Product Description

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 Trailers

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.

Based 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20511 in DVD
• Brand: SIMON & SCHUSTER C/O VIZ MEDIA LLC
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: NTSC, Widescreen, Anamorphic, Color, Dolby
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 200 minutes

Customer Reviews

Feel Good Movie with Heart & Soul
For those that have watched the Full Monty, Brassed off, you have a good idea of what to expect. Yes, the story might be cliche but it's done very effectively in this offering. Yet again, this is based upon a true story in a rural township in Japan in the mid-60s when the mining town is facing the dire situation of extinction as the main industry of mining coal is coming to an end. A scheme is suggested to revive employment there by having a purpose built bath resort with a Hawaiian theme. To do that, it needs hula girls. In the beginning, recruiting the dancers is a tall order as Japan during that time is still conservative and baring too much flesh is a definite no-no. However, there is a stubborn girl who steadfastly refuses to give up even though she's being excommunicated from her mother who happens to be a mining comittee member anti progressive movement. However, she has a loving and supportive elderly brother who encourages her to follow her dream. She would subsequently become the lead dancer. Normally, a Hollywood offering would concentrate in training those misfits into successful people and we would sit through the routine of artificial gags to make us laugh. For this instance, there is actually character development through the dancing teacher who is recruited from Tokyo. She has a ferocious temper and running away from her demon for not being able to hit the big time in Tokyo. As time progresses, as she sees commitment in eyes of those miners' daughters, she suddenly discovers herself by having a goal to turn the fate of the dying town around. Hula Girls is a surprisingly touching movie and I'm deeply moved by it. It's really amazing to read the end credit to say that Hula Girls are still running strong today and that the same teacher is still doing her thing at that resort now. Highly recommended for a shot in the arm to follow our dreams.

Bright flowers blossoming from dark coal mines
Probably the biggest surprise of "Hula Girls", and what gives it such impact, is how it comes out of left field with its depth and emotion. What appears to be a by-the-numbers feel good movie, about a bunch of fish-out-of-water types who aspire to something more, to the tune of "Shall We Dance?" or "The Full Monty", ends up being a brutal and violent tale, filled with prejudice and entrenched small town thinking. This is "Billy Elliot". This is "Coal Miner's Daughter".

Life is hard for coal miners, and during the mid-60s when demand for coal dropped off and the mines started closing, it became harsher still. One of the lofty dreams of Japan at the time was the concept of life-time employment, where a company was your family and they looked after their employees faithfully. Many such projects as the Joban Hawaiian Center were started at that time, attempting to replace vanishing industries with tourism and supplying new employment for company workers. It was an admirable goal, rather than just discarding unneeded laborers to fend for themselves. Most of the time it ended in failure, and the various "Canada Lands" and "Holland Centers" that populated the Japanese countryside are now all barren ruins. The Hawaiian resorts still stands though, and the Hula Girls are still dancing.

Very loosely based on this true story, director Sang-il Lee artfully mixed the dull colors of the mining world with the bright promise of a better future in the flashing colors of Hawaii. Korean-Japanese, Lee knows something about the harshness of attempting to bring new thoughts to a closed community, as he has shown in his first film "Chong". He also understands the freedom and resilience of youth, having adapted Ryu Murakami's youth-rebellion novel "69". All of the actors shine as well, especially Yu Aoi as the lead dancer Kumiko.

Some of the appeal of "Hula Girls" will probably be lost on Western audiences, especially the performance of Shizuyo Yamazaki as the giant girl Sayuri. Yamazaki is a famous comedian in Japan, known for her gruff manner and wearing guy's clothes, so seeing her dance around in a hula skirt is especially charming. She also puts enormous depth into her character, something I didn't think she was capable of as an actress, and was quite moved by.

Gosh-Darned, Bang-Up, Good Film, Simply Wonderful
Iwaki is on the cold, northern island of Honshu and it was a coal mining town, but in the sixties oil was replacing coal as the primary energy source and the town faced the closure of its mines. Yutaka Nakamura, president of the Joban Kosan Company at the time wanted to protect his employees, so he came up with the idea of turning the town into a resort. And that's where this excellent film starts.

The company wants to open a Hawaiian Center and they want it to be staffed by the miners and they especially want all the Hula dancers to be coal miners daughters. However, the miners have other ideas. They believe in the old ways, so when Madoka Hirayama comes to town with a chip on her shoulder to teach the girls the hula, their hackles are raised. Hirayama at first doesn't want to be there, but she owes some nefarious people some money and has no choice.

The girls are at first only four, but as the film moves on others join till Hirayama has a whole troop to teach and teach them she does, however they stumble mightily along the way and you'll find yourself shedding a tear or two as they do. And you'll cheer the ending of this very good, feel good film.

Yu Aoi who plays Kimiko gives an outstanding performance and her dance scene at the end gave me chills. I liked how her character observed Hiryama, played by Yasuko Matsuki, dance toward the beginning of the film, then duplicated the dance for her mother later on.

The ending was predictable, but so what. Lee Sang-il has made a truly outstanding film and it's one I'll be watching over and over. Who knows, maybe if I watch it enough the Japanese will rub off, because I'd surly love to be able to get into these characters in their own language. I can't say it enough, this is a wonderful, gosh-darned, bang-up good film.