Shall We Dance? SWOT Analysis Example

The film Shall We Dance? was produced in Japan in 1996; it is a story of the broadness and tenderness of the human soul incarcerated in small and dusty living and working space, having no freedom, and suffering from loneliness and misunderstanding. The main character of the film, Shohei Sugiyama, resorts to dancing because of his lack of true happiness in life; despite the fact that he has bought a house for his family, and has a good job, he realizes how shallow these conveniences are in comparison with the freedom and pleasure of dancing. The film is an illustrative example of the ways people find to receive pleasure even in the cities and cultures chained by conventions, traditions, and lack of space for self-realization, in both literal and figurative meanings.

However, Shall We Dance? also incorporates many instances of urban development and planning in Japan that allow speaking about the sort of urban culture the Japanese had in the mid 1990s. First, it is the urban environment worth discussing; the starting minutes of the film already offer a clear image of how the Japanese live in the city depicted in Shall We Dance?, and how little space they have for movements, for walking, for relaxing, for traveling from home to work, etc. There is a true lack of space, and buildings stand right next to the train stations, which makes one only guess how uncomfortable and disturbing it is for people to work and live in such places (Shall We Dance?, 1996).

However, it is obvious that the Japanese urban environment is more pedestrian-oriented than driver-oriented, which is rather positive in terms of both environmental protection and citizens’ safety. As one can see throughout the film, there are very few cars shown, and Shohei travels home by a bicycle, which supposes that cars are not in frequent use, at least in the district in which he lives with his family (Shall We Dance?, 1996). Nonetheless, despite the benefit of the pedestrian-oriented culture, there is still a very high level of urban density in the city; the house in which Shohei lives with his family is incredibly small, but it is still considered a blessing by him, his family, and his colleagues, presumably because of the fact that very few Japanese can afford buying a house, and have to live in small, noisy apartments for their whole life.

Some other evidence of the stiff urban density and lack of personal space is shown in the check in of the dancing studio – when Mai enlists Shohei to the group of beginning dancers, one can see how small her working place is. The present size is typical for Shohei’s working place as well; the episode in which Shohei’s colleague Tomio comes to their department to give some documents ridicules the small space they have between their desks – Tomio has to perform some weird, funny gestures not to touch anything, and to get out of their department safely (Shall We Dance?, 1996). In addition, Masako’s (Shohei’s wife) coming to the private detective for the sake of finding out what her husband does on Wednesday evenings shows the working space of the private detective – a small room with several workers, a huge number of shelves with books, several tables, etc. – it is too small for the number of people and the number of things in that place, which is also indicative of the scarcity of space in Japan (Shall We Dance?, 1996).

The living space in Japan has already been mentioned, but it requires specific attention in the framework of the present work. It is obvious that the house that the Sugiyama family owns is considered a blessing among other people – it is small from the Western viewpoint, but it is a luxury for the Japanese. A small kitchen and small rooms indicate that the house, though it suits a family of three, is not very large overall. Separate beds for spouses in the family bedroom vividly illustrate the Japanese culture and the life in the male-dominant society – spouses live together, but sleep separately for the wife not to disturb her husband at night (Shall We Dance?, 1996).

Despite the tragedy that Masako sees in the hobby of her husband, i.e., dancing, she behaves in a way highly typical for the Japanese nation. First, she is astounded to have found out that her husband does not visit a mistress, but attends dancing classes. However, her reaction to this discovery is not much better than it would if her initial suspicions came true. Therefore, one can see that dancing is out of favor in the Japanese culture, and people dancing with strangers are generally considered indecent and ill-bred. However, despite her negative reaction to the hobby of her husband, Masako does not make a scandal at home, and does not try to dissuade her husband to attend ballroom dancing classes. Instead, she waits until Shohei dislikes the dancing classes, and stops attending them; nonetheless, she attends the contest in which her husband takes part to support him (Shall We Dance?, 1996). Therefore, one can assume that the family support and a tight family network in Japan are highly traditional manifestations of social life, so Shohei and his wife display behaviors typical for a Japanese couple – Shohei trying to pursue his dream, to learn dancing, and Masako – trying to keep her family, and at the same time to support her husband.

Drawing a conclusion from the analysis of Shall We Dance?, one should pay proper attention to the fact that the lives of the Japanese are successfully and fully shown in the film next to the urban planning issues they face, and they have to exist in. Throughout the film, such urban planning issues as the density of infrastructure and living space, the absence of privacy and a catastrophic lack of living and working space for people are evident. These are typical manifestations of the Japanese lack of geographical space, especially for people living in large and densely populated cities. It is hard to recommend anything for the improvement of the Japanese urban design, since the lack of space is a grave problem hardly solvable; however, it is considerable to move residential buildings farther from the train and underground stations, to provide more green space to citizens, and to improve the living conditions. The houses and apartments are too small, which creates the feeling of insecurity and low self-esteem at the psychological level, which can be overcome by means of ensuring more humane and comfortable conditions for the Japanese.

References

Suo, M. (Dir) (1996). Shall We Dance? Japan: Toho.