Shall We Dance?
Shall We Dance? Image
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Naoto Takenaka, Tamiyo Kusakari
  • Summary: A middle-aged workaholic's incredibly dull life takes a funny turn when he signs up for a ballroom dance class -- just to meet the sexy dance teacher. But when he finally muscles up the nerve for lessons he winds up with a different instructor and her colorfully eccentric class of beginners! And now he'll have to step lightly -- and do some fancy footwork -- if he expects to keep his new secret passion from his family and friends! (Miramax)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
  1. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    90
    But the movie has a great deal of zest and charm, and Yakusho gets so exactly that crest of melancholy that is a man’s early 40s, until he decides to go for another kind of life, that the movie is infinitely touching.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Freer
    80
    Shohei's journey from unhappy worker bee - the early scenes are cleverly sketched to show his mundane routine without ever themselves being boring - to rejuvenated free spirit is credible, actually earning the film's final emotional wallop. Irresistible.
  3. Slate
    Reviewed by: Sarah Kerr
    60
    It's alert to its characters' constantly evolving desires in ways that high- and low-culture movies, with their strict aesthetics or their mass-market formulas, tend not to be.
  4. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: B.J. Sigesmund
    30
    The film suffers dearly because of the two underwritten, emotionally unavailable characters at the film's center and when all is revealed at an amateur dance contest, the music — and the modicum of tension the movie has created — dies.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. RayW.
    10
    A perfect film. I give it an 11. I'm a guy, and this is as close to liking a "chick-flick" as I have ever gotten. This is the most charming film I've ever seen. It is so removed from the ususal Hollywood style obsessed with nauseating two-cent lines and looking "baad" or sickeningly sentimental trifle. "Shall We Danse" offers a small peak into the rigidity of Japanese society telling a simple and heartwarming tale devoid of overt sexual themes or even full blown romance. A great ambassador for Asian drama.… Expand

See all 2 User Reviews

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