Inspired by his own near death experience and subsequent hospital recovery--having been stabbed following the completion of his last feature--director Juzo Itami makes a self-referential comedy about illness and recovery. In "The Last Dance," Itami's alter ego is Buhei Mukai, a shlocky director starring in his own soapy opus about a composer struck down by cancer, when Mukai himself is given an ominous bill of health.