10Dance

Top Notch

The two male leads were phenomenal! Their chemistry was riveting. They both could speak not only with their bodies but with their eyes. From my understanding neither of them are professional dancers; they learned to dance for this movie. In my estimation they're both geniuses! The choreography was superb!

This is sort of a slow burn romance with a masculine lack of verbal communication. I got the impression that the time frame of this movie wasn't 2025 but more around 1980's to 1990's. I could be misreading that, but there is a huge preoccupation with one of the male leads smoking continuously. Until recently that amount of smoking has been kind of frowned upon in movies. There was a somewhat easy acceptance of a male male relationship, but then a subtle sense of an awkwardness in pursuing an obvious relationship.
I don't know some of the cinematography seemed to indicate a time frame 20, 30, 40 years ago. At that time a gay couple would not have been readily accepted.

One male lead was rigidly controlled but you could feel the inferno under the surface of the skin that was clamoring to be released. The other male lead was extremely passionate and emotional and sexy as hell!
The dancing was magic!

This movie presented a different flavor to a BL. I would sort of consider it more of an LGBTQ movie than a BL. Overall the movie was entrancing and I am certain to watch it several more times.

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Japanese Nuances Carried by the Actors’ Performances and the Beauty of the Dance Scenes

10Dance is a movie that lingers long after it ends. Through ballroom dance, it portrays the shifting emotions between two men with remarkable subtlety.

Japanese dialogue carries layers of meaning—levels of politeness, gendered speech, and subtle shifts in tone—that subtitles can’t always capture. Sugiki always speaks in polite Japanese, even when teaching. His tone only breaks when his emotions overflow. Forms of address also reveal character dynamics: Sugiki calls Fusako “Yagami-san,” while Suzuki casually calls her “Fusa-chan,” reflecting his innocent, free-spirited nature. Meanwhile, Fusako and Aki call him “Suzuki-sensei” (Mr. Suzuki), showing respect. Aki’s rough, casual lines like “Koeeyo” (subtitled “I’m scared”) also express her personality. These nuances may not fully translate, yet the actors’ physicality and expressions convey the emotional truth beyond language.

Sugiki (Standard) and Suzuki (Latin) clash in both style and personality, but as they teach each other, tension slowly turns into recognition and respect. Suzuki’s line, “It's like a wave, a current… Just by holding his hand, I can feel his emotions,” captures how dance lets him sense Sugiki’s inner world. When Sugiki calls from England, Suzuki quietly says, “Come back soon, okay?”—a moment that shows how close they’ve grown. Their kiss on the train marks the undeniable pull between them.

At Blackpool, Suzuki’s ex-girlfriend Liana appears. Watching Suzuki’s expression as he dances with her, Sugiki seems unsettled, and Suzuki senses this. That night, Suzuki kisses him, trying to cross a line. Sugiki rejects him with: “It’s no use. We can never become one.” The Japanese line “交われないんだよ” carries a deeper nuance—not just “we can’t become one,” but “our ways of living can never truly intersect.” The subtitle is more romantic and direct, while the Japanese expresses a heavier, existential distance. Afterward, Suzuki practices alone, reaching out as if taking the hand of someone who isn’t there. His expression holds a quiet, aching loneliness.

When Sugiki finally asks, “Will you dance with me?” their story begins to move again. Their ten-dance demonstration is breathtaking—full of joy and harmony.
And their final kiss feels less like an ending and more like the beginning of something new — a moment where their hearts finally meet. Many viewers are hoping for a Season 2, and I find myself wishing for it as well.

The dance scenes are stunning, filled with the actors’ dedication and emotional precision. Their nonverbal acting—glances, silences, subtle shifts—speaks louder than dialogue. At first, I couldn’t quite connect with Suzuki’s character, but his sincerity and passion won me over. By the end, I found myself wholeheartedly rooting for them.

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Tender and intense in correct moments!

This show was clearly done well, the production was amazing! But I mean it was Netflix show after all!

