Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

gorgonite Masayuki Suo has produced a melodramatic story set in Japan that features ballroom dancing. Neither would particularly appeal however the film is elevated by a combination of depth, comedy featuring Aoki San and scenes shot in Blackpool! The most impressive aspect of this movie is how all of the characters come to life. Nearly 15 years after its release, its only now that I have had the pleasure of seeing it.The story focuses on a man undergoing a mid-life crisis who spontaneously takes up ballroom dancing. The film proceeds to follow the characters who make up the dance class.I am sometimes amazed how we can interpret characters in a film just by their physical appearance. For example Tamako Sensei is the forgiving type of person that she appears! Also Macho is the sleazy type of dancer that he appears! They wouldn't need to do or say anything and I would still conclude the same.Pros - Every single thing plus Aoki SanCons - The score is occasionally heavy handedOverall - 11 out of 10

pontifikator I saw the American cut of this Japanese movie, which has several scenes and characters removed. At that, "Shall We Dance" is a charming movie with tons of heart. Written and directed by Masayuki Suo, "Shall We Dance" has something "Strictly Ballroom" lacks: depth and feeling. I'll compare Baz Luhrman with Oscar Wilde: all flash and showy surface, with nothing underneath. Masayuki Suo has created a film with characters who move us. Koji Yakusho, Naoto Takenaka, Naoto Takenaka, and the other actors are excellent in their roles.The gist of the plot is that Mr. Sugiyama (Yakusho) is an overworked salaryman who spies a lovely younger woman in the window of a dance studio on his way home from work on the train. He has a wife, a daughter, and a mortgage, and no dreams. He takes up ballroom dancing to meet the younger woman, whose father owns the studio and who gives lessons. Dancing, of course, becomes a metaphor, and his fellow students grow from awkward, nameless bumblers to awkward, feeling humans as he (and we) learn to know them. The changes in the minor characters are more dramatic than the subtle growth of Mr. Sugiyama.In "Shall We Dance," learning dance means proceeding from our awkward, graceless first steps to feeling the music and trusting your partner. Feeling emotion and trusting your partner and yourself go hand in hand with learning the dance. The process gets a little heavy-handed as characters spell it out for us, but it didn't detract from the emotional investment we make in watching the characters grow.The movie is often funny without being a comedy, and it's not a romance with budding young love -- Mr. Sugiyama is in his forties, and his dream girl has no romantic interest in him. But they develop a relationship on another, still meaningful level."Shall We Dance" is also the title of a 1937 Astaire-Rogers film, and the Japanese version was remade under the same title in 2004, starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. I have not seen either of these two movies.

Lee Eisenberg As I understand it, much of the humor in "Shall We Dance?" derives from the stereotype of the Japanese businessman. A businessman in the Land of the Rising Sun is supposed to be very serious and motivated, as Shohei Sugiyama (Kōji Yakusho) is. He's successful but unfulfilled. But taking dancing lessons just might change that.Much like Baz Luhrmann's "Strictly Ballroom", "Shall We Dance?" shows that dancing is a physical form of communication. Shohei feels cut off from his wife and daughter, but the dance lessons help him open up. The movie knows how to present everything just right so that it comes across naturally and without seeming like a cliché. There was an American remake, but I have no plans to ever see that one.

noralee Shall We Dansu? is a very non-Hollywood take, but it does fit in with it's predecessors - "Roseland" (which spotlighted my college roommate's mother for 4 whole minutes as a Roseland devotee), "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" and "Strictly Ballroom." In more conventional movies the klutzy dance learners are really Broadway dancers who miraculously learn and become dazzling. Here I think even the "instructors" were actors and there's no dazzle. Odder, the music sounds like it's out of a karaoke machine, like Japanese re-interpretations of Western pop music, which I think is the theme of the Japanese taking on this Western hobby as well. A bit is lost in our ignorance of Japanese culture and mores though the narrator fills us in a bit. (There's a great line where a contestant in the dance competition is disqualified after he interrupts another's routine. "Ungentlemanly behavior - this is a British sport after all.")It's such a relief when the soundtrack suddenly breaks out in "Save the Last Dance For Me" before it goes back to the slightly off-rhythm, slightly off in some way music. The dancers weren't dancing to the music either - they rehearse without music.Regardless, it's a wonderful movie and only music fans would complain . I cried at several scenes. It's quite unpredictable in its comedy and touching in very unexpected ways. The audience clapped at the end. It's very annoying that the credits aren't translated except for a few leads. Stay thru the credits, though, as the dancing continues.(originally written 7/23/1997)