Dance with Me

Dance with Me
Japan | 2019 | 103’ | DCP | Colour | Japanese | Group: B
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi

Shinobu Yaguchi, whose Survival Family screened at the first IFFAM in 2016, returns to Macao with his most exhilarating and surprising film yet, a winning comedy musical in which song and dance aren’t merely incidental but the basis of the plot. Ayaka Miyoshi sparkles on screen as Shizuka and she makes it look easy, although in reality the work she put into the role was punishing and included over 250 hours of dance lessons. And equally delightful is screen veteran Akira Takarada as the dubious hypnotist. Takarada, who appeared in the very first Godzilla in 1954, has been a star in Japan for over six decades and he shows off his dandy style here to wonderful effect at the age of 85. As emotional as it is funny, Dance With Me will have you humming evergreen Japanese tunes from the 70s and 80s long after the end credits have rolled.

Shizuka works at a big Tokyo trading company and harbors a secret crush on her dashing boss. One weekend she takes her niece to visit a carnival hypnotist to inspire her for an upcoming school musical. But it is Shizuka who falls under the spell and she is soon – uncontrollably and unwillingly – breaking into song and dance whenever she hears music: in the street, during board meetings, at posh restaurants, even a cell phone ringtone! Shizuka must embark on a cross country road trip, singing and dancing all the way, to find the hypnotist so he can break the spell.

Born in 1967, Japanese film director and screenwriter Shinobu Yaguchi won a Grand Prix at the Pia Film Festival in 1990 with his debut feature The Rain Women. He made his first mainstream film Down the Drain in 1993. Since then, he has made eight features and he specializes in feelgood “zero to hero” stories such as Swing Girls (2004) and Waterboys (2001), which spawned its own three-season TV series.