Swing Girls (Japan 2004)

Tomoko Suzuki ( Juri Ueno) is spending her summer in a remedial math class. As her teacher, Ozawa (Naoto Takenaka), continues droning on, Tomoko peers out the side window and notices the schools Brass band gearing up and heading out to support their baseball team. As the bus leaves, the Brass bands catered lunches show up. So Tomoko and the other girls volunteer to take the lunches to the game. While on the way, the girls dine on one of the lunches. When they finally arrive, everyone receives a lunch except dorky Nakamura (Yuta Hiraoka), whose lunch was eaten. Due to a little carelessness from the girls, all the lunches were spoiled due to the heat, and in turn, makes the whole Brass team sick...everyone except Nakamura, who wanted to quit the team anyway. So with the Brass team out, Nakamura holds open auditions to get a new Brass team together, because the school still has to have a band. Tomoko and her friends show up, along with a stream of wannabes, but there are only sixteen of them, making the team far too small to play as a complete Brass band, but just enough for a jazz group. Now that they're together, can Nakamura really teach these girls to play anything?

When an idea as simple as Swing Girls presents itself, there can only be one thing that makes it stand out and that is it's execution. As for Swing Girls, it has a shine and charm that makes it very enjoyable to watch. You get to see the girls come together and learn the music, the instruments and rhythm, make a band and keep the band, all the while feeling like you're on the journey with them. It's not something that feels forced. The girls all take turns with their different traits, the shy one, the boy crazy one, the chubby one and so on, but it really doesn't get in the way or become over played. Swing Girls just turns into a story about the girls themselves and their love for the music. So just smile, laugh and enjoy the simple, yet entertaining ride that happens when these girls discover the beauty in jazz. (Converter)



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