But the movie has a great deal of zest and charm, and Yakusho gets so exactly that crest of melancholy that is a man#146;s early 40s, until he decides to go for another kind of life, that the movie is infinitely touching.

Stephen Hunter

Washington Post

Its paper-thin characters turned into caricatures by egregious hamming, this 1996 Japanese comedy-drama about shy ballroom dancers is sentimental goo and downright interminable.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

The film successfully walks the thin line between slick commercialism and serious realism. It is sentimental, but it comes by its sentiment honestly, through well-observed performances by the leads and a keen insight into the quirks of the Japanese middle-class culture.