"Shall We Dance?" (Japanese: Shall we ダンス? , Hepburn: Sharu wī dansu) is a 1996 Japanese film that combines romantic comedy and drama. The director of the movie is Masayuki Suo. The title of the film comes from the song "Shall We Dance?" found in the musical The King and I by Rodgers and Hammerstein. This movie inspired the 2004 English-language version of the same name.

Plot

The film opens with a close-up of the inscription above the stage in the ballroom of Blackpool Tower: "Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear," from the poem Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare. As the camera moves around the ballroom, showing the dancers, a voice-over explains that in Japan, ballroom dancing is often viewed with doubt.

Shohei Sugiyama, a successful business professional, lives in the suburbs with his devoted wife, Masako, and their teenage daughter, Chikage. He works as an accountant for a company in Tokyo. Although he appears successful, Shohei begins to feel lost and falls into depression.

One night, while traveling on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, Shohei sees a thin woman with a sad look watching from the window of a dance studio. He does not know she is Mai Kishikawa, a famous ballroom dancer in the West. Drawn to her, he decides to take dance lessons on a sudden impulse.

Shohei’s life changes when he starts classes. His teacher is an older woman named Tamako Tamura, who becomes a valuable mentor. He meets classmates: Tōkichi Hattori, who joined to please his wife, and Masahiro Tanaka, who joined to lose weight. He also meets Toyoko Takahashi, another student. He learns that a coworker, Tomio Aoki, visits the dance studio. Tomio, who is balding and teased at work for being strict, secretly wears a wig to dance. Even though he does not get close to Mai, the classes make him more interested in her. His secret becomes two-fold: he must hide the lessons from his wife and from his friends and coworkers, as ballroom dancing is seen as embarrassing in traditional Japanese culture.

Later, after Mai turns him down, Shohei is surprised to find that his love for ballroom dancing remains. In fact, dance, not Mai, gives him the purpose in life he was seeking.

Masako notices Shohei’s strange behavior and believes he is having an affair. She hires a private detective to follow him. Meanwhile, Shohei and his classmates compete in an amateur contest. He is shocked to learn his wife, who has discovered the truth from the detective (now a fan of ballroom dancing), is in the audience. He stumbles during the dance and nearly knocks his partner to the floor. Though he catches her, he accidentally tears the skirt of her dress. Both leave the competition. Later, Shohei learns that Aoki was disqualified. When Aoki is mocked at work after his failure is reported in the newspaper, Shohei stands up and tells his coworkers not to laugh at something they do not understand.

At home, Shohei tells his family he has quit dancing. Soon after, Toyoko and Aoki visit him, asking him to return for a farewell party for Mai, who is leaving for Blackpool. They give him a letter from Mai, explaining her past failure at Blackpool was due to dancing alone and not trusting her partner. Working with Shohei and Toyoko has inspired her to try again. Shohei finally talks to Masako about what happened but angrily tells her he is done with dancing, even when she asks him to teach her. He agrees to teach her only after his daughter, Chikage, encourages them to reconcile. The next day, as he rides the train home, he sees a sign in the dance studio window: “Shall we dance, Mr. Sugiyama.” He changes his mind and goes to the party, arriving in time for the final dance. Mai approaches him and asks, “Shall we dance?”

Release

Shall We Dance? was released in Japan on January 27, 1996, and was handled by Toho. In the United States, the film was released by Miramax. The Miramax version was shortened to 118 minutes and released on July 4, 1997.

Reception

In Japan, the film became very popular and influenced many people, drawing audiences who had not gone to the cinema in a long time. This showed that Japanese films could attract a larger audience than just children under 12 and adults over 50. The film earned ¥1.6 billion from rentals in 1996, making it the second highest-grossing Japanese film that year, after Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. In total, the film earned ¥2.72 billion ($25 million) from ticket sales in Japan.

The film did well in American theaters, earning $9.7 million during its release in the United States. Outside the United States, it earned $33,287,618 in other countries (including Japan), for a total worldwide income of $43 million.

A website that collects reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, reported that 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 52 reviews. The site’s summary said, “Elegantly told by director Masayuki Suo and warmly performed, Shall We Dance? is a delightful celebration of stepping out of one’s comfort zone and cutting a rug.” Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, writing in the Chicago Sun Times that Shall We Dance? 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.” Critic Paul Tatara noted 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.”

Even though the movie was very successful and well-reviewed, it was not chosen to represent Japan at the Academy Awards. Instead, Gakko II was selected, but it did not receive a nomination.

At the Japanese Academy Awards, the film won 14 awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Lighting, Best Music Score, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Newcomer of the Year.

The National Board of Review gave the film the award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Foreign remakes

The movie Shall We Dance? was remade in English by Miramax in 2004. This version, also called Shall We Dance?, features Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez playing the roles originally performed by Yakusho and Kusakari. The 2004 remake led to another version in another country. In 2006, an Egyptian film titled Let's Dance (Egyptian Arabic: ما تيجي نرقص, romanized: Mah teegy nor'os) was released. This film stars Yousra in the role originally played by Richard Gere.