Title: Dance! Subaru
Genre: Drama
Director: Lee Chi-Ngai
Format: Movie; 105 minutes.
Dates: 20 Mar 2009

Synopsis: Subaru and her twin brother Kazuma share a dream in becoming ballet dancers, but after Kazuma’s death from a hereditary illness, dancing became Subaru’s only happiness and she yearns to lose herself in dance. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she runs into cabaret owner Isuzu, who recognizes the talent in Subaru and trains her in her nightspot. But to become a professional ballerina, Subaru has to overcome harsher challenges than merely satisfying the cabaret drunkards. Spurred on by her rivals, Subaru enters an international dance competition, to vie for recognition and a scholarship to any top ballet company in the world.

The Highlights
Pan-Asian Effort: Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, oh my!
Kuroki Meisa: Her strong, palpable presence is this film’s biggest selling point.
Pacing: Too fast, too furious.
Direction: A 105 minute-long MTV doesn’t exactly make for compelling viewing.

Based on a popular manga of the same name by Soda Masahito, the live-action film adaptation is unique for being a large-scale, pan-Asian production rather than exclusively Japanese project, directed by veteran Hong Kong director Lee Chi-Ngai, and with Japan’s Warner Bros Japan, Korea’s SM Entertainment, and Singapore’s MediaCorp Raintree Pictures co-producing alongside Hong Kong producer Bill Kong’s Edko Films. And it shows in how Dance! Subaru came off with a very different feel from most other Japanese films; there is an international sheen to the film, but unfortunately at the cost of the “heart” that characterizes the best of Japanese film.

By far, it is actress Kuroki Meisa who steals the show; her portrayal of the titular Miyamoto Subaru is a refreshingly headstrong, passionate character whose palpable presence defines the film for what it is. It is not at all hard to root for the young woman who instinctively knows what she wants to do in life, rises from grief and pain to reach for that goal, and meets all challenges in her way with a charmingly bullheaded attitude that would make many want to stand up and say ‘you go, girl!’. Such a strong female character who does not fall into the trap of the tsundere conventions are few and far between, and Japanese media could certainly stand to benefit from more of such characters in their storylines.

Unfortunately, part of what makes Kuroki’s presence stand out so strongly was the fact that most of the other aspects of the film pale badly in contrast. For one thing, I’m not the biggest proponent of Hollywood sequels, but something definitely isn’t quite right when I start thinking at the 1-hour mark that they should have padded out the story up to that point, ended it right there and then, and saved up the rest of the material for a sequel. Events in the storyline not only happen too quickly, they also happen too choppily; it was “snap”, next scene; “snap”, next scene; “snap”, next scene with hardly sufficient transition for pretty much the entire duration. The entire experience was like watching a 105-minute long MTV, and as one might imagine, such would have consequences on everything else in the film.

For one, the MTV effect is especially apparent in the dance scenes; it might be a necessity to cover up the inevitable lack of ability on the part of the main actresses, but the quickfire scene-switching and odd camera angles just end up less than convincing, making any comments about the dancers’ skills feeling like an informed ability more than anything. For another, most other characters apart from Subaru herself tend to end up becoming an afterthought; only South Korean model A-ra’s Liz Park manage to serve as a respectable foil to Subaru, and Sano Miku’s Kureha Mana barely avoids ending up in the “afterthought” group as well. This also makes the melodramatic portions less than convincing as well, as it is hard to feel Subaru’s grief for those lost when they were just there….and then gone. It is not helped by the fact that despite her stage presence, melodrama is the weakest part of Kuroki’s repertoire, making it such that Subaru’s depressive scenes were, again, less than convincing. This also has the effect of making Subaru an admirable, but not a particularly sympathetic character in the end.

Ultimately, the directing leaves far too much to be desired, sacrificing too much character development for excessively-fast pacing. Subaru’s dance techniques are frequently commented on by other characters in the film as “needing work”; much the same can be said about the direction of this promising, but ultimately disappointing film.

The Rating: 6

Reviewed by: Ascaloth