swing girls is an excellent movie.

[Eric P]

Swing Girls is the tale of a bunch of country side Japanese girls who join the school band when the previous band finds itself suffering from food poison.  There's a charm and a quirk to it which is just excellent.

It's by the creators of Swim Boys, which tacked a similar sort of tone.  It's really a type a film which the Japanese do really well in, striking a great tone between Drama and Comedy.

If you liked films like Kikujiro (a film so wonderful i saw it back to back in theaters) or the aforementioned Swim Boys or Ping Pong.

If anyone knows of any other films like this, please list them.

[Eric P]

[youtube=425,350]OOBBni4syzY[/youtube]

teaser (very short)

if you're so inclined, you may find this full movie subtitled on youtube.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it is awesome

DID YOU KNOW

I have a personalized autographed Xbox 360 plate signed by the teacher who gets preggos in Water Boys? I won it in a Famitsu Kameo contest at 360 launch.

btw, Hula Girls is very disappointing, in case your penchant for slice-of-life fish-out-of-water Japanese child comedies continues. I mean, it's okay, but it's pretty B-level.

um ... you Have seen Tampopo, I trust? that's probably my favorite Japanese drama/comedy

[Eric P]

yeah i'd heard about the disappointing hula girls.

alas.

oh well.

[Eric P]

yea, i loved tampopo.  aside from the part where they kill the turtle and drain its blood.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it's too bad, because like you say, the "oh you kids!" dramedy is something Japan excels at. plus, hula girls won all those awards...sigh

oh uh

have you seen Shimotsuma Monogatari? released in the U.S. as Kamikaze Girls. It's like one of my most favorite movies ever. it's like, Fincher directing a movie about gothic lolitas and girl motorcycle gangs

let me find a trailer for you without the terrid English voiceover

[Howard Alan Treesong]

[youtube=425,350]okV8bHr_G9U[/youtube]

wow just wow, I want to watch it again right now

[Eric P]

ah, yes that's in my queue.  the us marketing makes me cry.

of course, most us release and marketing of japanese films is 100000000% geared to the interests of its most base fans.

guns, tits, tit-guns, swords.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

TITTY NO TERROR

cool, you'll enjoy it muchly

I'm gonna go polish off Peep Show S1

[bork]

This movie was fantastic; thanks for the recommendation.  Swim Boys, huh?  Am I getting that confused with Water Boys?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

This movie was fantastic; thanks for the recommendation.  Swim Boys, huh?  Am I getting that confused with Water Boys?

no, he's talking about Water Boys

[Eric P]

yeah i goofed up

water boys

[jiji]

I just watched Swing Girls. It was completely ridiculous and overacted, but in a sort of undeniable, exuberant, life-affirming way. And it sure seemed like the girls were actually playing their instruments, which was way cool.  I had a big, dumb grin on my face at the end.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I completely cracked up upon hearing Mexican Flyer near the end, since Space Channel 5 shows up early in the movie. I didn't know the song existed before SC5. Oops!

[close]

[Eric P]

yay

[chronovore]

Shimotsuma Monogatari is in my queue just for having the luscious Anna Tsuchiya in it, talking street shit. woooo!