10 Dance, the Netflix live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese BL (boys’ love) manga by Inouesatoh, has come to Netflix with great choreography, the same level of yearning, slightly less racism, and a story as incomplete as the manga. Because yes, this movie is indeed called 10 Dance. No, we do not actually get to the 10 Dance competition. Eh, sequel or…?
Netflix is obviously banking on the or, because the decision to basically end this movie in what feels like a beginning is a clear ploy to make us ask for more. And we’re asking. Give us more. More dancing, yes, but more yearning as well. More romance. In fact, the only thing we don’t want more of is the stereotypes! You can keep those.
Let’s start there. The biggest problem with 10 Dance is that, as a Latina, I felt insulted every time Cuba was brought up and the stereotypes of Latinos were hammered in—whether in Japanese or horrible Spanish. To be fair to this adaptation, the manga is much more racist. So, they did improve it. They could have just cut out the racism altogether, though. That would have been my preference.
Outside of that, the show translates the manga pretty well as it focuses on two rival male dancers, Latin dance champion Shinya Suzuki and Ballroom champion Shinya Sugiki, who team up to learn each other’s styles for a competition. Pretty straightforward. Rivals to lovers is a trope, and one we absolutely eat up. Rivals to lovers in the world of competitive dancing? Sign us up.
A lot of the movie has to do with dancing, and that part of 10 Dance absolutely works. The choreography is amazing, the way the dancing sequences are shot, down to the slow motion when the two rivals first start practicing together, to the subtle changes that are obvious when different people pair up work great. If you like dancing, this will move you. If you don’t, it still works very well.
But if you’re not here for the stereotypes (and you shouldn’t be!), or the dancing, but the BL, then that feels like a mixed bag. There could be a lot more yearning, but the movie seems to go too fast from hate to hate dancing to making out in a train, and then to dramatically breaking up for… reasons. The chemistry between Ryoma Takeuchi and Keita Machida is great when they’re allowed a chance to be together—be it dancing or talking—but the movie still feels like it needs a touch more yearning. And by a touch, I mean a lot.
Still, the romance parts of the film are mostly enjoyable, and Takeuchi and Machida’s best moment on-screen comes at the end. This works out perfectly for Netflix’s clear plans to continue making content in this world, because now that we got a glimpse of what could be, we really need these two men to continue competing after having basically come out by kissing each other in the middle of the dance floor.
Right now, there are no consequences. Nothing to worry about. The movie ended, and everyone is smiling. In fact, they’re looking forward to the next competition. And so are we. Will we get it? Likely, if Netflix is smart. Hopefully, when we do, we can dial up the yearning, get many more scenes of these two dancing together, even if we have to invent contrived reasons for them to do so, and oh yes, get rid of the stereotypes. That would be good.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 10 Dance? Share with us in the comments below!
10 Dance is now available to stream on Netflix.
I’m not part of the Latin culture, so I can’t speak knowledgeably on any culturally insensitive issues with this movie. For that reason, I will accept that there were some. I can however give credit to the director at two specific points. At the beginning, the film includes a quote from Aristotle. “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” Then during the street scene when Sugiki proposes to teach Suziki and Aki the finer points of ballroom dancing, there is a shot where the two lead’s bodies seem to merge courtesy of filming through glass windows. Excellent foreshadowing. There is a similar technique when Sugiki seems to catch the spark of dancing while holiday lights are superimposed on him. Very well done.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. For those who doubt whether seemingly straight people can connect romantically I recommend an article published several years ago in the New York Times. In it, they highlighted actions and words that can facilitate falling in love. One of those was staring deeply into the other person’s eyes for at least 8 seconds. Latin dance especially has that in spades.