Welcome to my 2026 project honoring the first quarter of the 21st century. In this extremely lax project I watch a movie from each year to hopefully give myself some insight with what has changed within cinema during this century. At the very least I’ll have watched 25 interesting films and paired them with a dinner inspired by the movie, the place its from, and maybe a little bit of nostalgia for the past 25 years. You can watch along with me or find out what’s up next by checking out the full list of movies.
Today’s feature is from the year 2019, we are headed to Japan to become a musical lover in…
Movie: ダンスウィズミー [Dance With Me]
Year: 2019
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi
Country: Japan
The Elevator Pitch: Suzuki is a high powered, ladder climbing office lady who hates musicals. By accident she is hypnotized to burst out into song and dance whenever she hears music. The only way to reverse it is to track down the hypnotist who put her in this trance, which is easier said than done.
How Was the Movie?:
This movie is an absolutely delight! I’m pretty sure I’m the perfect market for this film because while it’s billed as a musical it kind of wavers between being a musical and buddy comedy (I am an absolute sucker for a buddy comedy). While the summary might turn off people who are concerned about this being too much of a musical this movie doesn’t play it straight and there’s a lot of humor to be wrung out of someone who is singing and dancing against their will. As the singing and dancing isn’t always welcome by everyone around her (but occasionally is) it never quite hits the cringe fever pitch of a true musical but it also doesn’t completely spit in the face of singing and dancing.
This is a jukebox musical which probably won’t mean much to people not deeply familar with Japanese staples of the 60s-90s but boy, I recognized all of them was basically doing a pointing leo meme every time a song came on because I have a kind of nostalgia for the time periods I didn’t live through but only for Japanese music I guess. The dancing is extremely good in the film and so fun and vibrantly done as well that I think it will at least hold some appeal for everyone.
Where this movie falls down is really the third act when it stops being so much a musical and does it’s best to actually resolve the plot. The movie really starts to drag and feel kind of aimless after we’ve done away with most of the singing and dancing unfortunately. The other issue is that it ends exactly how you think the movie will and you are kind of left wondering what the point of the journey was.
If there is any specific downside to this film its mostly like it’s the type of film that you will best enjoy by turning off your brain as there doesn’t seem to be a lot here to mine out in terms of themes or big ideas but it is an awful lot of fun so there are worse things in the world. If you like music or musicals at all I would really recommend this film because it’s just kind of joyful and strange and delightful for everyone else there is probably something better for you.
It’s 2019 so we’ve got modern tech out the wazoo in this film but since all the music is from a past era and rearranged via jazz it actually gives it a lot of interesting vibe. The old ways not quite remixed into the new I suppose. I’m just happy when cellphones actually get used in the ways that people use cellphones in a movie. I don’t know why that is somehow so rare even now?
What was for Dinner?:
I made Japanese style chicken curry. I made it from my favorite S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix (hot) but you can also pretty easily make it from scratch if you don’t want to spend an ungodly amount of euros since no one Estonia buys such things. Obviously this is one of the greatest known foods given to mankind. It’s basically a roux with curry powder that you stew chicken and vegetables in but for some reason it’s just so delicious and like a warm hug in a bowl.
I used to buy curry mix when I was a kid also so this is especially nostalgic flavor for me. I have no notes except that the box mix means I am probably suffering a little bit from the IKEA effect but I like to think it really adds to the feeling that the meal was made by someone else. I just added love (and chicken and carrots and onions and potatoes). 10/10 go make some Japanese curry!
That’s it for 2019, see you in the future year of 2020!