Pulled from the shelves is going to be some musings on a film from my vast library. Okay, it really isn’t vast, but it’s spilling out all over my house. Perhaps it’s time to invest in some DVD sleeves and recycle the boxes.
The first installment in this retrospect of my collection is a look at the Japanese Academy Award winner for Best Picture of 1997, Shall We Dansu? I don’t remember getting this one, but I found it sitting on my television still encased in plastic. It must’ve been when I bought some books from Amazon, as Marge at the FishTank, reminded me on Twitter.
If you hadn’t seen it, you may have seen the recent remake with J-Lo and Richard Gere. It has the same plot. A salaryman, slave to the grind seeks something outside of work and family to make him happy and relieve his ennui. He happens to see a beautiful, young woman looking forlornly out of the window of a dance studio. For a week, he catches sight of her every day from his the train home until one day he decides to find her. He at first approaches dance just to meet her. When he does finally have a chance to be alone with her, she rejects his advances and tells him that he is mistaken if he took up dance just for her. He accepts the rejection and puts his heart into dancing so much so that he begins to participate in amateur ballroom dance competitions.
All this time his wife suspects him to be having an affair. He’s no longer depressed and he smells of perfume when he comes home late. She hires a detective who informs her of his passion for dancing and who ends up finding passion in dance as well. She’s jealous.
He on the other hand is ashamed. Close dancing is unexpected in Japanese society. He doesn’t want anyone to find out about his dancing. A colleague at work also is a ballroom dancer, and he too hides it from everyone.
Our salaryman is also ashamed about finding happiness outside of his marriage. He doesn’t like to make his wife jealous. His obligation makes it too much to continue dance, but the rhythm calls. It calls for him, not just the pretty dance instructor.
Sorry about the spoilers.
The feeling I got from watching the dancing in this movie (maybe also, from the movie itself) is exhilaration. It looks like fun. I likened the feeling to riding my bike. It must be really fun! And especially, if you have a partner. Sometimes I feel like taking dance lessons. It looks like fun. It must be exhilarating to be in the embrace of a girl moving together to the music. And just like our salaryman, dancing may bring out the life in me.
So, I was glad to pull this film out of my library. I’ll gladly watch it again. In fact, I’m watching it again right now.
4 of 5 stars
