Swing Girls (2004)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Shinobu Yaguchi

Writers:

Shinobu Yaguchi (written by)
Junko Yaguchi (contributing writer)

Release Date:

17 March 2005 (Singapore)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Music

Tagline:

Girls meet Jazz!!!

Plot:

A tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up poisoning and replacing the schools brass band. |

Plot Keywords:

Summer School | Self Motivation | High School Band | Musical Contest | Mushrooming

Awards:

11 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Juri Ueno	...	Tomoko Suzuki
Yûta Hiraoka	...	Takuo Nakamura
Shihori Kanjiya	...	Yoshie Saito
Yuika Motokariya	...	Kaori Sekiguchi
Yukari Toyoshima	...	Naomi Tanaka
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
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
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
Naoto Takenaka	...	Tadahiko Ozawa (math teacher)
Yoji Tanaka	...	Manager of Pinball Parlour
Kei Tani	...	Morishita
Eriko Watanabe	...	Sanae Suzuki
Asuka Yamaguchi	...	Chika Kubo

Directed by
Shinobu Yaguchi

Writing credits
Shinobu Yaguchi		(written by)
Junko Yaguchi		(contributing writer)

Produced by
Shintaro Horikawa	....	producer
Shôji Masui	....	executive producer
Daisuke Sekiguchi	....	producer

Original Music by
Hiroshi Kishimoto
Micky Yoshino

Cinematography by
Takahide Shibanushi

Film Editing by
Ryuji Miyajima

Art Direction by
Norihiro Isoda

Sound Department
Hiromichi Kori	....	sound
Masatoshi Saito	....	sound effects editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Megumi Kitamura	....	assistant camera
Tatsuya Osada	....	gaffer

Production Companies

• Altamira Pictures Inc.
• DENTSU Music And Entertainment
• Fuji Television Network
• Toho Company

Distributors

• Cathay-Keris Films (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Toho Company (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• EDKO Film (2005) (Hong Kong) (all media)

Other Companies

• Hoei Sangyo Co. Ltd.  film supplied by

Runtime:

Japan:105 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 (re-rating) | South Korea:15 (original rating) | Hong Kong:I | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Yamagata, Japan

Company:

Altamira Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

To promote the movie, the actor and the actresses performed live in concerts in Japan and USA.

Quotes:

Nakamura, Yuta: Where do you think you're going?
Tomoko Suzuki: Bathroom.
Nakamura, Yuta: Liar! You really have to practice. There's only a week left 'til the game!
Tomoko Suzuki: Won't even let us pee!

Soundtrack:

Moonlight Serenade

love the swing!

what a fun! I was totally surprised by this film; at first i had the prejudice that the whole thing could turn out like a hysterical teenage comedy but it didn't, luckily.

The light hearted feeling in this film was so comfortable. It is just like as someone already wrote in the comments. This film really does complement the, in movies or animes often seen, generalized or sometimes sexist image of Japanese school girls. The soundtrack, beside the jazz music, was also excellent, though it was the common "japanese-drama" background-music (accoustic guitar and stuff). The Jazz music covers solely standards and wasn't very artistically played but it was, combined with this movie, awesome! The acting was also very nice, however there were some awkward moments when the acting felt a little bit exaggerated. But that's fine with me, considering that many of the cast debuted with this film.

This could have been a reason to give this film a 8/10 but the funky finale made a 9/10 out of it. ;)