The japanese version...I didn't even see the Richard Gere version because I heard it was stupid, and I don't know of the story was the same.
But in the japan version, the man becomes infatuated with a dancing woman he sees in a dance studio window while he waits for his train each night. Eventually this inspires him to go to her for dance lessons.
He does sort of fall in love with her, but he realizes over time it is more about the dancing than her. By the end of it, his teenaged daughter basically "outs" him about the dancing (because he has been doing it in private) and tells him to his face "why are you dancing with that woman and not with my mother!" It becomes clear that he and his wife had simply forgotten how to be close, and by the end, they appear to be back on track (or headed that way).
It is a very touching and powerful movie - basically about cheating or the beginnings of cheating - but with a happy ending for the married couple. They leave you with the feeling that the couple will be better off than they would have been if he had not begun this EA with the dancer.
