A salaryman lets go and finally gets a chance to live in Masayuki Suo’s iconic comedy-drama.
Sugiyama is a man who has achieved the ultimate 90s Japanese dream: he’s a well-respected salaryman whose life is dedicated to his company as much as it is to his family. But something is missing in his life, and he doesn’t know what it is until he spies ballroom dancer Mai (Tamiyo Kusakari), looking mournfully out of the window of the dance studio where she teaches. Emboldened to take a risky step, Sugiyama enrols in the school, keeping it a secret from his wife, while slowly becoming enamoured with the sport.
Shall We ダンス or Shall We Dance as I’ll call it going forward came out thirty years ago, and in many ways it still feels quite prescient. We live in a world where hobbies are monetized to pay rent, where work expects longer work hours for less overtime pay. Wanting to escape that reality into something that you love for the sake of loving it is something we can all relate to.
While there are certainly fewer marriages like the one shown in the film, there’s still a big issue of communication among married couples in Japan. Unhappiness is at an all-time high, and the idea of finding something to take your mind off life is more appealing than it ever has been.
For Sugiyama, the trouble comes from him having “achieved” everything: he has a wife, a daughter and – most recently – a house. It’s everything he’s worked towards and so now, with everything ticked off the list, he feels listless, lifeless. His attraction to Mai isn’t romantic, though the level of lust he expresses is worth exploring, the real draw is this unknown entity: a dance studio above the hustle and bustle and daily grind. Its position places it in a heavenly spot, aspirational and seemingly out reach.
The studio acts as a respite place for the three men who dance with Sugiyama. For Aoki (Naoto Takenaka putting in his all, as usual), it’s an escape from his humdrum life, an office existence where people either don’t notice, or actively make fun of him. For Hattori (Yu Tokui), it’s a place to better himself for his wife, and for Tanaka (Hiromasa Taguchi) it’s a place he can lose weight while feeling free.
Shall We Dance was a huge hit in Japan because of the way it touched upon a lot of Japan’s societal issues. It ripped into the Japanese dream, positing how much more there was to get out of life, and did so by portraying one of the more provocative hobbies one could do. Dancing was seem as feminine and an embarrassing thing for men to do, and European ballroom dancing was seen as un-Japanese, with its close proximity, and physical contact between men and women.
Shall We Dance fought for masculinity, passion and individuality in a time when those were being ground down. It’s a story that transcends its time period, and has a lot to teach use still. Because in a world of Louis Theroux exploring Manospheres, and influencers turning hobbies into investment opportunities, we need to be reminded that we aren’t the sum of our working hours, expressed through checklists and spreadsheets. Sometimes you have to let life flow through you, if you could just listen for its rhythm.
Verdict: A bittersweet masterpiece, Shall We Dance’s themes and messaging will carry over even after the final dance has finished.
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Shall We Dance (1996)
Also known as: Shall We ダンス
Japanese
Director: Masayuki Suo
Writer: Masayuki Suo
CAST
Koji Yakusho – Shohei Sugiyama
Tamiyo Kusakari – Mai Kishikawa
Naoto Takenaka – Tomio Aoki
Eriko Watanabe – Toyoko Takahashi
Yu Tokui – Tokichi Hattori
Hiromasa Taguchi – Masahiro Tanaka
Reiko Kusamura – Tamako Tamura
Hideko Hara – Masako Sugiyama
Hiroshi Miyasaka – Macho
Kunihiko Ida – Teiji Kaneko
Amie Toujou – Hisako Honda
Ayano Nakamura – Chikage Sugiyama
Katsunari Mineno – Keiri-kacho
Tomiko Ishii – Haruko Haraguchi
Masahiro Motoki – Hiromasa Kimoto
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