Swing Girls

Swing Girls (2004) was directed by Shinobu Yaguchi. Born in Kanagawa in 1967, Yaguchi other works include Adrenalin Live, A Secret Flower Garden and Water Boys. The latter has been his most successful movie to date, having been developed into a weekly television series. Water Boys shares many similarities with Swing Girls. First of all, the stage for each movie is high school and the main character in each is a boy (or girl) with no particular talent, skill or interests. He (she) discovers synchronized swimming (jazz music) and undergoes a transformation. Both movies are based on the theme of succeeding.

Set in present-day Japan, Swing Girls is the story of girls who meet and are deeply fascinated by jazz. The heroine is a very typical Japanese teenager. Her character is suggestive of the hidden problem of today children. She lacks any special interests or motivation and dislikes making any effort. But when she discovers jazz, she discovers something she can be absorbed in and begins to transform herself. At first, she is not able to even make a noise. But she and her friends practice and come to be able to play their instruments. They slowly come to be fond of jazz and take part in a music competition.

All the music was played by the actresses and actors themselves, which is perhaps the most outstanding aspect of Swing Girls. Their accents, on the other hand, sound to me like an imitation. But, as a whole, I like this movie.

The characters of Swing Girls are low motivated female high school students taking summer classes. They decide to start playing musical instruments and aim at taking part in a high school band competition. Their performance at the end of the movie is cheered wildly by the audience of actors and by us, the film viewers.

The director of this film is Fumihareu Yaguchi, known most widely for his work on Water Boys, a film about a male high school synchronized swimming team. There are some points in common between these films: the characters are under-motivated teenagers; friendship plays an important role; and the characters learn to achieve a difficult goal.

There are two good points and one weak point to Swing Girls. Overall the casting was excellent. The actresses succeed in portraying youth, seriousness, and pleasure and you can feel the strong tie of friendship between them. The music played in this film is traditional and familiar to many, such as Sing Sing Sing, which we often hear on TV in Japan. But one thing that seems to have been omitted are the scenes of the hard practice to the road to progress. The girls improve too suddenly.

From the beginning you realize that this is not a silly teen movie about a group of girls who act initially as substitutes for the school brass band. This movie actually has so much heart, its great to watch. Its full of good humor and all the girls of the title are engaging. Part of the time I was reminded of "Hula Girls", which has a premise that is a bit similar, but this is a better film. Its also better than the also similar "Linda Linda Linda". The girls learn jazz, going through the usual learning curves. The success or failure of this film hinges upon whether you like the characters, and I do. They are not caricatures, not over the top, just girls who want to play jazz. Another thing I liked a lot was that the film doesn't have any soppy coming of age romance subplots, which would retract from the fun of this. No need to go into what happens, its fairly obvious, but this obvious is fun to watch. Highly recommended.

I believe it was the great Leslie Nielsen who first puked into a tuba in Naked Gun 33 1/3. Call me juvenile, but that gag ALWAYS gets me.

In "Swing Girls" the gags are not always original, but maybe that's what makes this such a hilarious film. Everything is so delightfully predictable that you needn't waste time trying to unravel it. Instead you just sit back and enjoy the presentation.

The humour is largely visual, but it's not corny or slapstick. It's hard to describe--perhaps I'd categorize it with Monty Python's deadpan style: subtle and classy while not being afraid to make fun of itself. And this movie definitely makes fun of itself, like in the scene where the kids are running from a ferocious wild boar which is quite plainly a stuffed prop. Juxtapose the bizarrely inappropriate Louis Armstrong tune "What a Wonderful World" on top, and you have yourself 3 solid minutes of asphyxiating laughter.

Now comedy aside, it's important that you know something about the music. These kids are actually playing their own instruments. The fingering and breathing technique is authentic, right down to the last flubbed note. I think this is worthy of mention because it adds a certain authenticity to the film, much like in SPINAL TAP. Not only are they acting, they're really playing too.

Let me finish by saying that YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE SWING MUSIC to enjoy this film. Me, I'm a fan of death metal. But by the end of this film (and for some time thereafter) I sure as heck found myself whistling "Take the 'A' Train". Can't get the bloody tune out of my head now.

This is the best japanase comedy i ve ever watched! without a doubt u will fall in love with this Japanese school jazz band!

prepare to enjoy an extraordinary movie! you will laugh a lot!

it is important to highlight that even when you are gonna have fun, you will have the opportunity to learn at the same time about the social problems that the jap. public high school students have to face in modern japan. (family disintegration, school dropouts, the high consumption of brands - cartier, armani,etc- among jap. adolescents, mediocre professors, etc)

if we become extremely critical this movie will get 8/10 or 9/10 on the worst scenario. but because i enjoyed it so much and all of my friends loved it too, so we think this movie deserve 10/10!