Shall We Dance?

Performing hara-kiri (translation: self-fillet) and letting the maid find your liver lying on the prayer mat is apparently no cause for shame in the Land of the Rising Sun, but ballroom dancing? Well, that's another matter. Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) is your basic married middle-aged accountant, whose wind-up robotic work-driven lifestyle is slowly drubbing his spirit into the dirt, until he joins a dance class, drawn by the sight of a sad, beautiful instructor gazing out the class's window. Shohei's journey from The Man With Two Left Feet to Fred Astaire Jr. is humorously and warmly portrayed with a strong cast of eccentric supporting characters. Winner of all 13 Japanese Academy Awards, writer/director Masayuki Suo's Shall We Dance? is, oddly enough, the second wonderful ballroom dancing film of the '90s (along with the Australian hit Strictly Ballroom). Enthusiastically recommended. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review--March 22, 2005--Miramax, 119 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, PG, $29.99--Making its debut on DVD, 1996's Shall We Dance? is presented with a very good widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital surround soundtrack, but no extras other than a 12-minute fluff promo featurette for the decidedly inferior 2004 American remake with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. Bottom line: the original still packs a charming punch and looks great on DVD. Highly recommended.][Blu-ray Review—May 27, 2008—Miramax, 106 min., PG-13, $29.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2004's Shall We Dance? features a great transfer and a 5.1 uncompressed soundtrack. The extras on the disc are identical to the previous DVD release, including audio commentary by director Peter Chelsom, a 23-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, five deleted scenes—including an alternate opening—with optional commentary by Chelsom (17 min.), the dance history/training featurette “Beginner's Ballroom” (6 min.), a four-minute featurette on “The Music,” the Pussycat Dolls' music video “Sway,” and trailers. Bottom line: although it looks much better, this remake of the 1996 Japanese film still pales in comparison to the original film.]