Dance, Subaru!
Lee Chi Ngai

Given that this is supposed to be about the passion of dancing, the film feels disappointingly perfunctory.
Based on the best-selling manga of the same name, this overly familiar tale centres on a gifted dancer with a tragic past, Subaru (Meisa Kuroki).
There is also a competition that brings together and divides three friends and rivals as well as a last- minute development that threatens to derail the foregone conclusion.
Up-and-coming actress- model-singer Kuroki has striking good looks, courtesy of some Panamanian blood on her father’s side. But while you can envision her as a hip-hop street dancer, you do not quite buy her as a top-level ballet and modern dance performer.
And that is something you just cannot dance around.
(ST)