The next logical step for Waterboys writer and director Shinobu Yaguchi would be an all-girls venture and here we have it with Swing Girls, an hour and forty-five minutes of sheer jazzy glee.
With a story about a group of sixteen girls and one boy forced to play in the school band over the summer (due to a food poisoning mishap that gets the normal band sick), Swing Girls sets the stage for a formulaic plot and a light tone bearing resemblance to films like Shall We Dance, Shaolin Soccer and The Bad News Bears. In a matter of a couple weeks, the girls work their hardest to transform from amateurs planning to goof off in band class to somewhat tolerable players. However, when their big performance for the baseball game comes up, the real band recovers and takes back their spots, leaving the girls out in the dust.
As expected, the girls have honestly come to love musical performance—so they form a big band jazz group outside of school. Swing Girls then focuses purely on the comedy and drama of their attempts to start up the band, as the girls search for instruments, work part-time jobs, attempt to learn musical concepts and furiously practice their numbers. As a result, the narrative hardly has time to offer any more information about the lives of the five main girls and boy. The plot is full of other holes from a lack of an antagonist (or real dramatic tension) to the girls’ unrealistically drastic musical improvement. Script-wise, the film is incredibly odd. It seems to start like a rag-tag underdog team tale, but several key elements are just absent.
But on some level, it really does not matter because Swing Girls is complete, infectious fun. The comedy works quite well with the feel good atmosphere, leaving the viewer with a constant smile plastered on their face. The running time breezes by with the energetic cast, irresistible musical numbers and a predictable, but nonetheless wonderful climax. Granted, the film has certain problems on paper, but it so earnestly wears its heart on its sleeve that nearly everything is forgiven whenever the girls take the stage and express their passion for the music.
Reviewed by Tarun
