Shall We Dance (1996)
[dir: Masayuki Suo; prod: Yoichi Arishige, Kazuhiro Igarashi, Tetsuya Ikeda, Hiroyuki Kato, Shôji Masui, Yuji Ogata, Seiji Urushido; writer: Masayuki Suo]
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eriko Watanabe, Yu Tokui, Hiromasa Taguchi, Reiko Kusamura, Hideko Hara, Shûichirô Moriyama, Masahiro Motoki, Misa Shimizu,
Akira Emoto..
Running Time: 136 min
Plot: Shohei Sugiyama has attained all that he has wanted in life. But he is still depressed and unhappy. One day, he gathers up the courage to sign up for dancing lessons. He hopes they will rid his depression and help him get his life back together.
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An exceedingly well-done crowd-pleaser in which a middle-aged salaryman, bored with his everyday routine. One night, he looks up while riding on the commuter train and sees a beautiful woman opening the window of a dance studio. Suddenly, he finds himself stepping off the train and enrolling in ballroom dancing lessons. The film, a huge hit internationally, is sweet and funny, and altogether excellent.
The movie is not very complicated, but it is easily worth the international praise it has garnered. Actor Koji Yakusho plays the definitive sympathetic salaryman, transforming from automaton to clandestine ballroom dancer before our eyes.
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