Swing Girls

Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ) is a Japanese 2004 teen comedy film directed and co-written by Shinobu Yaguchi. The plot follows a group of inept high school girls who form a big band. The cast includes Juri Ueno, Yuta Hiraoka, Shihori Kanjiya, Yuika Motokariya and Yukari Toyashima. The film ranked 8th at the Japanese box office in 2004, and won seven prizes at 28th Japan Academy Prize, including "Most Popular Film" and "Newcomer of the Year" for Yuta Hiraoka and Juri Ueno.

Plot
A class of schoolgirls are bored during their summer make-up class. When the school brass band leaves to perform at a baseball game without their bento lunches, Tomoko and the other girls persuade their math teacher, Mr. Ozawa, to let them deliver the lunches. On the train, the girls fall asleep after eating one of the lunches and miss their stop. They walk back to deliver the lunches to the band, but they have spoiled in the summer heat, and all but their cymbal player, Takuo Nakamura, who missed out on his meal, becomes sick.

Takuo holds an audition for band replacements to play at an upcoming baseball game. Only three girls audition: two former members of a punk band, and the shy Kaori Sekiguchi. Takuo confronts the other girls, threatening to turn them in for the food poisoning in if they do not join. The girls have no musical experience and clown around with their instruments, except for Kaori. As they are several members short of a brass band, Takuo decides to turn the group into a big band and perform swing jazz.

The girls train hard for the performance. Kaori's talent inspires the others, and they come to enjoy playing. However, on the day before the game, just as the girls have become confident, the brass band members recover and the girls are devastated.

As the new school year begins, Tomoko buys a saxophone and discovers Takuo playing his keyboard. The members of the swing band gather at school and decide to buy their own instruments. The girls get supermarket jobs to earn money, but Tomoko and several others lose their wages when a cooking demonstration gets out of hand, triggering the store's fire sprinkler system. The remaining girls spend a day picking matsutake mushrooms, but are attacked by a boar; they kill it and claim reward money, as the boar had been destroying crops. With the money, the girls buy cheap damaged instruments, and the two rockers convince their ex-boyfriends, who operate a wrecking yard, to repair them.

The group, now dubbed Swing Girls, play their first public show; the performance goes badly, but Kaori is given advice by an anonymous jazz fan. When the group approach him, he runs away. They chase him to his home and discover that he is Mr. Ozawa, who possesses an extensive collection of jazz records. Assuming he is an expert saxophonist player, they convince him to lead the band.

The band's skills improve and they record an audition tape for a music festival. They leave Tomoko in charge of the tape, but she sends it too late and the band is rejected. Tomoko is too embarrassed to tell the others. Nakamura discovers that Mr. Ozawa is not really a professional saxophonist, and he quits, embarrassed.

On the train to the music festival, Tomoko confesses that the band have no place at the festival, and the train is halted by snow. However, their teacher Ms. Itami informs them that another band has cancelled due to the snow and rushes them to the festival by bus. The Swing Girls rush onstage just in time and perform their set, impressing the crowd.

The Swing Girls and a boy Orchestra
It consists of 16 female students and 1 male student in the first year of Yamakawa High School, a total of 17 students. The band's official name is Swing Girls and a Boy and is also known as Swing Girls for short.
 * Juri Ueno as Tomoko Suzuki (Tenor saxophone)
 * Yuta Hiraoka as Takuo Nakamura (Piano)
 * Shihori Kanjiya as Yoshie Saito (Trumpet)
 * Yuika Motokariya as Kaori Sekiguchi (Trombone)
 * Yukari Toyoshima as Naomi Tanaka (Drums)
 * Kana Sekine as Hiromi Watanabe (Electric guitar)
 * Fumiko Mizuta as Yuka Yamamoto (Electric bass)
 * Masae Nemoto as Akemi Otsu (Tenor saxophone)
 * Asuka (Asuka Yamaguchi) as Chika Kubo (Alto saxophone)
 * Chise Nakamura as Emiko Okamura (Alto saxophone)
 * Madoka Matsuda as Yumiko Shimizu (Baritone saxophone)
 * Mutsumi Kanazaki as Rie Ishikawa (Trumpet)
 * Nagisa Abe as Reiko Shimoda (Trumpet)
 * Misa Nagashima as Misato Miyazaki (Trumpet)
 * Eri Maehara as Kayo Yoshida (Trombone)
 * Natsuki Nakaza as Miho Kinoshita (Trombone)
 * Natsuko Tatsumi as Yoko Kobayashi (Trombone)

Tomoko Suzuki's Family

 * Yasumi Suzuki, Father of Tomoko: Fumiyo Kohinata
 * Sanae Suzuki, Mother of Tomoko: Eriko Watanabe
 * Aki Suzuki, Tomoko's sister: Rina Kanako
 * Tomoko's grandmother, Mie Suzuki: Mutsuko Sakura

Yamakawa High School

 * Tadahiko Ozawa, Math Teacher: Naoto Takenaka
 * Music Teacher Yayoi Itami: Miho Shiraishi
 * Dr. Kubota: Makoto Takarai
 * General Manager of Brass Band Club: Issei Takahashi
 * Baseball Club Member Inoue: Seiji Fukushi
 * Chie Iwasa: Mayuko Iwasa

