The real name of this film is Shall We Dansu?, which is a kind of bilingual play on words. It was one of the top box-office successes in Japan in the last couple of decades.

Historical Background: When most Westerners think of Japanese cinema, what first comes to mind are Samurai films and the great epics of Akira Kurosawa, but there's also a solid tradition of intimate pieces about daily life, from directors like Yasujiro Ozu (such as Tokyo Story (1953) and Late Autumn(1960)). Shall We Dance? (1995), directed by Masayuki Suo, is in that intimate tradition. Suo was born in 1956 in Tokyo and later studied film under Banmei Takahash at Rikkyo University. He married Tamiyo Kusakari, the female lead in Shall We Dance?

The Story: Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusyo) is a Japanese salary man, working at a desk in an office where he is little more than a cipher. He's been pursuing the narrow Japanese dream of success. He's got a devoted wife, a teenage daughter, a home, and mortgage payments. To stay afloat, he gets up early and comes home late. He's forty-two years old, midlife crisis is setting in, and he's starting to wonder if there's any joy to be had from this rat race he's in. One evening, riding home on the subway, he spots a beautiful but sad-looking your woman staring out the window of a second story studio. The banner along the side of the building reads, "The Kishikawa School of Dancing." Sugiyama arrives home and, feeling somewhat tired and depressed, heads right off to bed. His wife, Masako (Hideko Hara) is worried about him and says to her daughter, Chikage (Ayano Nakamura) as they breakfast together, "Your father rarely stays out late. He really should get out and enjoy himself more often." She thinks he's too serious and works too hard.

The next night, returning home on the subway, Sugiyama finds himself waiting for the moment when the subway will again pass by the dance studio. He smiles when he spots his young favorite dancing. A third night he looks out again and this time impulsively gets off at the stop nearby and sees the celestial visage of the young instructor in the window again. He climbs the stairs to the studio door, hesitates, and is about to walk away, when a crass, heavy set middle-aged woman comes rushing up the stairs and bowls him over, literally knocking him into the studio and into a new life.

Soon he is signed up for lessons and has purchased himself a new pair of dance shoes. The private lessons are too expensive, however, so he must make do with groups lesson, which are taught by a pleasant, middle-aged woman, Tamako Tamura (Reiko Kusamura), rather than by the gorgeous, willowy girl that had excited his interest, Mai Kishikawa (Tamiyo Kusakari). Her time is occupied with a wealthier patron who can afford the private sessions. In Sugiyama's group are two other men, a stooped-shouldered, overweight, uncoordinated geek named Masahiro Tanaka (Hiromasa Taguchi), and a small, overly talkative guy. She starts them out with basics but Mr. Sugiyama pretty much has two leaden left feet. He wistfully peeks at the lucky old goat dancing with the magnificently serene and long-legged Mai. The saucy and somewhat brash woman, Toyoko Takahashi (Eriko Watanabe), who had earlier almost ran him over on the stairwell, observes where his interest lies and tells him that private lessons are the way to go if he wants to dance with Mai.

One day at the dance studio, there is a more advanced pair of dancers practicing some Latin dance routines, such as the Rumba. The male is rather outlandish in his style, with flamboyant gestures and wild facial expressions. He's driving his partner crazy and when he bumps into Toyoko on the dance floor, the two get into a spat, culminating with her yanking off his wig. Sugiyama, who has been watching intently, is amazed to discover that the man is Tomio Aoki (Naoto Takenaka), his somewhat mousy and nerdy coworker. Suddenly he begins to understand why Tomio walks about the office like a man who is either very gay or very much into dance. The two now have something to share at the office, which leads to some rather humorous moments in the men's room.

Sugiyama keeps his new hobby a secret from his wife, out of shame, since ballroom dancing is not viewed very positively in Japan. Masaka, who was hoping that he would find something to elevate his spirits, becomes alarmed when his mood suddenly shows too marked an improvement. She notices odd perfumes on his shirts as she does the laundry and Chikage spots him practicing his dance steps in the computer room. Masaka hires a private detective to determine if he's having an affair or has gotten into "something strange."

One evening, Sugiyama waits around outside the dance studio until Mai closes up. He arranges to encounter her on the street and asks her if she'd like to have dinner with him. She disabuses him of his hopes very directly. First, she indicates that she doesn't see dance students outside of the studio. She starts to walk away but then turns, and adds, "This may sound rude, but I hope you didn't join the class with me as you goal. I take dancing very seriously. This is a dancing school, not a disco." Sugiyama is crushed, not so much at being shot down as having his motivations so aptly deconstructed. He contemplates quitting but instead redoubles his efforts. Soon, he discovers that he's developed a genuine enthusiasm for dancing rather than being merely smitten with Mai. We see his feet unconsciously practicing dance steps under his desk at work and on the subway. He buys a practice brace to improve his posture and dances in the dusk at an empty public patio, beside a pool, with the private detective and his assistant surreptitiously watching from the shadows.

Toyoko desperately needs a new partner and Tamako comes up with a plan. Mr. Sugiyama will become her partner for the Waltz and Quickstep while Tomio will be her partner for the Rumba. Sugiyama still needs a lot of work, but Tamako offers to give him private lessons, two hours a day, for free. Mai begins to awaken from her doldrums, inspired by Sugiyama's determination, and works with him and Toyoko as well. Along the way, she'll convey some lessons in life, such as when Mai observes, "A weak first step transmits nothing." The rest of the film provides a wide-variety of crowd-pleasing sentimental payoffs, as the various subplots are developed and resolved. There are plenty of tear-jerking moments and plot developments that defy obvious clichés.

