SHALL WE DANCE (Masayuki Suo, 1997) **

Why is ballroom dancing such an easy comedic target? Is it the participants' too naked ambitions of glamour, of style? Is it their transformation from workaday lives to eager glittering hounds for approval and applause?

Whatever the reasons, SHALL WE DANCE? mines ballroom dancing's inherent laughs. A career accountant and clumsy duckling is inspired to take up dancing courtesy of the dance teacher's melancholic glances out of a window.

A comparison to Baz Luhrmann's SIMPLY BALLROOM is probably unfair because I suspect the intentions are dissimilar, but it is unavoidable. Much of the appeal of Luhrmann's film was his fevered and kinetic vision, unhesitating in its transforming of characters to caricature.

SHALL WE DANCE? is, by comparison, too polite. The laughs are there, but it doesn't go about it zestfully enough. SHALL WE DANCE? is also undisciplined - too lengthy and slow-moving. Amiable company, but uninspired.