Shall We Dance?

Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) seems to have it all — a high-paying job as an accountant, a beautiful home, a caring wife and a doting daughter he loves dearly. However, something is missing in his life. One day on the commuter train he spots a beautiful woman staring wistfully out a window and eventually decides to find her. So far, so film noir. But in this story, his search propels him into the furtive world of… ballroom dancing.

“Dance is more than just the steps,” counsels a kindly teacher. “Feel the music and dance for sheer joy.” And Shohei does just that, finding a new lease of life in tripping the light fantastic.

Masayuki Suô’s delightful and charming film was a box office smash in Japan (second only to Godzilla that year) and in the USA, where Miramax cut it by 18 minutes. It won 14 Japanese Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Lighting, Best Music Score, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Newcomer of the Year. A US remake followed with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez.

The film is presented here in a new restoration in its full 136-minute version.

Funny and poignant, this is entertainment in it’s kindest and swishiest form.

Ian Freer, Empire magazine

The movie has a great deal of zest and charm, and Yakusho gets so exactly that crest of melancholy that is a man’s early 40s, until he decides to go for another kind of life, that the movie is infinitely touching.

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

This disarming and delightful tale prescribes rumba replacement therapy for male menopause and has a tonic effect on the audience, too.

Carrie Rickie, Philadelphia Inquirer

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