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 ou would have to
be incredibly incompetent as a director, writer, and actor to go wrong with a
movie like "Swing Girls". This is the type of film that has equal
combinations of fluff, inspiration, and general affability, three elements that
should win anyone over unless they were predisposed to hate anything and
everything. True to form, "Swing Girls" is every bit as funny,
vacuous, and breezy as 2001's "Waterboys",
the template from which "Swing Girls" was made from. As with
"Waterboys", the director of "Swing Girls" is Shinobu
Yaguchi, who at this point could probably orchestrate "Girls" to great
success with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back. This is a
winning formula, and you would have to try awfully hard to screw it up.
"Swing Girls" opens in the summer, where a group
of delinquent girls (or at least, academically adverse girls) are going through
another boring round of summer school. Of the girls, there is Tomoko (Juri
Ueno), who has never finished anything she started; Yoshie (Shihori Kanjiya),
who has a crush on one of the school's baseball player; the shy and awkward
Sekiguchi (Yuika Motokariya); and passive, music nerd Nakamura (Yuta Hiraoka),
who when we first meet him, is planning to quit band because he's stuck playing
the cymbals, which he's awful at. After an incident involving spoiled food sends
the school's entire band and their Hawaii-obsessed teacher to the hospital,
Nakamura blackmails Tomoko and the girls, all music challenged, into filling in.
Although they rebel against Nakamura's rule at first, the
girls eventually grow into liking this jazz band thing. Alas, soon the real band
returns from the hospital to reclaim their position, forcing our pack of
delinquents and Nakamura out. Flash forward to another year at school, where
Tomoko gets the idea to start their own jazz band outside of school. There are
problems, of course, chief among them money, time, and dedication. But the girls
(and boy) persist, and soon they've found a mentor in the neurotic schoolteacher
Ozawa (Japanese cinema veteran Naoto Takenaka), who as it turns out has a very
embarrassing secret.
With all the pieces finally in place, where will the girls'
musical talents lead them? Well, actually, it leads them to a band showcase,
where the film ends with surprisingly little fanfare. Although very much in the
vein of the overly familiar Sports Movie genre, "Swing Girls"
delineates from conventions about fifty percent of the time. Without a doubt,
the set-up is pure Sports Movie, right down to the delinquent girls, the
hesitant coach, and the unbelievably quick transition by the girls from music
challenge to good musicians. Nevertheless, there is something about the earnest
way with which the film courageously chugs along that almost convinces you this
is all original stuff. Of course we all know it isn't, far from it, in fact; but
you have to give credit where credit is due -- "Swing Girls" is so
downright honest with itself that you can't help but give it all the leeway in
the world.
One of the smarter things "Swing Girls" doesn't
do is force a relationship between its two leads, Nakamura and Tomoko. In fact,
the film is devoid of cheesy, formulaic romances between its characters, which
is a welcome relief from the usual gaggle of teen-focused films out there. There
are also no silly love triangles to complicate matters, no stereotypical evil
jocks to torment our heroes, and no odious rival competitors for our characters
to rail against. In short, although it's highly formulaic in spots, "Swing
Girls" nevertheless bucks much of the conventions you'll find in just about
every high school-centric comedy that's come before it. This makes the film
familiar, yet different, which is something you don't find everyday.
Like "Waterboys", the focus of "Swing
Girls" is more on the girls and the hijinks they get into while trying to
perfect their sound. Or in this case, trying to learn to play before their used
instruments fall apart on them. The trials and tribulations of the girls
translate into more than enough funny moments to make "Swing Girls" a
pleasure to sit through from beginning to end. And even when it's not funny
(which is rare), "Swing Girls" manages to be cute without ever
crossing over into annoyance. It goes without saying that you would have to
possess a heart of stone to hate these girls. They're that charming.
Although Juri Ueno's Tomoko is the apparent lead, the
film has a fairly large cast. The band itself consists of about 20 or so girls,
although all but six abandon the music experiment for a long stretch in the
middle. As with "Waterboys", we get almost no background on the girls,
and the only home life we ever see is of Tomoko's. What we do learn comes in
passing, such as the fact that Nakamura comes from a wealthy family, but
otherwise the film seems determined not to inject any sort of real life for the
girls beyond their immediate quest for respect as swing musicians. Does it hurt
the film that the focus is always on the girls and their band, and never on any
"real life" issues? Not in the slightest.
As a comedy first
and foremost, "Swing Girls" more than makes up for any semblance of
substance with its many funny moments -- some predictable, but others coming out
of the blue, such as a scene of Tomoko racing through the snow and, without
warning, falling. Funny stuff. Although it runs an hour and 40 minutes, the film
feels much shorter. And apparently the girls actually learned how to play their
instruments, and in fact are now on something of a world tour. No surprise that
the girls are actually musicians, or learned to be musicians, as they are very
convincing onscreen, especially during the finale, which is essentially a
15-minute concert.
You would be forgiven for thinking that "Swing
Girls" is basically a girl version of "Waterboys", because it is.
Like "Waterboys", "Swing Girls" sells comedy and hijinks,
and it certainly delivers on both. As I like to say, it is what it is -- and
"Swing Girls" does what it is so well, you are liable to forgive it
just about anything.
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