Other

 * Bus driver: Jiro Sato
 * Bento shop: Noyuki Mori shimo
 * Cherry Television Announcer: Yuko Takeda ( Fuji TV Announcer )
 * Mr. Sasaki, a classmate of the telephone network: Nakazawa Tsuki (voice appearance)
 * Old Woman: Yasuko Mori
 * Musical instrument shop clerk: Norika Eguchi
 * Supermarket Manager Takahashi: Hana Kino
 * Super Floor Chief Okamura: Koji Okura
 * Supermarket customers demanding discount stickers: Sayuri Ito
 * Takashi, brother of brother duo: Hidekazu Mashima
 * Yusuke Mikami, brother of brother duo: Makoto Mikami
 * Wife in front of the park: Mari Hayashida
 * Karaoke Box Clerk Ito: Yu Tokui
 * Pachinko parlor manager: Tanaka Keiko
 * Pachinko parlor guest: Satoshi Sakata
 * Pachinko parlor guest: Reo Yamaguchi
 * Yamaha Music Class Teacher Mori shimo (trombone): Kei Tani
 * Yamaha Music Class Student Masumi (Wood Bass): Naomi Nishida
 * Satoshi Tanimoto, Student of Yamaha Music Class ( Electronic Piano ): Kazuhiro Tanimoto
 * Train Conductor: Yuji Kogata
 * Train passengers: Hiroshi Kishimoto
 * Music Hall Moderator: Daikichi Sugawara (Note: In the DVD-version with English subtitles the credits adds the names of actors randomly i.e. the sequence of persons shown does not match the name below.)

Staff

 * Writer/Director: Shinobu Yaguchi
 * Producers: Chihiro Kameyama, Nonari Shimatani, Ryuichi Mori
 * Executive Producer: Shoji Masui
 * Projects: Kazuyuki Seki, Masamichi Fujiwara, Takehiko Chino
 * Producers: Daisuke Sekiguchi, Shintaro Horikawa
 * Advertising Producer: Erika Harada
 * Script cooperation: Junko Yaguchi (Wife of Director Yaguchi)
 * Music: Mickey Yoshino, Hiroshi Kishimoto
 * Recording Engineer: Masumi Hamamoto
 * Band Direction: Reo Yamaguchi
 * Photo: Takahide Shibaso
 * Lighting: Tatsuya Nagata
 * Sound: Kodo Gun
 * Art: Norihiro Isoda
 * Editing: Miyajima Ryuji
 * Supporting Director: Shozo Katashima
 * Line Producer: Tatsuya Mmoshi
 * Producer: Yuko Maemura
 * Assistant Director: Yuichi Naruse, Man Sugita, Kako Araki
 * Animal Trainer: Kazuo Numata
 * Language instruction: Hidekazu Mashima, Sayuri Ito (mainly in Mashima's absence)
 * Production: Fuji TV, Altamila Pictures, Toho, Dentsu

Music

 * "Take the A Train" by Billy Strayhorn (rehearsal song).
 * "In the Mood" by Joe Garland (song for the first performance and later for audition tape).
 * "Comin Thro' the Rye" (the first song played at the second performance).
 * "Make Her Mine" by Eric Leese (the second song).
 * "Moonlight Serenade" by Mitchel Parish / Glenn Miller (the first song played at the concert finale).
 * "Mexican Flyer" by Ken Woodman (the second song). It is featured in Space Channel 5, which Tomoko's little sister plays early on in the movie.
 * "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" by Loise Prima performed by Benny Goodman (the third song).
 * "What a wonderful world"  by  Robert Thiele (aka "George Douglas") and George David Weiss (shown as movie credits). Performed by Louis Armstrong (The song in mushroom picking forest).
 * "Recollection" by Kohsuke Mine.
 * "L-O-V-E" by Bert Kaempfert / Milt Gabler performed by Nat King Cole (the general film tune at the end).

Release
Swing Girls was released in Japan on September 11, 2004 where it was distributed by Toho.

Awards

 * 28th Japan Academy Awards (The largest number of award-winning films in the same year)
 * Outstanding Work Award
 * Best Director: Fumi yasushi Yaguchi
 * Best Screenplay: Fumi yasushi Yaguchi
 * Best Music: Mickey Yoshino / Hiroshi Kishimoto
 * Best Recording: Hiromido Gun
 * Best Editor: Ryuji Miyajima
 * Best New Actor (rookie): Juri Ueno, Yuta Hiraoka
 * Topic Award: Work Category
 * The 26th Yokohama Film Festival
 * The 10 Best Japanese Movies: 4th
 * Japan Film Individual Award
 * Best Screenplay: Fumi yasushi Yaguchi
 * Photography Award: Takahide Shibaso ("Swing Girls", "Need to Take a Deep Breath", "Yingyance")
 * Best Newcomer: Juri Ueno (Swing Girls, Jose, The Tiger and the Fish, Chillsok Summer)
 * The 14th Japan Film Critics Awards: Award for Best Film
 * The 78th Kinema Shunpo Best Japanese Movie Ten: No.7
 * The 47th Blue Ribbon Award: Best Japanese Film
 * The 46th Japan Record Awards Planning Award: SWING GIRLS & Mickey Yoshino et al. ("SWING GIRLS" ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK/ Universal Music Co., Ltd.)
 * The 19th Japan Gold Disc Awards Soundtrack Album of the Year: SWING GIRLS/Mickey Yoshino (Swing Girls Original Soundtrack/Universal Music)
 * The 2nd Japan Film and Television Recording Association Recording Award: Encouragement Award
 * 29th E'Randall Awards Producer Encouragement Award: Shoji Masui
 * The 59th Mainichi Film Competition Sponici Grand Prix Rookie of the Year: Juri Ueno ("Chillsok No Natsu", "Swing Girls")
 * The 14th Tokyo Sports Film Awards NewComer Award (Nominated): Juri Ueno