I haven’t seen them, but I suspect that they do achieve at least one of:
The dance is presented as a spectacle.
You go to see the movie to see people dance.
They probably don’t achieve my third item:
The dance is unnecessary to the plot.
Any one of the three, though, is enough to make it a dance movie. Shall We Dance doesn’t have any one of these three items, so it isn’t. Obviously people who are into dance will go see Shall We Dance, but the movie wasn’t formulated specifically to attract people who were into dance or who would want a movie in which people dance. It was formulated to tell the tale of a guy who goes out and does something expressive.
And as people have noted, the dance scenes aren’t wild and outrageous, nor professionally performed. They’re the dancing abilities of amateurs.
While I’ve admitted above to watching a number of Dance Movies in a short span of time and enjoying them, I will acknowledge that it’s doubtful that I considered any of them Musicals.
Because for me, as a singer, the Music is the most important part of what makes a musical.
I can’t think offhand of any movies I’ve seen with singing that featured no dancing. I have seen Meet Me in St. Louis, which was light on the dancing and none to heavy (in my opinion) on the singing–especially singing with decent voices.
Plot matters a surprising amount in my enjoyment of musicals. I’m not too fussy about the details of the plot, but I want there to be a story, a point to it all beyond just an excuse for the characters to sing and dance.
And while I’m willing to enjoy a movie like Follow the Fleet* which mostly features singing and dancing by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, musicals with ensemble numbers which I can imagine translating well to the stage are what I truly hold in my heart as what musicals should aspire to. I love watching “ordinary” people sing and dance well. I am much more inclined to be forgiving on the dance aspect than the singing aspect. If the music doesn’t make me happy to listen to it, nothing else matters. I don’t require professional musicians, I do require general in-tuneness, a tune which makes me want to sing along, and lyrics with zing.
*a movie which I have just watched this past week, not an otherwise especially significant member of this category
I don’t think there are a lot – I can think of a few movies with singing but little dancing, but not many with NO dancing. There is the recent Once as I mentioned earlier, although that is arguably a drama about two musicians rather than a musical.
Rock musicals were usually light on the dancing. I can’t recall there being any significant dancing in Tommy or The Wall. I think there was some in the Beatles movies but not a lot.
Not everyone in Shall We Dance has the abilities of amateurs, of course. If I remember correctly, Mai’s “dance double” was Tomiko Shinoda. She and Tadashi Shinoda were probably the best ballroom couple Japan has ever produced. But I agree that people don’t watch it primarily to see good dancing. (I’m not sure they watch Dirty Dancing to see good dancing, either, but I guess it is “presented as spectacle,” at least for the final dance.) ETA: I’m not certain I have their first names right - maybe someone who knows Japanese can confirm whether Tomiko is a man’s or a woman’s name?
I’m also not sure about your “unnecessary to the plot” item - I think that’s a tough one to judge. You could probably remake Dirty Dancing, for example, so that Baby and Johnny were doing something other than dancing together. It would require changes to the plot, but it would require changes to the plot for Mr. Sugiyama to do something other than dance, too.
On another topic, singing with no dancing - did the movie version of Evita have dancing? It’s been long enough that I don’t remember at all.
Bumping this to say I just watched the remake, which I enjoyed way more than I expected to. (Fellow Dancing with the Stars fans – Tony Dovolani plays the guy who knocks Mr. Aoki’s (Stanley Tucci’s) wig off in the competition!) A few slight changes, a couple of things added, a couple of things left out, but overall pretty faithful to the original.
The explanation given for why Richard Gere didn’t want to tell his wife (Susan Sarandon) why he was dancing: “I felt ashamed that I have so much – I love you so much – and yet I wanted something more” (paraphrase). Good enough.
Is the wife’s role bigger in the remake? She doesn’t have much screen time in the original, but it would seem a waste to cast a well-known actress like Susan Sarandon and barely use her.
yes, she has a bit bigger role in the American version.
Twicky, I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I assume you also caught Karina, both dancing at the studio with Stanley Tucci (she screams when Tucci’s wig comes off) and at the dance club.
When Gere first sees Tucci at Miss Mitzi’s, the girl he is dancing with (if you can call what he’s doing dancing) is Karina. When Tucci’s wig comes off then, she screams and runs away.
Then when Gere’s son takes him to the local dance club, there’s a huge group of club inhabitants dancing, and Karina is the first one you see sort of leading a dance line. Tony’s in that scene too, a little later, when he tells Tucci to bug off because the girl doesn’t want to dance with him.
Nope, totally missed Karina both times – but caught Tony both times. What can I say, I’m a reasonably healthy het female.
One other thing I wanted to mention – they end it with one of those “what happened to the characters” montages. Yeah, I know they’re cheesy – but everyone ends up very happy, and dancing.
Sweet movie. As I said, I liked it way more than I expected to.
I’ve never seen the American remake because a) I hate unnecessary remakes b) I hate Richard Gere and c) I didn’t trust Hollywood to transform the Japanese taboo about touching in public into something that would have any meaning or context. Perhaps my prejudice has cost me watching a worthwhile film, but I can’t imagine anything improving on the original.
