Mar
17
2007
Hula Girls
Posted by luna6 1 Comment
Movie : Hula Girls / Hula gâru / フラガ-ル
Release Date : September 23, 2006
Country : Japan
Director : Sang-il Lee
Starring: Yu Aoi, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa
Runtime : 108 Minutes
Website : http://www.hula-girl.jp/
Editor Rating : 7.0
Users Rating: 7.22 
(27 votes)
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Plot Synopsis : In the cold rural town of Iawaki City in Northeastern Japan, the Nakago Mine is about to close, laying off 2,000 workers. The lifeblood of the cold northern town revolved around the coal mine and the residents there have worked in the Nakago Mine for generations. The workers were furious when they first learned about the company’s plan to close the mine and just shocked to learn what the company planned for the town’s future. The Joban Mine company plans to take advantage of the area’s other natural resource, hot springs, to build a grand Hawaiian themed based vacation resort.
The Joban Mine company now needs to recruit some of the daughter’s of the coal mine workers to become Hula dancers and possibly become ambassadors for their Hawaiian themed vacation resort. A major problem is that none of the girls in the town know anything about Hula dancing and the parents are weary of their daughters learning such a bold dance. Will the town say “Sayonara” or “Aloha” to the company’s plans?
Movie Review : Based on a true story, Hula Girls, takes the crazy notion of building a Hawaii like paradise smack dab in the coldest region of Japan. What’s more surprising is that the vacation resort seems to have become successful and is still in business some 40 years later.
The movie itself has quite a few different elements that generally work well as a cohesive piece. The big city dancing teacher, Ms. Hirayama (played by Yasuko Matsuyuki) comes to the small rural town and finds the town people to be distasteful country bumpkins, while the the town people find her a piece of big city life that they don’t want any part of. There’s Kimiko, played by Yu Aoi (Hanna & Alice), who is kicked out of her house, when she refuses to give up on her dreams of becoming one of the hula dancers. Kimiko’s brother, Yojiro, who works in the coal mines, is representative of the town in general, ultra-conservative, yet slowly adaptable for change if prodded in the right direction (..hint Ms. Hirayama..).
What worked really well in Hula Girls would have been the comedic elements (especially in the first half of the film) and the actual hula dancing scenes. The funniest moments would have occurred while the girls from the coal mining town first learned how to hula dance. Personally, I didn’t know anything about hula dancing prior to seeing this film, but left the movie feeling impressed by how well the dance communicated feelings and emotions to the audience…similar to sign language.
The large ensemble cast were good, headlined by Yu Aoi (All about Lily Chou-Chou/Hanna & Alice/Honey & Clover). Representative of the natural talents possessed by Yu Aoi, there was this particularly heavy scene that occurred between her best friend and her best friend’s drunken father. A temporary heavy shadow was cast over the film, but that shadow was soon lifted when Yu Aoi ran onto an awaiting bus and showed Ms. Hirayama her fake smile (..I can see clearly now the rain is gone..kind of feeling occurred). Etsushi Toyokawa was perfectly cast as Kimiko’s rugged old-school brother. His performance was good enough that I forgot all about his performance in the clunker known as “Japan is Sinking.” Ittoku Kishibe also provided a solid perforamnce as Mr. Yoshimoto, the representative from the coal mining company. You may remember him as the birdman if you have seen Survival Style +5.
A small quibble with the film would have been the director’s attempt to pull on the heartstrings of the audience one to many times during the latter portion of the film. During the build up to the conclusion of the film there was this continual domino effect like sequence where scene after scene consisted of “heart warming” moments that I found to be excessive and even corny. Those scenes although excessive, were not so overbearing that it took away from the overall enjoyment of the film. It just knocked my enthusiasm for the film down by a small notch.
Hula Girls provides a good family entertainment piece that will likely play well for all types of moviegoers. Although the film doesn’t equal the rip roaring hilarious moments of the Swing Girls or the heart warming moments of say Like A Virgin, Hula Girls certainly provided for a well paced comedy/drama, that has the potential to touch the hearts of many people. The hula dancing scenes itself were a blast to watch.
Cast:
Yu Aoi – Kimiko Tanikawa
Yasuko Matsuyuki – Madoka Hirayama
Etsushi Toyokawa – Yojiro TanikawaShizuyo Yamazaki – Sayuri Kumano
Shoko Ikezu
Eri Tokunaga – Sanae Kimura
Kojo Miyake
Susumu Terajima
Masaru Shiga
Hiroshi Okochi
Daikichi Sugawara
Katsumi Takahashi
Ittoku Kishibe – Norio Yoshimoto
Junko Fuji – Chiyo Tanikawa
If You Like This Movie You May Enjoy : My Mother Is A Belly Dancer, Swing Girls
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2006 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
1 Comment so far
Yu Aoi is so great in this film, kawaii ne’