Shall We Dance? (1996 film)

Infobox Film
name = Shall We Dansu?


image_size = 200px
caption = Publicity poster for "Shall We Dansu?"
director = Masayuki Suo
producer = Yasuyoshi Tokuma
writer = Masayuki Suo
narrator =
starring = Kôji Yakusho
Tamiyo Kusakari
music = Yoshikazu Suo
cinematography = Naoki Kayano
editing = Junichi Kikuchi
distributor =Toho Company (Japan)
Miramax Films (USA)
released = 27 January 1996
runtime = 136 min
country = JPN
language = Japanese
gross = $42,976,677
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:136240
imdb_id = 0117615

"Shall We Dance?" is a 1996 award - winning Japanese film. Its original Japanese title is nihongo|"Shall We Dansu?"|Shall We ダンス? which refers to the earlier 1934 movie "Shall We Dance" starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. It may also refer to the song, "Shall We Dance" in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I". It was directed by Masayuki Suo.

A 2004 film, also called "Shall We Dance?" is an American remake of the film. It stars Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Jennifer Lopez.

Plot

The film begins with a close-up of the inscription above the stage in the ballroom of the Blackpool Tower: "Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear", from the poem "Venus and Adonis" by William Shakespeare. As the camera pans around the ballroom giving a view of the dancers, a voice-over explains that in Japan, ballroom dancing is treated with suspicion.

Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) is a successful "salaryman," with a house in the suburbs, a devoted wife, Masako, (Hideko Hara) and a teenage daughter, Chikage (Ayano Nakamura). He works as an accountant for a firm in Tokyo. Despite these external signs of success, however, Sugiyama begins to feel as if his life has lost direction and meaning and falls into depression.

One night, while coming home on the Tokyo Subway, he spots a beautiful woman dancing in a dance studio. This is Mai Kishikawa, (Tamiyo Kusakari), a well known figure on the Western ballroom dance circuit. Sugiyama becomes infatuated with her and decides to take lessons in order to get to know her better.

Sugiyama's life changes once his classes begin. Rather than Mai, his teacher is Tamako Tamura (Reiko Kusamura), who becomes an important mentor to him. He meets his classmates, Tokoichi Hattori (Yu Tokui) who joined to impress his wife, and Masahiro Tanaka (Hiromasa Taguchi) who joined to lose weight. He also meets Toyoko Takahashi (Eriko Watanabe), another instructor. He further discovers that one of his colleagues from work Tomio Aoki (Naoto Takenaka) is a regular at the dance studio. Aoki, who is bald and picked on at work for his rigid ways, is revealed to be leading a secret life as a long-haired (via a wig) star ballroom dancer. Though distant from her, the classes increase his infatuation for Mai. His secret thus becomes twofold: not only must he hide the lessons from his wife, he must also hide them from his friends and colleagues as it is considered embarrassing according to traditional Japanese customs to participate in Western ballroom dance.

Later, after being rebuffed by Mai, Sugiyama discovers to his surprise, that his passion for ballroom dance outweighs his infatuation with her. Indeed, dancing rather than Mai, gives Sugiyama the meaning in life that he was looking for. Critic Paul Tatara also noted of this discovery that, "It isn't really fair to suggest that the movie's main subject is dance, though. As much as anything else, it's about the healing powers (and poetry) of simple self-expression." [cite web |url= http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9707/19/review.shall.dance/index.html|title= 'Shall We Dance' a graceful tale of middle-age yearnings|accessdate= 2008-08-11 |last= Tatara|first= Paul|date= 1997-07-19|publisher= CNN]

Masako, noticing his odd behavior, thinks that he is having an affair — so she hires a private detective to follow him. Meanwhile, along with his classmates, Sugiyama enters an amateur competition - only to find out that his wife, having finally learned the truth from the detective (who has now become a devoted fan of ballroom dancing) is in the audience. Surprised by this, he stumbles and nearly knocks his dance partner to the floor. Though he is able to catch her, he accidentally rips the skirt of her dress off. Both leave the contest. Later, they learn that Tomio won the contest. When Tomio is ridiculed at work after his collegues read of his success in the newspaper, Sugiyama stands up and tells them not to make fun of something they don't understand.

At home, Sugiyama's wife tries to understand her husband's new passion by asking him to teach her to dance as well. He is invited to a good-bye party for Mai, who is leaving for Blackpool, England. At the party, Mai joins him to dance, asking him "Shall we dance?"

Reception

"Shall We Dansu" received a 93% rating from Rotten Tomatoes ("Fresh": 28 "Rotten": 2). [cite web |url= http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1078942-shall_we_dance/|title= Shall We Dance? (1996)|accessdate= 2008-08-11|publisher= Rotten Tomatoes] Roger Ebert stated in the "Chicago Sun Times" that "Shall We Dansu" is "one of the more completely entertaining movies I've seen in a while--a well-crafted character study that, like a Hollywood movie with a skillful script, manipulates us but makes us like it." [cite web |url= http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970718/REVIEWS/707180303/1023|title= Shall We Dance? |accessdate=2008-08-11 |last= Ebert|first= Roger|authorlink= Roger Ebert|date= 1997-07-18|work= rogerebert.com|publisher= Chicago Sun-Times]

It performed strongly in American theaters earning roughly $9.7 million during its US release. [cite web |url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117615/business|title= Box office / business for Shall we dansu?|accessdate= 2008-08-11|publisher= Internet Movie Database]

Awards

At the Japanese Academy Awards it won 14 awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Lighting, Best Music Score, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Newcomer of the Year (in short, every award it was eligible to win). [cite web |url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117615/awards|title= Awards for Shall We Dansu?|accessdate= 2008-08-11|publisher= Internet Movie Database]

ee also

*"Strictly Ballroom" (1992)
*"Shall We Dance? (2004 film)

Further reading

*cite journal |last= Goldstein-Gidoni|first= Ofra|coauthors= Daliot-Bul, Michal|year= 2002|month= March|title= 'Shall We Dansu?': Dancing with the 'West' in contemporary Japan|journal= Japan Forum|volume= 14|issue= 1|pages= 63-75|issn= 0955-5803|oclc= 89180638

Notes

External links

* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1078942-shall_we_dance/ Shall We Dansu] at Rotten Tomatoes
*imdb title|id=0117615|title = Shall We Dansu?