Shall We Dance? (movie), May 20, 2005, my living room

Shall We Dance is a perfectly charming movie from Japan about an office worker who learns ballroom dance. (There's an American version of this film now, but I'll get to that in a minute.) It doesn't sound like much of a premise, but in Japan there's a real social stigma attached to ballroom dancing. As the intro to the movie explains, in a country where husbands and wives don't even hold hands in public, dancing in someone's arms in public is almost unthinkable. I saw this movie back when it came out in 1997, but since it took me 30 minutes into the movie to realize that, I might as well have been watching it for the first time. Also, in the mean time, I've learned a little about ballroom and was able to recognize a few standard moves of the waltz. I also recognized the earrings worn by the women; they look better on the dance floor than they do in the store, but I still think they're a little too much. There's quite a bit of dancing in the movie, some of it by professionals and some by the students, but all of it enjoyable. The title of the film comes from The King and I, and the musical is refered to repeatedly. I loved the Japanese ballroom remix of "Hello Young Lovers." My favorite quote: "Dance is more than just the steps. Feel the music and just dance for sheer joy." So about the American version. Part of the effectiveness of the plot line is the combination and contradictions of East and West. It's disconcerting, for example, to be listening to the actors speaking in Japanese and suddenly hear "Slow, slow, quick quick." With the film set in America, that tension must be gone. Well, I'll rent that version next and let you know what I think!