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Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ) 2004 Japanese Film




"Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ)" is a 2004 comedy written and directed by Shinobu Yaguchi (2001's "Waterboys"), and is the tale of delinquent and lazy school girls, who in their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, end up poisoning and replacing the school's brass band. The film chronicles their journey thru actualising self-worth thru excelling as best they can their instruments.



Their final stage performance was an emotional culmination for me, of expectations and relief that they've pulled thru in the end, of being able to - against all odds - perform what it was that they set out to do, and not necessarily "winning" an award for.

Scroll thru the FINALE SCENE SPOILER posted direct below, to the FULL MOVIE below that, in case you don't want to spoil your watch, cheers.

Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ, Suwingu Gāruzu) perform Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller), Mexican Flyer (Ken Woodman), and Sing Sing Sing with a Swing (Louis Prima) in the final performance of this funny Japanese film.



Oblivious to the film, I had read online that the girls' performance was actually performed "live", not prerecorded and pantomimed. Apparently many of the actresses had never played an instrument before, and took intensive intensive music lessons at Yamaha Music School for several months before the shooting began. To promote the movie, the actor and the actresses performed live in concerts in Japan and the USA.



Whenever I felt like "life" was turning to shit, with no way out, I would watch this film, to be both inspired and to forget the short, even for an hour and 44 minutes.

Starring Juri Ueno (Nodame Cantabile) as Tomoko Suzuki (Tenor saxophone), Yuta Hiraoka as Takuo Nakamura (Piano) and Shihori Kanjiya as Yoshie Saito (Trumpet), "Swing Girls" was released in Japan on September 11, 2004 where it was distributed by Toho (Further Info).



FULL FILM BELOW:


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