Watching Shinobu Yaguchi's movie "Dance With Me" was like welcoming a friend that you haven't seen for a while, all those memories of fun and music reflect through a rose-tinted colour of nostalgia- and that is Dance With Me. A movie about overcoming one's fears and embracing one's true passion.
In this movie we follow office worker Shizuka that has long since forgotten about her passion for dancing and singing- through a weird chance encounter with a washed out 60s TV show hypnotist she starts to dance and sing whenever there's music around.
You can clearly see that this is almost a spiritual successor to Shinobu's movie "Swing Girls", I don't know why but whenever there's music in Shinobu's movies there's always something that's deeply affecting and fun, and Dance With Me is no different- the songs are fun and catchy as hell and you feel so happy after it!
The movie looks beautiful, it has a very modern look but whenever it changes to the song and dancing scenes, that's where it really shines! Also the fact that we not only have Tokyo as the background but a whole road trip to Sapporo as well- yes this movie turns into a funny as heck road movie. Usually I'm not a fan of "comedy of errors" where everything goes wrong because the payoff is usually always expected, but in this one it's actually funny and the payoff is good!
Only negative thing that I can think of, and honestly it might be a fault of the subtitles that I used but I found some explanations near the end about why some characters and motivations are there to be non-existent which is a bit annoying but it doesn't deter from the enjoyment of the movie!
The actors are so funny and amazing, the lead role of Shizuka is funny and so good at singing and dancing! As well as her road friend Yoko, played by Chay, is so funny and natural at comedy- loved every single minute she was on screen!
Watch this movie for a fun and lighthearted time, honestly it's what's needed in this dark world- thank you so much Shinobu for making movies that lift my heart from sadness!
