After Perfect Days I wanted to see more Kōji Yakusho films. This was excellent. Peak RomCom material. 

Reminded me of the scene in Hesse’s Steppenwolf where Hermine says to Haller “how can you say you’ve tried everything if you haven’t tried dancing?”

This is exactly what it should be. The plot makes zero sense and is the most transparent mcguffin-without-substance there could be, but there’s also excellent footage of Tom Cruise running with a ballroom dancer’s posture and lots of one-liners that would feel absurd in real life

Not all of the fellas were especially good

It’s pretty remarkable that Nishijima conveys as much of a Murakami protagonist’s struggle through his acting as the books do through pages of rich inner monologue.

The trip to Masaki’s home village in Hokkaido must be one of the most compelling pieces of cinema I’ve seen. Throughly beautiful. 

The red Saab 900 against the white Hiroshima background is a totally iconic movie car (a good departure from the yellow in the original short story!).