Shall We Dance?
User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6

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  1. MarcK.
    Mar 8, 2005
    10
    The best film released in America in 1997. Swept the Japanese equivalent of the Oscars in 1996...as in winning EVERY award! Wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Film due to a ridiculous technicality. The critics listed for Chicago Reader and Newsweek clearly have no heart.
  2. RayW.
    Jan 16, 2006
    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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic 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.
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  2. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    30
    Its paper-thin characters turned into caricatures by egregious hamming, this 1996 Japanese comedy-drama about shy ballroom dancers is sentimental goo and downright interminable.
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  3. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    80
    The film successfully walks the thin line between slick commercialism and "serious" realism. It is sentimental, but it comes by its sentiment honestly, through well-observed performances by the leads and a keen insight into the quirks of the Japanese middle-class culture.
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