A beautiful Japanese movie about taking risks to do what you love and discovering what it means to be human. That sounds like a terrible cliche, but the movie is so earnest and unapologetic that you don’t once feel like rolling your eyes.An overworked businessman realizes that he’s just passing time, and has lost the passion in his life, and so he turns to ballroom dancing. I haven’t seen the American remake with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Jennifer Lopez, but I think it would lose quite a lot in the translation. Most of the dramatic tension in this film comes from the fact that the Japanese are traditionally very reserved and unemotional, and contrasting that with the passionate physicality of ballroom dancing. The two main actors, Koji Yakusho and Tamiyo Kusakari, do an admirable job of developing a realistic relationship between two very different characters. Plus, the dancing’s amazing. I read a review elsewhere that described it as little more than fluff, and while it’s not an earth-shaking work of cinema it definitely has its powerful moments. Shall We Dance might not be the movie you’d expect, but it’s definitely a movie you’ll want to see.

I saw the american version of this and I wish I didnt. But when I heard there was a Japanese original version I was intriged. Much, much better than the remake.

In fact so much of it was about Japanese culture that the remake seem to miss the main themes of the movie.

I watched this movie with my mom many, many years ago, and loved it! I was upset when they were making an American remake. I have yet to see it, and don’t really intend to anytime soon. The Japanese version is probably much better anyway! Haha.