lördag, januari 9

Top Six Best Dance Scenes

Why top six? I dunno. Maybe I couldn't be bothered with more, as I've got to go to sleep and read an obscenely huge manga about autism? Or you could call it a really lame pun. It'll make sense if you translate it into swedish and think long and hard about the Death Proof-scene, at least if you're male and remotely heterosexual (or lesbian and really gay, what do I know?). Whatever. Let's do it!

6. Bizarre Japanese Tap Dance (Zatoichi)



Why? Dear god, why? I'm trying to picture to myself what Takeshi Kitano might have been thinking when he choose to end a movie this way, but no, I've got nothing. I can't really decide if this scene is awesome or awful, but no matter, no list of dances in films would be worth its salt if it didn't include this one.

5. Morticia & Gomez (Addams Family Values)



This copule has chemistry like no other. It's sexy, classy, and cool. Oh, and you gotta be impressed by the flames.

4. The Lap Dance (Death Proof)



Oh, sorry, I'm just gonna go fight a sudden urge to masturbate 'til I faint. Be right back.

3. Ballroom Dance (Beauty and the Beast)



Even if we ignore the fact that this scene broke ground as computer animation goes, it's still a masterpiece of mood, elegance and general visuals, and likely to trigger massive nostalgia-buttons for anyone in my general age group. The song is actually much better in the swedish dub, though, so I've chosen to link to that version.

2. Chunari, Chunari (Monsoon Wedding)



The indian civilisation achieved what will some day be generally recognized as the foremost musical culture in human history. This scene is not very spectacular as Bollywood coreography goes, far from it, rather, it's great because of how much goes on in the background, and how the eventual outbreak of mass dance works as a kind of resolution for oh-so-many tensions in the film. There's even a little love conflict begun and resolved during it, all through the wonder of SPONTANEOUS INDIAN MASS DANCE!!!

1. Beauty Dance (House of Flying Daggers)



Like India is probably the pinnacle of musical culture, the Tang dynasty of China was probably the pinnacle of civilisation in general - it's all been downhill from there. Of course, this shouldn't really make them beat India in a list of this particular kind, despite the sheer gourgeousness of the clothes and the accessories and the room and the floor and every little visual detail, not even with a song as beautiful as this (it's 'Jia rén qu', composed in antiquity by Li Yannian); India would still beat all the chinese could muster as dance scenes go.

You can leave it to Zhang Yimou to fix that particular shortcoming, though.