near the sweetness, the mystery, and the seductive charm of Masayuki Suo's original film. AKA: Shall We Dansu?

1996 118m/C JP Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Akira Emoto, Eriko Watanabe, Yu Tokui, Hiromasa Taguchi, Reiko Kusamura; D: Masayuki Suo; W: Masayuki Suo; C: Naoke Kayano; M: Yoshikazu Suo. National Board of Review Awards ‘97: Best Foreign Film; Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards ‘97: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV, Closed Caption