Hula Girls
by Lee Sang-il
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DVD details
Actor: Etsushi Toyokawa, Ittoku Kishibe, Sumiko Fuji, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Yu AoiDirector: Lee Sang-il
Brand: SIMON & SCHUSTER C/O VIZ MEDIA LLC
Cinematographer: Hideo Yamamoto
Composer: Jake Shimabukuro
Editor: Tsuyoshi Imai
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 200 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: VIZ Pictures, Inc.
DVD Reviews of Hula Girls
DVD Review: You Will Laugh; You Will Cry; You Will Stand Up and Cheer!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
We've all seen this kind of movie before; think Gung Ho meets The Full Monty, but this time it is based on a true story. In 1965 the Japanese coal mining town of Iwaki is facing disaster; coal mining is rapidly becoming unprofitable. In order to survive, the Joban Kosan Corporation, owners of the mine, needs to find some other kind of business to do, and in keeping with the slogan "One Mountain, One Family", whatever they come up with needs to save the town and as many of the workers as possible, too. Their truly cockamamie solution? To make lemons out of lemonade by turning the geothermal springs they spend huge amounts of money pumping out of the mine into the basis for a Hawaiian-style resort and theme park, the first of its kind in Japan, with former mineworkers and their families providing as many of the workers as possible, most especially the resort's Hula dancers. This is their story.
The reaction of the mine workers is barely restrained hostility, but to a handful of their daughters, this is their chance to seek out an alternate future to a short life of backbreaking labor and fingernails blackened with coal dust no matter how thoroughly they wash. Sanae Kimura (Eri Tokunaga) and her best friend Kimiko Tanikawa (Yu Aoi), a widow with a small son, and a shy giantess whose coal miner father pushes her to try, make up the entire class awaiting Madoka Hirayama (Yasuko Matsuyuki) the imperious dancing teacher from Tokyo who shows up drunk, motion sick, and wondering just what the Hell she has let herself be talked into. Nevertheless, overcoming an increasingly implausible mountain of obstacles she and her students, expanded eventually by economic desperation (later students volunteer even though they'd rather not dance naked and are quite relieved to be informed that they won't be stripping!), persevere until their final performance at the resort opening leaves you cheering and crying simultaneously.
If this sounds a little too corny, don't worry, riveting performances by one and all keep your disbelief suspended. Etsushi Toyokawa as Kimiko's protective older brother Yojiro and Madoka's knight in coal dust encrusted armor and Junko Fuji as Kimiko's intolerant and intransigent widowed mother Chiyo are particularly strong. Certain scenes will stay with me for a while: Madoka's disastrous arrival in (what she sees as) Hick Hell, Madoka marching into the men's bathhouse to expound her views to one of the miners over his having beaten up his daughter for secretly being one of her students (he survives the discussion... barely), her students convincing Madoka not to go through with leaving, Chiyo delivering a package to her estranged daughter and seeing her dance for the very first time, Chiyo pleading to borrow stoves to save the imported but now dying palm trees, Yojiro "dealing with" Madoka's tormentors, and of course their final, stunning performance that not only brought the extras to their feet but also a Hawaiian audience skeptical about the concept of Hawaiian-style anything, after viewing it at the Hawaii International Film Festival.
The DVD extras give some hints of why this movie works so well. Clearly the actress dancers were more than a little awed by encountering the real people, particularly the real dance instructors, who lived the real story and by the idea of performing in front of the current class of professional dancers in the scenes shot on location at the resort. You can almost see them becoming that original group of girls struggling to learn their dances and determined not to disappoint. Remarkably, Eri Tokunaga, whose character is eliminated by circumstance part way through the movie, continues her dance practice and accompanies the cast to the resort location where she is shown rolling and wetting towels and doing anything she can think of to help her fellow cast members nail their on film performances, while they inspire themselves by doing the famous cheer offstage before going on. The resulting performance is better than anything the director was expecting, as he admits, and after movie filming finishes Eri is called up on stage to dance the finale with the rest of the cast.
The extras also reveal, according to the real participants and as I suspected, that the obstacles to be overcome had been exaggerated considerably in the screenplay; I already had my doubts about tragic mine accidents, debt collecting gangsters, fathers beating up their daughters, unrelenting community hostility, etc., etc., etc., ALL being true during that first incredible year, but the excellent performances delayed this reaction until after the movie was over.
This story so inspiring it inspired the actresses themselves to exceed expectations is not to be missed!
Description of Hula Girls
Winner of 2007 Japanese Academy Awards for Best Film Best Director Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress; Winner of 2007 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Film Best Actress Best Supporting Actress; Winner of 2007 Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress; Winner of 2006 Hochi Film Awards for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress.2-disc set loaded with special features!Includes:* The Making of Hula Girls* How To Be a Hula Girl* Hula Girls: The Real Story* An Interview with Jake Shimabukuro (music)* Original Japanese TrailersBased on a true story HULA GIRLS is a heartwarming comedy about coal miners daughters who took a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape their monotonous lives only to become unwitting heroes to their depressed mining town as well as the whole of Japan.System Requirements:Run Time: 200 minutes Genre: COMEDY UPC: 896911001072Bestsellers in DVD
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