Swing Girls

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Movie: Swing Girls
Japanese: スウィングガールズ
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi
Writer: Shinobu Yaguchi
Contributing Writer: Junko Yaguchi
Producer: Shintaro Horikawa, Shoji Masui, Daisuke Sekiguchi
Cinematographer: Takahide Shibanushi
Release Date: September 11, 2004
Runtime: 105 min.
Genre: Comedy
Production Company: Altamira Pictures, Toho, Fuji TV
Distributor: Toho
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Tomoko and her classmates are given a reprieve from their dreary summer math class with the job of delivering lunch to their high school brass team. Unfortunately the girls fall asleep on the train and miss their intended stop. They get off at the next available stop, but then they still had to walk a considerable distance in the baking sun to get to the stadium. By the time the girls got to the stadium and delivered the food, something strange happened. All the members of the brass team got sick, except for Nakamura (the girls ate his lunch while riding on the train). The following day, Nakamura is left to reassemble the brass club, but only 3 girls show up for the auditions. 2 are heavy metal rock girls that bring their amps and guitar and bass. The other girl seems promising but brings a flute. Nakamura soon sees the girls from the math class, that delivered the lunch late, laughing in the hallway. He demands that they join the brass band or he will tell the faculty that the food wasn’t spoiled from the factory but that the girls were at fault. The girls soon enough agreed, partially because of the threat and partially to avoid the monotony of taking summer math classes. The girls have no clue how to play and they are in terrible physical condtition. Nakamura takes it upon himself to train the girls, first with physical exercises to improve their stamina and then teaches them how to play their brass instruments. There is only a week until the next game begins and the girls start to enjoy playing their instruments immensely. Unfortunately the original brass team recovers from their illnesses and rejoins bthe brass team. The girls are now left without a club to play their music for or have any instruments to play with in their free time. After some moments of despair, the girls take the initiative to start their own Jazz band and they call themselves Swing Girls (And A Boy). Along with the help of their math teacher, who is somewhat of a Jazz aficionado, the girls train vigorously to compete in the upcoming student music festival.

Notes

Film director Shinobu Yaguchi ran across an account of a dwindling high school brass band that reinvented itself as a youthful Big Band. He decided to track the band down to the boondocks where he found an ensemble composed almost entirely of girls with bobbed hair breezing through jazz numbers. The contrast between the band's look and its sound inspired Yaguchi to create "Swiing Girs," set against the seasonal beauty of northeastern Japan.
Main actresses were all selected from an open call as members of the Yamakawa High School Big Band. Yaguchi completely overlooked the need to cast performers with musical skills. Several months of intensive practice and rehearsal allowed the actresses to record all the musical numbers in the film.
Songs performed in "Swing Girls": "In the mood" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra (song playing while walking along the apartment complex), "Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Milller (The first song played at the concert finale), "Mexican Flyers" by Ken Woodman (The second song played at the concert finale), "Sing Sing Sing with a Swing" by Benny Goodman (The final song played in the concert finale).

Cast



Juri Ueno	Yuta Hiraoka	Shihori Kanjiya	Yukari Toyoshima	Yuika Motokariya	Naoto Takenaka
Tomoko Suzuki	Takuo Nakamura	Yoshie Saito	Naomi Tanaka	Kaori Sekiguchi	Tadahiko Ozawa (math teacher)

Addtional Cast Members:

Nagisa Abe - Reiko Shimoda
Noriko Eguchi - Shop Assistant at Muscial Instruments Shop
Hana Kino - Manager at supermarket
Fumiyo Kohinata - Yasumi Suzuki
Fumiko Mizuta - Yuka Yamamoto
Madoka Matsuda - Yumiko Shimizu (saxophone)
Naomi Nishida - Masumi - student at music school
Mutsuko Sakura - Suzuki Mie (Tomoko's Grandmother)
Miho Shiraishi - Yayoi Itami
Issei Takahashi - Band Leader
Masaaki Takarai - Kubota-sensei
Yoji Tanaka - Manager of Pinball Parlour
Kei Tani - Morishita
Eriko Watanabe - Sanae Suzuki
Asuka Yamaguchi - Chika Kubo
Hidekazu Mashima
Yu Tokui
Chise Nakamura
Seiji Fukushi
Natsuko Tatsumi
Tadashi Sakata
Masashi Mikami
Mari Hayashida

Trailers

Image Gallery

Awards

2005 (28th) Japan Academy Prize - February 18, 2005
- "Screenplay of the Year" (Shinobu Yaguchi)
- "Outstanding Achievement in Music" (Mikki Yoshino, Hiroshi Kishimoto)
- "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording" (Hiromichi Kori)
- "Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing" (Ryuji Miyajima)
- "Rookie of the Year" (Yuta Hiraoka & Juri Ueno)
- "Most Popular Film"

Comments

Comment #4
Ki Says:
Feb 01 2011 5:08 am

Cute & charming movie that will have you dying with laughter and at other times, tapping your feet along with the music from the Swing Girls & A Boy. As soon as the girls decide to start their own band, the movie kind of steps into overdrive with absolutely hilarious scenes. The girls needed to raise money to buy their instruments and this is where the fun really begins. Juri Ueno who played Tomoko (the girl that takes the initiative to start the band) was a riot. When she saw the used saxophone of her dreams, she simply would not be denied. She replaced her sisters PS 2 video game console with a black Kleenex box, as well as the families iMac computer, to pawn off for the saxophone. The manner in which it was done was so funny. The movie is loaded with these types of humorous scenes, like when the girls decided to work at the grocery store to buy their instruments. Probably the funniest part of a very funny movie would have been when the girls and Nakamura were in the mountains picking mushrooms and stumble upon a wild boar. As the girls and Nakamura are being chased by the wild boar, the film uses a novel stop motion technique to show the expressions of the terrified kids, all the while Louis Armstrong’s "What A Wonderful World" plays in the background. Absolutely unforgettable scene! With all the drama that occurred with the Swing Girls’ preparation to compete in a National Student Music Festival, there were also budding romances that occurred between Nakamura and Tomoko, as well as between the Math teacher and the Brass Band instructor. Swing Girls is one of those movies that is damn near perfect in every way. Hell, after watching the movie, I wanted to put on some Dizzy Gillespie on the turntable and try my hand at the air trumpet. Awesome movie!
Comment #3
Christopher Says:
Sep 25 2010 11:22 am

a best musical movie for me ever!!
Comment #2
Alejandro Sáenz Says:
Aug 16 2010 9:45 pm

I love this movie! It´s adorable and really funny! Highly recommended!
Comment #1
Kancut Says:
Jun 14 2010 10:05 am

although not the best movie i've ever seen, i enjoyed watch this movie...

there are some funny scenes, made me laugh heartily..