| The usual dance film would have Mai and Sugiyama fall in love during the big dance competition finales, but Mr. Suo stays clear of such clichés in favor of portraying dance itself as a means for one to uplift themselves and their spirit. In doing so, the audience leaves the theater with toes a-tapping and a smile on their collective faces. |
| In the 2004 U.S. remake of the same title, Richard Gere is a big city lawyer who has grown unhappy with his life. Something is missing; something that he cannot find from his wife, the still sexy and appealing Susan Sarandon (a department store executive), nor from his sassy and lovable teenage daughter. |
| Jennifer Lopez plays the role of the unhappy dance instructor who stands in the window of Miss Mitzi's Dance Studio with a far-away look in her wistful eyes. Gere, like counterpart Sugiyama, spots the enigmatic beauty during his rush hour ride home, and like Sugiyama, one evening musters the courage to satisfy his ever-increasing curiosity and investigate the girl and the dance hall. |
| Jennifer's instructor is a woman who openly bears the emotional scars of something that is not shared with the |
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| audience until Act Three. As a result, Ms. Lopez's misdirected character is one who is so lifeless as to be mannequin-like. Absent the charm and light-heartedness of the Japanese Mai, the inner-conflicts of Jennifer's Paulina prohibits the audience (and her students) from embracing the joy of dance which she is hard pressed to convey through such a seriously depressed and easily agitated character. |
| Unlike Japan-where ballroom dancing is a regarded with suspicion-the inference here is that ballroom dancing is regarded, at the most, as something less than manly and, at the least, as just plain silly. This is revealed in two scenes: one in which Stanley Tucci (in the role of Gere's fellow office worker by day, Latin lover by night) is secretly practicing his dance steps in the company washroom with Gere. Rather than be caught in the act, Tucci feigns a heart attack when a fellow worker unexpectedly enters. In another scene, Tucci is "outed" as a ballroom dancer by his colleagues, and quickly redeems his manliness by grabbing one of the deriding secretaries and expertly manipulating her in a macho dance maneuver, leaving the startled woman breathless and with a new-found respect for the art form-and perhaps, Tucci's character, as well. |
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