I loved the cinematography, it was very well executed. I was immersed in the movie's world right away, unable to take my eyes off the screen. The lights, colors, movements, camera angles, all of it! All those aspects came together and created a beautiful and emotional story as well as the amazing atmosphere.

We got both tender and intense moments woven together. I could feel the emotions through the actors movements, without anyone saying a word. I was enchanted by the actors movements, those dance skills surely needed a lot of work! I also loved the quiet but strong emotions we could feel in many scenes.

All in all I loved this movie! It was fresh, well executed and beautiful as a whole.

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Ballroom rivalry turned limbo between desire and discipline—who is the true winner?

‘10DANCE’ is so much more than a testament to the grueling process of competing in the world's most anticipated dance-off. It is a movie that captures the slow creation of beauty, priceless far beyond the prestige of any award won: the reunion of two halves and the replenishing of one's soul.

The premise is established seductively, the trailer presenting two tan, sculpted men who hover on the fine line of love that rests between power and surrender. This limbo-reminiscent display grants the movie a face of competition and unexpected attraction, teasing the grounds of rivalry the main leads would soon step foot on. From the outset and throughout, it defies any common preconceptions within the enemies-to-lovers genre, setting the stage for its mature take on love that delivers a powerful performance of sensuality. During the story’s progression, the movie remains unrestrained, and flows unpredictably, its structure much like the free-flowing beauty of dance itself. It is not so much focused on the art’s rigidity—the rules, the formations, the structure of the competitions... Instead of staying true to the string of drama it first teased, as the movie unfolds, dance becomes a vessel of self-expression, an avenue for exploring attraction, and, interestingly, mirrors the two men’s lives and inner conflicts.

Japanese Latin dance champion Suzuki Shinya is fire-spirited, vulgar in the way poets spill raw emotion onto paper. Not so much consumed with the need to release feeling, but ravenous to live it, to feel it seep into every bone. Driven by the body, he graces the dance floor with untamed steps, unearthing a raw sensuality through his unrefined movements. He has grown to embody love, to make it and to live it through his body. On the stages he shares with the dozens of other participants he overshines, his body does not become his frame of eloquence. Instead, it moves to the sound of its own drum: a wild flame of a heart turned into a spell, turning the audience into victims of its quaint power. Raised by his mother, who burned bright as the Cuban sun and fell in love with whomever she met, he inherited that spirit of hers, always loving and bound to the Havanas. Yet to his dismay, that fleeting beauty was overlooked as a lack of restraint in the moments when control was expected of him.

Unlike Suzuki, Japanese standard dance champion Sugiki Shinya is rather professional-comported. His traditional upbringing not only shaped his conservative stature, but also heavily influenced his dance style, clashing with the freeness demanded of him to embody Latin dance. This weakness is ultimately the reason he becomes drawn to Suzuki and asks for his assistance. Though he insists he lacks such skill, one can only wonder if his refined movements are true to his heart... Is he truly the grim reaper of dance? Severe to the point of demanding perfection and cruelly strict in his commands, Sugiki's execution of power over his dance partner sure gives him the allure of one. His speciality, ballroom dance, follows a precise formula that asks for control and rigidity, requiring every posture and step to be measured, every frame precise. What appears as cruelty is merely his embodiment of a role that would fit into this formula. He has long discarded his love for dance and traded it for survival. He led a life masked by grace, ignoring what sizzled beneath his elegance: dangerous passion, hunger for power, authenticity, and love—perhaps his greatest, most sacred desire of all.

