1 post tagged “swing girls”
SWING GIRLS
Director - Yaguichi Shinobu (Kagen no Tsuki, Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu, Waterboys, Secret Garden)
Suzuki Tomoko - Ueno Juri (Joshie The Tiger and The Fish, Nodame Cantabile, Orange Days)
Saitou Yoshie - Kanjiya Shihori (H2, Saikano)
Tanaka Naomi - Toyoshima Yukari
Sekiguchi Kaori - Motokariya Yuika (Dear Friends, Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu)
Nakamura Takuo - Hiraoka Yuuta (Kiken na Aneki, Check It Out Yo!)
Yamamoto Yuka - Mizuta Fumiko (Nobuta wo Produce)
Watanabe Hiromi - Sekine Kana (Cream Lemon: Yume no Ato ni)
Swing girls is about a whole class of girls (four of which stand out, plus one guy) who, over the summer, learn the art of Jazz and Swing, and, as these "music movies" tend to do, manage to whip out an awesome performance at the end. It's not really a spoiler...you pretty much see where everything is headed within the first ten minutes ^_^
Ueno Juri plays Suzuki Tomoko, the main Tenor Sax player. She's the main character of this movie, and the one who starts the ball rolling by accidentally poisoning the school's brass band, yet accidentally saving one guy, who happens to be their instructor of sorts when it came to forming a band. She acts incredibly goofy, yet not too far over the top. She's got the "high school girl" act down to a tee ^_^
Kanjiya Shihori plays Saitou Yoshie, the main Trumpet player. She's the pretty-girl of the show, and has a crush on the teams MVP baseball player. Her character isn't really developed too well, but is amusing enough to stop her from being boring.
Toyoshima Yukari plays Tanaka Naomi, the Drummer. She's a chubby girl who's constantly looking for ways to lose weight, and keeps wondering how many calories she's burning off by playing the drums. She plays her character very deadpan, a clear departure to the rest of her slightly over-the-top bandmates.
Motokariya Yuika plays Sekiguchi Kaori, the Trombonist. She's is extremely shy and soft-spoken, but whenever she does manage to finish a sentence (read: rarely), everyone listens to her attentively like she was the Captain of the USS Enterprise. She acts more than she says dialogue, which shows just how skilled this actress is.
She's also very good at blowing...
...and sucking.
Hiraoka Yuuta plays Nakamura Takuo, their virtual Jazz trainer/pianist. After the whole brass band goes down, he trains all the new girls how to play their instruments. Kind of. While his previous band had him banging on cymbals all day long, he goes for piano on the new band with amazing results.
Mizuta Fumiko and Sekine Kana play Bassist Yamamoto Yuka and Guitarist Watanabe Hiromi, respectively. They're two punk girls who quit their band because the other half, who happen to be their ex-boyfriends, were just too damn emo. Their characters have pretty decent spotlight time.
By the way, Yuka's ex-boyfriend Yuusuke is played none other than Mikami Misashi, otherwise known as Bouken Blue!
Speaking of which, Alto Sax Okamura Keiko is played by none other than Nakamura Chise, otherwise known as Bouken Yellow!
So how was this movie? Well, it's definitely a family film with a very predictable storyline (and one major plot hole). It's not a bad movie or anything, but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table. However, it should be noted that every single actress (and one guy) actually learned how to play the instruments that they were assigned, which I guess worked for when they were acting out their characters' frustration whenever they didn't get it. These girls really are talented, no doubt about that. Recommended for watching on one of those lazy afternoons!
