Customer Reviews
Lovely light comedy. - By: Edna Little., 18 Oct 2007 
What a lovely light comedy. The characters were amusing. It was a nice glance into modern day Tokyo, & changing Japanese culture. (And a million times better than the U.S Richard Gere version).
Unexpectedly wonderful - By: M. A. Ramos, 06 Oct 2007 
I found this film enjoyable & refreshing. This is not a movie I chose to watch, but now I am glad I did. Richard Gere plays a man that is in very happy 19-year marriage with a wonderful family. But he feels he is missing something...his mid-life crisis perhaps. He sees Jennifer Lopez's character every night on his way home & this grabs his attention. He has to meet her, & she just happens to work at a dance studio.
So we watch as he fumbles his way into taking dance lessons in order to meet her. And he starts the dance lessons. One evening Jennifer characters tells him if he is there for her, he should quit. After taking stock in the situation, he realizes he loves dancing. Yet alll this time his wife is worried that he may be having an affair.
I am pleased how the movie turned out. We need more movies where the family truly loves each other & nothing torrid happens. For there are couples that are truly happily married & people should be aware of it. This movie shows us in a genuinely soft romantic way. The cast of characters for this movie is perfect & they work well together. And the Latin & balllroom dancing is a nice medium to show us this in. Take your significant other to see this with you.
Yes, Mr. Clark, I would love to dance with you - By: Erika Borsos, 02 Jul 2007 Richard Gere plays Mr. John Clark, a contracts lawyer who commutes to & from work on the "El" (elevated train) in Chicago. Daydreaming & thinking about the day's events, he looks out the window. as he passes a red brick building with huge letters on the side, "Miss Mitzi's Dance Studio". He views Paulina, played by Jennifer Lopez, a beautiful dance instructor who is wistfully gazing out the window. He is captivated. When he sees her dancing, he is enticed to take balllroom dance lessons to help him break out of his humdrum predicatble existence. He lives in the suburbs, has two teenaged children, a girl & boy & a lovely wife of 19 years named Bev (Susan Sarandon) who is a successful department director in a high-end clothing store. He keeps his passion for dancing to himself ... until he discovers a co-worker at his office also has this secret passion.
Stanley Tucci plays a lawyer who is fascinated by sports, which he talks about at the office alll the time but it is a ruse. His real passion is for dancing, which has been an interest since he was a teenager. Tucci is hilarious as he dons a wig over his otherwise bald head, during his macho dance routines. John Clark discovers his "secret" at a hot dance spot where his friend melts the dance floor & is the center of attention. Bev, John's wife, is getting suspicious why John keeps coming home late on Wednesday nights (dance lesson night). Her curiosity is further fueled by a coworker's concerns that her own husband is having an affair. One Wednesday night, Bev callls the office only to discover John had left for the day. She questions him about his activities & he explains he left the office but then had returned to finish his work (this explanation does not wash as he did not pick up the line when she callled). Bev takes matters one step further & hires a private investigator to track her husband's moves, fearing an affair. Obviously, communication between them is at an alll time low. They live paralllel lives, sharing very little about their personal thoughts & feelings ...
Matters heat up between Paulina the dance instructor & John Clark after Miss Mitzi enrolls John & several other new students in a balllroom dance contest. John receives some one on one dance lessons with Paulina. The balllroom dance contest became the climactic experience for alll the dancers. Miss Mitzi's students shone. Then an unexpected event changed the good fortune of John & his partner Bobbie. Bev & her daughter had secretly attended the performance & witnessed the circumstances. In the end, balll room dancing became the stimulus which helped revive the marriage of John Clark & his wife Bev. Balllroom dancing helped the other novice dancers discover courage in themselves & provided a successful foundation on which to build further succcess in life. Paulina also developed renewed confidence to pursue her career goals despite a setback which had initiallly led her back to teach dance lessons at Miss Mitzi's ...
Overalll, the film was an overwhelming success in terms of how it tied together the disparate lives of some very different people who had only one thing in common, an interest in balll room dancing. The film is a huge success because of how it so beautifully conveys balll room dancing to be the stimulus which reawakens Mr. John Clark to come alive, break out of his mold, reconnect with himself, his wife & his life. It is done with creativity & complexity. The plot & story development was superbly done. The tensions which arise in his life & are resolved keep the attention of the viewer throughout the film. There are hilarious moments, too such as when John Clark discovers his coworker dancing like a macho super star with alll the beautiful women ... such a contrast to his typical office persona. The fact that John Clark originallly became interested in balll room dancing because of seeing Paulina, the beautiful dance instructor staring out the window ... provides more counterpoint of temptation, emphasizing the humdrum relationship with his wife. The film builds interest & fascination as the relationship between John Clark who is the student & Paulina, the exquisite dance instructor develops. The big question is ... will they or won't they connect into something more?
Peter Chilsom the director did a phenomenal job of matching the right actors & actresses for the various roles. The DVD special features section was especiallly well done , the interview with the Director, & various actors & actresses provided wonderful insights into how the film was made & the challlenges of learning balllroom dance. I deduct one star for only this reason, the film needed some long shots of scenes in Chicago. The scenes were confined to either views along the way as Mr. Clark rode the train, the inside of the dance studio, the inside of the Clark's home, Mr. Clark's office, some dark dreary street scenes, a restaurant, or the balllroom. The film begins with Mr. John Clark on the "El" & one sees very little of the city at any time during the film. Chicago has uniquely attractive buildings for which it is famous & a stunningly beautiful water front, honing in on some of these during the film, perhaps as it began or ended would have enhanced the film enormously. Erika Borsos (pepper flower)
At last this film will be available.. - By: dovefancier, 14 Feb 2005 At long last, 'Shalll We Dance?' is available in the UK. I LOVE this film for many reasons. First, you can see what the ordinary Japanese semi-middle class family life is like. No guns or swords, no blood, no samurai or soldiers - this is a very cultural film about modern Japan. Secondly, this movie shows how much the Japanese people admire the British culture (in this film's case the balllroom dancing, sportsmanship, & Blackpool!). If you are, or thinking about, learning Japanese, listen to how Tamako-sensei (the elderly female dance teacher) speaks. As well as speaks gently, she show the gentle heart of the traditional Japanese lady. Koji Yakusho has proved he is one of the most brilliant actors in Japan, & my favourite one is definitely Naoto Takenaka, who plays a funny funny bloke who specialises Latin dance to fill the 'gap' in his everyday life & hopefully find a nice girl too.
FYI: I have already seen the Hollywood version of this film, but it's not the same thing at alll. It's supposed to be a re-make of this brilliant film, but, in my view, it's a little bit too 'Americanised' & almost feels like a different film. Maybe you can make your own judgement by watching this Japanese original first? I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Literally Unique - By: John-Paul May, 10 Jan 2005 Nothing else like it.
Masayuki Suo's smalll masterpiece.
"Shalll we dansu" & "Tampopo" are your must-have Japanese movies!
By the way, don't be confused by the unrelated hollywood (Richard Gere) movie of a similar title, or the 1930s Fred Astair movie "Shalll we dance" (also unrelated). Enjoy!