Once their two worlds collide, they expose each other in every way that brings them a step closer to their breaking point. Sugiki remembers first being attracted to Suzuki after being drawn to his hands that seemed eager to fight and to pour themselves into passion. However, this illusion of strength broke as soon as they grew closer. Throughout the movie, Sugiki slowly discovers the underlying vulnerability and the desire to surrender hidden beneath a body that dominates the stage and steals attention away. Behind the scenes of the bright lights and competition, this ache to surrender grows, consuming Suzuki, who feels that this desire of his is only fulfilled by experiencing it, however briefly, through the dance practices he shares with Sugiki. Because he is so used to dominating the stage, he yearns to feel this fleeting sense of surrender seep into every part of him—into his body, through dance, and into his soul, through every weakness and through lending his heart and his body to his rival.

This strange attraction soon evolves into a complex connection. In Suzuki’s touch, Sugiki finds his own self and recognizes the familiar way of living as if enslaved. Suzuki’s soul was stuck in a moving body that wouldn't let him rest, always moving on its own to the beat of a forever-drumming heart. The qualities that had drawn Sugiki to him were exactly what had been slowly pulling the life out of him. In reverse, Suzuki, too, saw right through him…he sensed a yearning for power inhabiting Sugiki’s moves. Hidden beneath his eloquent and elegant demeanor, there burned a dangerous, insatiable urge to possess and command. He loves keeping Suzuki on edge, using him as a vessel through which he can exercise his domineering hunger for power. The same factors that bind them to each other expose the fact that their roles are almost reversed. Their dances are mere shields, practiced to hide their vulnerabilities and to conceal their true selves, their bodies speaking different languages than their souls. Yet the very reasons that draw them together are also what threaten to pull them apart, raising the question: which one of them dares break first?

Falling into each other means surrendering, giving up their pride as rivals. Every interaction holds a dangerous weight like that of a dance, of a waltz stepped too close. The poignant acting captures each of these small, deliberate moments where the definite rupture is an outcome breathing down their necks. Even the ending scene stands on this edge between dominance and surrender, love and restraint, of breaking apart only to come back together again, everything that pulls them further only bringing them back together again. In Suzuki’s own words, their severed bond bathes them in the everlasting feeling that taints their dangerous romance: “So close, and yet so far.” The climax of this tension risks them crumbling and unraveling when they have roles to play and their careers depend on it, their rivalry creating chemistry that is both irresistible and dangerous.

The cinematic train scene, textured with a luscious tone of forbidden romance, becomes the moment when the sensuality between them shifts into something greater: a ledge that leaves them teetering on the edge of falling apart. It especially poses a risk for Sugiki, a rigid dancer who has always separated his vulnerability from his art. The climactic scene begins with Sugiki and Suzuki role-playing as puppers of dance. ”I could be the beauty and you can be the beast”, Suzuki teases. But the ending of this shared interaction shatters the illusion just like how every facet of themselves can't help but break when they are in each other's presence. By pouring intimacy into their every word, touch and kiss, they become men revealing themselves beyond the masks that cloak them behind their assigned archetypes. This pivotal moment perfectly encapsulates the show’s essence: a hollow rivalry turned into something greater, transforming from a fight of egos to a relationship characterized by authenticity, trust, and vulnerability. Now, what they share is more dangerous, because even dance cannot contain it.

Their final performance represents the peak of this chemistry. They finally let their emotions be the strings to their bodies, their love ripping through them so fiercely it overcomes any other sense of rationality. Together, on stage, they combine every emotion ever tended to each other and finally become a language that tells the story of their romance. Both become the grim reaper and the angel at once, alternating roles in sizzling chemistry that refuses to be left unseen. Their steps tread the fine line between tender grace and fiery, vulgar strength, hanging on the verge of eroticism. The very same dance rituals they had practiced so many times before became thickened with love, offering a stellar performance—dance turned mating, sexual yet emotionally intimate and fragile. Two flames in one, tying back to the movie's opening line that love is the reunion of two halves of one soul. “Dance is neither about technique or stamina. Love is what makes it whole” is a reoccurring quote throughout the movie, words that guide them back to each other even after the cruelest of departures. In the end, they finally embody this mindset, letting love dictate the rhythm, uniting them in a shared devotion that surpasses rivalry, pretense, and performance.

