Shall we dance?

Suo’s second feature after his offbeat comic debut “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t”, this wistful comedy about a Japanese salaryman who discovers the joys of ballroom dancing was hugely successful in its country of origin. Each evening, as he commutes home to his wife and daughter, Shohei Sugiyama, a typically strait-laced Japanese businessmen, catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman gazing out the window of a dance school. Unable to contain his curiosity, he enrols for classes in order to make contact with her. A snooty ex-professional dancer, she keeps her distance from Sugiyama, but through his newfound love of dancing he befriends a group of people who share his secret passion, including an office colleague who becomes a flamboyant mambo king on the dance floor. Touching and uplifting, the film also offers a subtle critique of restrictive cultural norms in a country where ballroom dancing is regarded as a slightly embarrassing, suspicious past-time because of the close physical proximity of the dancers. Cast includes Koji Yakusho, Taoiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka and Eriko Watanabe. In Japanese with English subtitles.