moviefreak

Didn’t know what to expect before watching the movie, but it’s HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, especially after I realized at the end of the movie that it’s loosely based on a true story. WOW!!! This movie has all the good things a movie should have and more. The plot itself is strong and the dancing is also beautiful and the songs and music they choose to accompany the movie are also VERY appropriate and lovely. I don’t often notice the songs and music that accompany a movie, but this movie does it so easily. VERY impressive!!! I’ll give this movie an 8.5 stars out of 10.

The Story:

Iwaki, Japan 1965. In this cold mining town where the children of the miners grow up to be miners (whether they’re boys or girls), a big problem starts to appear as there is financial crisis, so the mining company is forced to lay off hundreds of miners. To counteract this problem, they decide to build a Hawaiian resort since then they’d need to recruit workers and dancers. Yep, they want to teach the mining girls or women to be Hula dancers. They have paid a Hula dancer from Tokyo to teach them. Naturally most miners are against this Hawaiian resort and most of the girls there don’t want to be Hula dancers since they think it’s a “sexy” dance.

However, a young teenage girl named Sanae (Eri Tokunaga) begs her best friend Kimiko (Yu Aoi) to join her to learn to be a Hula dancer. Another mother of two kids is also interested in joining in. Then an old miner brings his daughter Sayuri (Shizuyo Yamazaki), a big-built/awkward girl, to join in. Their teacher is a woman who is famed to be a professional dancer in Tokyo named Madoka Hirayama (Yasuko Matsuyuki). When she first comes to Iwaki, she’s drunk, so she doesn’t realize what she’s doing. The next day when she’s sober, she’s shocked when she finds out where she is: in such a remote and cold little mining town.

So at first Hirayama doesn’t feel like teaching at all. She only goes to Iwaki since she needs the money. However, after a while she realizes that her four students are serious about learning to dance, even though they have to learn from scratch. Plus the manager of the company also makes her realize that if this Hawaiian resort doesn’t work, that will be the end of life for all the miners there, since the mining company doesn’t seem to have a future.

Mind you that Sanae doesn’t tell her Dad that she wants to be a Hula dancer and Kimiko’s mother throws her out of the house when she finds out that Kimiko has been going to the dance lessons. So now Kimiko stays in the dance hall and the tough lessons begin. Meanwhile, when the miners’ wives realize that the situation at the mining company becomes worse, they change their minds about dancing. Now they’re interested in learning to dance since they want to earn money for their families in case their husbands are laid off. So now there are many students in the dance hall.

After some time learning, they must do a dancing tour to other towns and cities before they have the grand opening of the Hawaiian resort in Iwaki. Before they can go on their dancing tour, though, Sanae’s Dad gets sacked and when he comes back home, he finds Sanae with a Hula girl outfit, so he lashes out on her and tells her to quit. After all, they’re moving to another town to find a job. Thus Kimiko and Sanae have to part. It’s such a sad goodbye for not only both of them, but also for Sanae, Hirayama, and the other Hula girls.

But the show must go on, right? Well, their first dancing tour is a mess since they’re all nervous and the audience aren’t really positive. What happens now? Will they succeed in their other tours? How about the grand opening of the Hawaiian resort? Expect more complications and conflicts!!!

Notes:

1. If you want to read more info about Hula Girls or the full story, go here: Hula Girls.

2. This movie is also educative. I found out that Hula dancing uses a type of sign language, so all the movements have a meaning and it’s SO beautiful!!!