After dancing to love on stage and bending the rigid frames set around them, they separate once more. Not as men who refuse to acknowledge what lies between them, but as dancers who choose to continue their love, their dancing a love language pushing them back and forth, in and out. Their last kiss during their departure from one another doesn’t seal the romance they shared into a tragedy of loving but having to leave. It is a token of anticipation for their next encounter, for the next time their masks would crack and their dancing would not be a mere spectacle, but instead a language, a play of an angel and a grim reaper. An embodiment of the duality of holding on: powerful, yet surrendered. Again, they will lend their hearts to their bodies, waiting to be found again, through the one thing they allow themselves to share: dance. The open ending stays truthful to this complex dynamic. Their romance allowed them to rediscover their passion for their art, reigniting their chemistry...and their rivalry. In the end, they both leave the stage like true winners, finally letting their rivalry and romance breathe as one.

2026-02-16

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A solid 8 - not perfect but worth the watch

The actors are fantastic. Mature, seasoned, in their own element. brilliant casting.

The story itself is fantastical. nuanced and respctful to the ballroom dance scene and culture, yet boundary pushing to where it makes you ask “could that happen in real life”

The lack of relationship development is where this movie falls flat. I think you just need longer than a movie length to develop the tense and deep connection that they showed on screen. it sort of felt like a few time hops and the audience didn’t get to see those important moments.

but overall worth it!

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Great Visuals and Enticing Moments but Ultimately Left Me Wanting

10 Dance started off well then lagged a bit in the middle and finally did pull off some of the anticipated emotional moments. Ryoma Takeuchi is physically stunning and he is adept at switching from exuberant dominance to a sensitive and vulnerable man in his roles. Keita Machida’s nuanced performance which was revealed through his body language and his eyes is a marvel to behold. Shiori Doi and Anna Ishii make the most of their subordinate roles with perfect grace and honest emotions. Where this was lacking for me was in two areas. First, the slow build attraction sets up expectations for the viewer but when Sugiki turns and rushes down to the train, enters the car and kisses Suzuki, this was the moment when there should have been a leaning in to the erotica. Instead, we are treated to a chaotic “dance” scene that broke the tension. This approach and retreat I realize was used for a reason in the movie but it left me wanting. Second, we know from the dialogue that dance is love yet I only saw brief moments of the love and joy of dancing in the honor dance. The majority of it displayed attraction for a partner. Overall I enjoyed the movie but found myself comparing it to Shall We Dance (1996) with Koji Yakusho. His character is initially drawn to the dance studio by lust; however, he is soon captivated by dance itself and falls in love with the joy of dancing.

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... and if this never gets a sequel, I am happy with what we have. But I'd really like a sequel

Japanese BL movie, so I was scared about tragedy and a sad ending. Word on the street was so unclear about whether the so called "open end" of this movie comes with a positive or negative connotation, but ALL IS GOOD. All is good trust me. That open end is a serotonin high.

This is a romance. The characters both had past relationships with women, 💜 🩷 💙 , and as the movie plays out, it's revealed that they are each other's professional and artistic inspiration. They're not just rivals.

Then they fall in love. It's implied that it's impossible for them to be together but my boy Suzuki was SMILING in that open end, AND there is this event in the last scenes, it's a stunning and incredible climax of the movie. It's on a level of delusion that it's either a mass hallucination, or 10Dance is coming in at a level of escapism that rivals Red White & Royal Blue, but we have to believe the impossible. We have to dream it into reality. Dance is about LOVE, and about the performers and the audience connecting. This movie does that, too.

The women deserve their own fluffy yuri spinoff. Tajima Aki and Yagamo Fusako are incredible characters, and good friends to Suzuku and Sugiki, and Suzuku and Sugiki are good friends in return. Truthfully, not always, but it is implied that the obstacles in their respective friendships in the end brought them closer together.

It's perfect. Obviously. Costuming is sexy as hell, and the music is phenomenal.

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