Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

duksoe Comparing to other Japanese dramas that I've ever watched, this film was quite unique. Unlike most other Japanese dramas whose atmospheres are quite refined and reserved, where the characters display their emotions and feelings in moderate and poetic manners that we often regard as a typical Japanese culture, the characters in "Hula girls" are pretty much straight forward in expressing their emotions and rather rough in manners. It reminded me of the atmosphere of old Sicilian village where Toto of "Cinema Paradiso" had spent his boyhood, where people are rough and tough in manners and sometimes even vulgar but still warm-hearted and have good humanity."Hula girls" is a heart-warming human drama. It will warm your heart in a little different manners from other typical Japanese human dramas. It makes audiences sometimes laugh and sometimes shed tears. It will make a wonderful family movie. Especially, I loved the last hula dancing scene where all the emotions, the joy, the sadness, the struggle and the overcoming are melted down and sublimated into a beautiful performance. It was really beautiful and touching.

anniegii This film was quite dramatic. There were some very emotional scenes. I often cried. The dance scenes were simple (subtle) and quite appropriate. We get a realistic glimpse into the Japanese homes, the workplace and the local eating place, as well as some Japanese customs (particularly the sumimasen), in this small 1960's Japanese town.A Hula Dance teacher is brought to a small mining town to teach Hula to the young girls in hopes that the town will create a Hawaiian tourist attraction in the near future. The young girls are presented with an opportunity to change their fate (and unknowingly, the fate of their town). The majority of the townsfolk are in complete opposition, putting the young girls at serious odds with their families and the society in which the live. This story is loaded with dramatic personal interactions between characters. Many of the characters are developing (people becoming better persons). The sensei undergoes a bit of an attitude adjustment, inspired by her dancers. However, it is not until a climactic Hula Show that we realize the true heroine of Hula Girls.I shall recommend this to all aspiring dancers. This review was based on the Japanese film with English subtitles.

Makiko Makiko Hula Girl is based on a true story, which a female coach from Tokyo teaches Hula dance( Hawaiian dance) to girls living in a rural area to make them professional dancers for the Hawaiian Center. It is set in Fukushima Prefecture in Tohoku area about in 1965.The place, Iwaki was famous for coal mines. At that time, coal was replaced by oil, so the coal mines were almost closed down and workers lost their job. So, some people decided to make a Hawaiian center for a new business. The main feature was a Hula dance show. They hired a coach (Matsuyuki Yasuko) to teach local girls professional Hula dance. The local girls were very naive and spoke in strong Tohoku accent (not stylish ). Their dance performance was terrible,whereas the coach from Tokyo was very cool, fashionable and confident, and her Hula dance was amazing and breath taking.Interestingly, local people were prejudiced against Hula dancers like strippers. One of the students said in the interview, "My tits are small. is it OK? It's very embarrassing, but I don't care because my father was fired, so I have to make money." The coach said," you don't have to be naked." When one girl put on her costume and showed her brothers and sisters at home and her father found them, he got really mad saying " what a shame! you are almost naked" and hit her many times and cut off her costume and hair. Local men were a sexist. That made the coach really angry and she went to a men's public bath and hit that father bathing in a bath saying "you don't have the right to do such a terrible thing." She was very strong.The coach was not a kind person and very strict, and sometimes critical to her students. But, she liked her students very much. They influenced each other. Their parents didn't accept that their daughters danced Hula, but in the end, they were re-conciliated and cheered them up. One mother said, " I thought working means to make money doing something tough or hard like to live or to die as your father has done. But after I saw you dance in front of people, what entertains people is also a job. This is also a feel-good movie where you can see relationship between the coach and her students, daughters and their parents.The ending was an excellent Hula dance show by local girls. It was amazing! But, I personally think the girl who danced solo (Aoi Yu) shouldn't have been that too slim. Hawaiian dance doesn't look great if the dancer is too slim.

Jamester I saw 'Hula Girl' at the Toronto International Film Festival with the affable director Lee Sang-Il present.This movie, based on the true story of how a dying coal mining town attempts the preposterous idea of building a taste of Hawaii in the cold town through dancing girls, a huge palm-tree filled centre and an 'outsider' dance teacher from Tokyo.Almost immediately, you know that this movie will be about the town's struggle to survive pitting the traditional, town-encrusted family against those supporting a potential new way of life. I had thoughts of the Japanese version of 'Shall We Dance' ringing through my mind, but perhaps the dancing is the furthest you can compare between the movies. The emotional depth of the movie was somewhat unexpected...sadness, some corniness, some laughter. Yet the movie worked where it needed to, and kept moving at the right pace leaving me at the end feeling like I had seen everything that had happened. Except that at the end, I had been so entranced with the characters I was wondering how they, themselves turned out.The movie pulled me in nicely with a strong story that was well developed and a really good watch.If you're looking for something a little different, and open to learning a little bit about life in a small Japanese town in the 1960s, I think this gives you a good feel for the people, the attitudes, and a change that took grip in a dramatic and light-hearted way.Kudos to the director and production team!