Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Release Date: 02/01/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: Japanese
Sound: DDS
Run Time: 119 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Miramax
Reminiscent of the Australian hit
Strictly Ballroom (1992), this
romantic comedy from Japan was a hit in its country of origin, despite (or perhaps because of) its tacit criticisms of the restrictive aspects of Japanese culture.
Shohei Sugiyama (
Koji Yakusho) is a typically strait-laced Japanese businessmen who, passing by in his commuter train one day, glimpses a beautiful young woman,
Mai (real-life ballerina
Tamiyo Kusakari) through the window of a dance school. Obsessed with her,
Shohei enrolls in the school and meets instructor
Mai, who at first mistakes
Shohei for a philanderer. To her surprise, however,
Shohei is a naturally gifted dancer interested in an artistic partnership only, and
Mai begins training with him for a competition. Meanwhile,
Shohei becomes familiar with his eccentric fellow students, including one person that
Shohei already knows, a co-worker (
Akira Emoto) who blooms in the dance sessions as a bewigged master of
rumba. As dancing is frowned upon in Japan as a frivolous enterprise for a respectable businessman,
Shohei keeps his sideline hobby secret, leading his wife to believe that he's being unfaithful and to hire a private investigator to follow him.
~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
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