ebossert A group of flunkee schoolgirls take up jazz in this hilarious movie by Shinobu Yaguchi. If you're unfamiliar with Yaguchi, he's a very reliable director and I would place him on a pedestal as one of the best – if not the best – contemporary directors of comedy films. One reason I feel this way is that he usually chooses a different topic for each film and explores the topic to point of being informative for the viewer. For example, his film Wood Job (2014) focused on forestry, his film Robo-G (2012) focused on robotics, and his film Happy Flight (2008) focused on air traffic control. So the viewer usually leaves his film with a slightly greater knowledge of the topic at hand. Swing Girls focuses on how teenagers learn to play instruments – a topic that is certainly more familiar to the typical moviegoer than something like forestry, but the informational value of the film is still there.The second reason I love Yaguchi as a director is that his humor is more of the everyday variety, which is very funny and very charming. Unlike some other directors of comedy, Yaguchi's films never even come close to being annoying or grating on the nerves – which is a huge positive, in my opinion. There are no gross-out jokes or juvenile dialogue to sit thru. I mean, there's nothing worse than being irritated by a comedy, and you have nothing to worry about here.Lots of hijinks occur in Swing Girls, which include disastrous lunch trips, money-making schemes to buy new instruments, and musical debacles. The set-up of how these girls become involved with music is very entertaining. The laughs just keep coming while incorporated within a distinctive cinematic approach that avoids over-the-top silliness in favor of quaint, well-timed events. One of the more memorable comedic set pieces occurs mid-way thru (in a forest) and is very creative in its style of camera-work. The pacing is fast, the characters are lovable, and the finale has some very catchy tunes. Yes, you have some legitimately good music to look forward to here. The opening half focuses on a few songs that the protagonists consistently fail to learn properly, but once they progress in their skill set we are treated to some great stuff during the finale.The lead actress here is Juri Ueno, who is very popular in Japan because of her screen presence and charisma. Most of her films have not made the jump to American shores, but Swing Girls is an excellent introduction to this actress. One of the teachers is played by Naoto Takenaka, who is one of those Japanese actors who is seemingly in every film (not unlike Ren Osugi) – IMDb credits Takenaka for 225 acting roles. He's great in this one, and it could be my favorite performance I've seen from him.Swing Girls is great fun and comes highly recommended.

morris vescovi A group of teenage girls in a summer math make up class accidentally cause the food poisoning of the entire brass band. They decide to take the member's places to play in the next ball game, but is's really an excuse to get out of math class. When the members quickly recover and they have to turn over the instruments back over, they discover that they have actually learned to love jazz music.The misadventures the girls go through to earn money for their instruments are hilarious. They flood the supermarket they go to work for, and when they try collecting mushrooms in the forest they run into the biggest most vicious boar you have ever seen. Then they have a problem finding a place to practice because the're new and not very good yet. Eventually they have a chance to preform at an annual concert and the final fifteen minutes is jazz heaven. The girls really play their own instruments. The music is not dubbed.This is a great, funny and very touching film with some well defined characters and fine acting.it's about teenagers who aren't really bad but just lazy who accidentally discover something they love and about their math teacher and his two secret loves - jazz music and the school's music teacher. A person of any age will enjoy this film.Humor usually doesn't travel well from one country or culture to another but that is not the case here as all or almost all of the humor comes through, even the verbal humor. The subtitles are also quite good. This deserves a regular release in this country

lutra_riverdog I got to see this as it was released in Japan on DVD and it does have English subtitles. 'Swing Girls' has got to be the funniest and most honest 'feel-good' flick I have seen a very long time. Having lived in Japan for a number of years and having two Japanese daughters (one playing in a junior high school orchestra), I feel I'm qualified to at least say that the 'silly Japanese school girl' is portrayed in the best possible light. So if there are silly situations, it is only because they are a bunch of silly girls that have to come clean in a serious situation, i.e. high school competition. Other than not meeting any of Uncle Waldo's criteria for a five-star movie, I have no idea why this movie is not already distributed in USA. And that is a shame.

yokorunrun 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.