Shall We Dance?

(Miramax)

A middle-aged businessman (Tampopo's Koji Yakusyo) tries out ballroom dancing for the wrong reason: he has the hots for the instructor (Tamiyo Kusakari). Shall We Dance? is stirring when Yakusyo's longing to dance shatters the Japanese mold of a lifetime of anguished conformity. Unfortunately, in the dance-competition sequences, the film becomes a lesser Strictly Ballroom .