Hula Girls

Synopsis: With the need for coal dwindling in 60s Japan, a mining company decides to cut their losses and open up a Hawaiian theme park in their town. With the prospect of unemployment looming large for many of the workers they protest but little do they realise that their daughters are being recruited to become hula girls for the theme parks grand opening. Soon the girls are touring the country promoting the event, much to the chagrin of their parents, but by the time the big show takes place, the hula girls have won the hearts of all.

Based on actual events that took place in the small town in 60s Japan, Lee Sang-il’s uplifting, unashamedly feel-good Hula Girls perfectly juxtaposes the harsh life of a mining town with the candy-coloured exuberance of the South Pacific and plays like a Japanese version of Brassed Off and The Full Monty, films that looked at the human side of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain and the depressing inevitability of unemployment in the 80s. This kind of social commentary, in the guise of feel-good comedy, is not something that the West gets to see in Japanese cinema so it’s a refreshing change from the martial arts mayhem to which we have become accustomed. However, there’s more to Hula Girls than social commentary, the typically off-kilter Japanese sensibilities ensuring that there is much to enjoy.

Hula Girls pulls at the heart strings and more. Tears are abundant as the young girls constantly battle their families and their Sensei, Mrs Hirayama. In this latter role Yasuko Matsuyuki  gives a wonderfully agile performance but she is nevertheless over-shadowed by Yu Aoi as Kimiko, the reluctant leader of the Hula Girls. Her climatic Hula dance brings the house down. The rest of the girls are the usual bunch of arhythmic misfits but it’s no surprise when they turn themselves into the crack team of hula dancers. Being Japanese, however, the film’s more serious story arcs do not pull any punches. A shocking moment of parental abuse is jolting but shows the pressures that townsfolk are put under. The constant undercurrent of dread at the mine’s imminent closures never lets up until the film’s final moments when the miners finally realize that mining coal isn’t their only option.

The spirit of Hawaii is alive and well in the wintery landscapes of Japan. You would be a hard soul indeed not to let the Hula Girls melt your heart in this warm, fun comedy.

Want more about this film?

Want something different?