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Shohei Sugiyama: Koji Yakusyo Masako Sugiyama: Hideko Hara Mai Kishikawa: Tamiyo Kusakari Tomio Aoki: Naoto Takenaka Toyoko Takahashi: Eriko Watanabe Toru Miwa: Akira Emoto Hiromasa Kimoto: Masahiro Motoki Written and Directed by Masayuki Suo. Running time: 118 minutes. Rated PG (for mild language). |
He is too serious.
-Masako Sugiyama
Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusyo) is like any middle class citizen in Japan. He has a good management job in sales that provides his family with all the necessities in life. He is doing so well that he has just purchased a new home. He also has a loving wife and daughter that deeply care about him. Shohei is a warm hearted, dedicated and handsome human being. He is also boring too.
Shohei doesn't have the greatest social life. When he is asked to go drinking with his co-workers, he refuses the offer because he has to get up early for work. He has a mundane routine that never deviates. He goes to work early in the morning, at the crack of dawn, and comes home late at night. He spends most of his time there and hardly has time to spend with his family. While watching the film, you get the feeling that he knows his co-workers better than his family. He is a drone that only has one purpose in life.
While on his way home, the train stops at an unknown station. Shohei looks up and finds a young beautiful woman (Tamiyo Kusakari) beside a window staring blankly outside. He finds her alluring and develops an attraction towards her, not of love, but wonder. Why is she staring out into space? What is she thinking? The next day at the same stop, he finds her again, this time dancing with someone. She is a teacher at a dance studio. The next day, at the last moment he gets out of the station and goes to the building that houses the dance studio.
His act is so bold and daring considering that we know how introvert he is. We also know that Japan's strict etiquette and moral code looks down upon what he is attempting to do. In the beginning of the film we are told that, "Ballroom dancing is regarded with great suspicion, in a country where couples don't go out hand in hand, or say 'I love you.'" That is why when Shohei creeps up the staircase it's like sneaking into a brothel.
He reluctantly goes inside and is pushed into joining a dancing class. His instructor turns out to be an extremely friendly (Does she ever get mad?) middle-aged woman, named Hiromasa Kimoto (Masahiro Motokiwho), who teaches him the fundamentals of the fox trot. She catches on to Shohei's plan and warns him that "She's all the sweeter when viewed from afar."
The little class at the dance studio consists of a chubby man, who is taking the class because of his doctor's suggestion, a scrawny gentleman, who is secretly taking extra lessons to show his wife, and an eccentric mystery man, who dances the tango in a style that has never been witnessed by anyone. These characters, especially the "Tango" man, provide the funniest moments in the film.
Eventually Shohei learns that the beautiful woman has broken up with her dance partner, which has left her cold and bitter to everyone she meets. The warnings from her co-workers and classmates doesn't scare Shohei as he still tries to get in contact with her. One night he waits for her outside and asks if they could go for a drink. She refuses the offer and says that she hoped that he didn't take the lessons just to get close to her. Her rejection hurts him, but he doesn't stray like we expect. Shohei ponders his intentions and for reasons that will be disclosed later in the film, he continues to come back to the studio and dance. His emotions change as dancing consumes his life. He practices his steps at every possible moment and at every place, even his workplace. We see a metamorphosis of his attitude as he finds happiness for what seems to be the first time in quite awhile.
Meanwhile, his odd behavior doesn't go unnoticed as suspicions begin to arise at his home. His wife smells unfamiliar perfume on his shirt. His daughter catches him dancing alone, late at night. Shohei comes home late on Wednesdays and always goes out on the weekends. She observes her husband and knows that something is happening to him. She is frightened by his change in routine, which forces her to take drastic action. She decides to hire a private investigator to answer the puzzling questions about her husband's new behavior. Suffice it to say, she is shocked when she hears the news.
The climax of the film is predictable only because we want it to end that way. Shall We Dance? is one of the funniest and most heart-warming movies I've seen this year.
Japan's rigid society provides the writer a bevy of material to choose from. What other culture in the world can a person see the humor in two people having to talk quietly in the bathroom, when the conversation is about ballroom dancing.
What is amazing is that the director, Masayuki Suo, has made a film that cannot only be enjoyed Japanese people, but by all, something easier said than done. Shall We Dance? can relate to all human beings as it strikes a chord to basic human emotions we have. And unlike other movies, Shall We Dance? can make you laugh and then in an instant later make you cry as the film makes you feel guilty laughing a second ago.
In the middle of the movie we see a shot of Shohei dancing under a bridge late at night under the watchful gaze of the moon. Why is he there? Is he in love? No he is just simply practicing the waltz. Shall We Dance? is a great film not about romance, but a man losing his inhibitions and breaking out of the hum drum depression of his life. If only we can follow his example, we all would lead happier lives. Grade: A-
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