Dance, Subaru!

Dance, Subaru! is a story not unlike Centre Stage and Step Up! The ballerina who overcomes all odds to realise her dreams. It is adapted from a manga by Masahito Soda and directed by Hong Kong director Lee Chi Ngai. What attracted my attention to the film is the subject - dance and by relation, music.

The only other Asian film that I remember to feature dance is a Hong Kong movie starring Karina Lam and Nicholas Tse. The title of which I can't recall at the moment but that story revolves around the fulfillment of the dead dancer's wish by utilising another's body. Essentially, it is a story about the afterlife rather than about dance, dance only played a supporting role here.

This movie stars Kuroki Meisa as Subaru Miyamoto, the surviving half of twins who shared a dream to become professional ballet dancers. She is scouted and thus goes through all the tough training, emotional ups and downs that comes with being in a troupe of dancers. All of which is part of the storyline in any other western movie about dancing that we have seen.

So why watch this one? Two words - Kuroki Meisa. She is said to have trained for months in order to perform all the dance steps on her own. She surprised even the director in executing the pointe when it came time to film it and she started out with no ballet experience. That in itself, is reason enough for me, but of course guys should be happy note that she is quite the beauty.

For those who are who would care to know more, this multi-talented girl has also released her first studio album - Hellcat (Sony Music). You can also catch her in the play Onna Nobunaga if you live in Tokyo.