Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“How was that? Did you feel like a princess?”
That’s perhaps the funniest yet earnest dialogue in Japanese movie ’10 Dance’, where Ballroom king Sugiki Shinya asks Latin dancer Suzuki Shinya what it feels like to be led on the dance floor. Their routine is sexy, seductive, and full of tension. And while Suzuki doesn’t really respond, his expressions indicate he has been swept away.
Directed by Keishi Otomo (Rurouni Kenshin, The Vulture), ’10 Dance’ is a classic rivals to lovers romance that’s based on the manga series of the same name by Satoh Inoue.
Ryoma Takeuchi (Kamen Rider) plays primary narrator Shinya Suzuki, the fierce, feisty dancer who brings sweat, swagger, and a wildly fun yet angst-y energy to the film. Keita Machida (‘Glass Heart’, ‘Cherry Magic’) is the restrained, graceful, ambitious Sugiki Shinya, who invites Suzuki to participate in ’10 Dance’ a competition where both clashing forms of ballroom and Latin are expected of contestants.
So the tension in ’10 Dance’ revolves around Sugiki and Suzuki training together, teaching each other their form. Their dance partners Aki (Shiori Doi) and Fusako Yagami (Anna Ishii) quietly watch the two men fall in love from the sidelines.
From the very first frame, the film’s cinematography and choreography command attention. The film opens with Sugiki and Fusako impeccably dressed in elegant black ballroom attire, gliding down a grand staircase with the air of royalty. Keita Machida looks statuesque and charismatic as ballroom champion Sugiki, even if his movement sometimes hints at limited dance training. In contrast, Ryoma Takeuchi brings explosive energy to the role of Latin dancer Suzuki. The chemistry between the leads is electric when they’re dancing together in close proximity.
The source manga spans a long, carefully paced series, and compressing that arc into a two-hour film inevitably feels limiting for ’10 Dance’. While two hours might seem indulgent elsewhere, ’10 Dance’ remains engaging thanks to its glitzy cinematography and immaculately choreographed dance sequences, and of-course due to the performances of Ryoma Takeuchi and Keita Machida. However, when it comes time for the emotional climax, the film struggles to convincingly convey the depth of passion between its leads.
The final dance in ’10 Dance’ is joyous, energetic, and thrilling to watch, the climax lands as pure spectacle, but the emotional payoff feels unearned. Without the weeks and months of shared moments that the manga allows to unfold, viewers are left to simply accept that these two are deeply in love, rather than truly feel it. In the end, ’10 Dance’ seems better suited to a series format, where that slow-burn connection could have fully taken shape. But regardless, the film is absolutely worth a watch!
Rating: 7.5 on 10. Watch ’10 Dance’ on Netflix.
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Thank you for putting how I feel into words! The film looked stunning, and the dancing was fantastic, but at the end, I was like “huh?” The reunion felt like it came out of nowhere. Like we missed some major plot points. And I felt like I didn’t fully understand the characters’ motivations/ feelings (especially Sugiki) by the end.
Funnily enough, I thought 10Dance was a series when I watched the trailer. So, I was shocked a little to see that it was a movie. It didn’t feel like enough time to do the narrative justice.
It was still a fun, passionate watch nonetheless, but definitely not the talk of the town game changer like I thought it was gonna be.
I agree. When I saw the trailer I was definitely expecting a series and all the while watching the movie I kept thinking it would have been better with more development. Interestingly, I was actually left at the end of the movie not thinking they were in love but thinking that perhaps they were meant to be two straight men who got caught up in the passion of dance and after expressing themselves in the honor dance they’d cleared the air and were returning to their prior lives…not the ending I was hoping for or expecting but that’s how it landed for me.