Ben Larson Shohei Sugiyama (Kôji Yakusho) is a guy that works way too much. I understand that is typical in Japan. He is lonely, but that is not what attracts him to a dance studio.On the train home, he sees Mai Kishikawa (Tamiyo Kusakari) in the window. The next night she is there again. He is intrigued as to why she is so unhappy.He manages to overcome his shyness and joins in at the dance studio where Mai works as a teacher. Soon his life changes dramatically.Kôji Yakusho is an outstanding Japanese actor who was in Babel and 13 Assassins. Tamiyo Kusakari won a Best Actress award for this film and was up for another at this years Japanese Film Academy for The Terminal Trust.Comic moments are provided by Hiromasa Taguchi and Yu Tokui, and a very big surprise comes from Naoto Takenaka, who won a Best Supporting Actor award for this film.I cannot comprehend why anyone would think this film needed a remake.

jn1356-1 What makes "Casablanca" the great movie it is is that it doesn't try to tell the history of the world; it is not an epic; it is a perfectly polished little gem, "the problems of three little people" told exquisitely."Shall We Dance" is such a polished gem. Set in the Japanese culture where all dancing is suspect, a middle-class middle-management man who has lost the luster of his life sees a beautiful young woman looking wistfully out the window of a dance studio and, eventually, goes looking for her. He finds much, much more.Does infidelity ensue? You'll have to decide for yourself. What does ensue is magic, not Harry Potter magic, the everyday ordinary kind of magic that makes the world of us common people so wonderfully worth living.I've said enough. There is so much sparkle to this gem throughout I feel as if nearly everything I want to tell you is a spoiler.See this movie. You owe it to yourself. You'll thank me.

Lee Eisenberg As I understand it, much of the humor in "Shall We Dance?" derives from the stereotype of the Japanese businessman. A businessman in the Land of the Rising Sun is supposed to be very serious and motivated, as Shohei Sugiyama (Kōji Yakusho) is. He's successful but unfulfilled. But taking dancing lessons just might change that.Much like Baz Luhrmann's "Strictly Ballroom", "Shall We Dance?" shows that dancing is a physical form of communication. Shohei feels cut off from his wife and daughter, but the dance lessons help him open up. The movie knows how to present everything just right so that it comes across naturally and without seeming like a cliché. There was an American remake, but I have no plans to ever see that one.

kyrat A nice glimpse into Japanese culture and how they can be more reserved than us (at least in terms of physical contact) and cross-gender contact.I thought the actors, including the supporting cast were fantastic. I was a little worried about the focus of the movie as it started out w/ his boredom & attraction to Mai. Obviously the main character was the focus but I even felt for his wife and really enjoyed the scenes with the older dancing teacher and the private eye. As others have mentioned, Aoki steals the show whenever he's on camera. In general I enjoyed the film for the character growth - not for any particular scene. I was happy to see that this wasn't a "romance" movie, but something much better than a trite rehash of overdone plots.P.S. I'd like to respond to an earlier post. Shall We Dance (1937) w/ Rogers & Astaire is a completely different movie. It's a musical with a completely different plot. Just 'cuz the name's the same - doesn't mean it's the same movie!