Themes: The significance of ballroom dancing in the straight-laced, sentiment-repressing society of Japan is very different that in the Western world. In Japan, husbands and wives don't so much as hold hands in public and almost never come right out and say, "I love you." Those who do take up dancing are viewed with suspicion, as likely lechers and perverts. Sugiyama's developing interest in dancing, in this film, is therefore symbolic of a much deeper struggle to find some joy in life and freedom from the suffocating restraints of Japanese society. Dancing becomes the forbidden pursuit of personal pleasure to offset the humdrum of his buttoned-down existence as a family man and work-a-day stiff. Sugiyama confides to Mai, at one point, "At my age, it's embarrassing to say, but each day I feel so alive." Initially, it is Mai that is Sugiyama's celestial vision, but, in the end, it's the dream of a happier, freer, and more-enriched approach to living. The story's intrigue comes in part from the question of whether Sugiyama will be able to reconcile his newly opened-up lifestyle with his family's happiness. For Western viewers, this film offers a rarified glimpse into Japanese society, and its Victorian-like issues in relation to intimacy and affection.

At the same time, Mai grows as a person from the influence of the older man. Dancing is a means of expressing feelings. As Tamako says, "Dance is more than the steps. Feel the music and dance for the sheer joy!" Mai ultimately learns that she can't just dance for herself, she also has to have a feeling for her partner. The highest expression of virtue in dancing is to protect your partner when the dancing falters, she believes.

Production Values: There have been many dance films and sometimes the plots become formulistic, but Masayuki Suo avoids running his script through the obvious turns on the dance floor. He uses the dance element not as an end in itself, but as a means for exploring deeper themes of intimacy, personal expression, and fulfillment. The serious and tender moments are pleasingly interspersed with humorous interludes, mostly in the subplots. On the whole, I didn't find the subplots as effective as the main storyline. I've had that experience before, in Japanese films (e.g., The Hidden Fortress; Floating Weeds), where the subplots provide most of the humor. Japanese humor tends to be a little too silly and slapstick for my taste. I found the performances by Naoto Takenaka, Eriko Watanabe, and Hiromasa Taguchi a bit over-the-top, lapsing into caricature to some extent. Nevertheless, the main storyline and the themes of the film are strong enough to withstand the mediocre slapstick. The idea of a staid Japanese businessman discovering renewal through dance, while also helping the despondent young dance instructor get her groove back, provides a rich and solid premise for exploration.

Like many Asian films, this one has an exceptionally vivid color palette, with lots of bright primary colors to light up the various dance studios, discos, and the famous Blackpool ballroom. It's hard to go wrong when dancing provides the pretext for lots of brilliant, over-the-top costumes, bright music, and brisk movement. Suo uses a pleasing mix of wide-angle shots and close-ups of his principals to reveal their thoughts and feelings.

Koji Yakusho gives an outstanding performance as Shohei Sugiyama. I've seen him before in The Eel (1997). He's also appeared in Tampopo (1986), Cure (1997), and Eureka (2000). Tamiyo Kusakari is a ballerina by profession, not an actress, but she comports herself admirably here. She is one of those striking women that men just have to gaze upon relentlessly. Naoto Takenaka, who is foremost among the comic diversions in the cast, previously appeared in Gonin (1995). Tomoro Taguchi, the overweight dancer, was previously in Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) and The Eel (1997). I liked Reiko Kusamura's performance as the older teacher, Tamako, and Hideko Hara's work as the loyal wife. Perhaps it is because their performances were nicely understated in a film with too many flamboyant deliveries.

Bottom-Line: Although Shall We Dansu? was overlooked by the Oscars (because it was first shown on television), it received the award as Best Foreign Film from the London Critics' Circle in 1998, after sweeping some thirteen awards at the Japanese equivalent of the Oscars in 1997.

There was also a film from 1937 entitled Shall We Dance?, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but there is no similarity between the storylines of that film and Suo's film from 1996. On the other hand, Suo's film was promptly remade by Hollywood, in 2004, as a vehicle for Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, with Susan Sarandon as the loyal wife. The problem with the Hollywood version is that the deeper theme of repression of intimacy has none of the meaning in the American context that it had in the Japanese setting. Consequently, the American version is reduced to a glitzy sitcom-type rendition and the performances are not good enough to carry it on that basis.

Shall We Dance? is in Japanese with English subtitles. Dialog is relatively sparse, so reading the subtitles is no problem, even for those with subtitle phobia. The running time is 119 minutes, but it's a very briskly paced film. I highly recommend this film. For its sheer entertainment value, it's five-stars all the way. As art, it's four-stars because of the weaknesses in the subplots. This is a sweet, uplifting, feel-good kind of treat!


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Japan:

The Ballad of Narayama
The Burmese Harp
Chushingura
Drunken Angel
The Eel
Floating Weeds
Gate of Hell
The Hidden Fortress
High and Low
Ikiru
Kagemusha
Kwaidan
Ran
Rashômon
Red Beard
Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto
Sanjuro
Sanshô, the Baliff
The Seven Samurai
Stray Dog
The Woman in the Dunes
Yojimbo

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older