Darkroom, a video streaming platform specializing in independent, foreign, arthouse, and cult-classic genre benders, expands its catalog of Japanese live-action titles with the addition of Hula Girls.
Hula Girls is an award-winning, highly acclaimed 2006 comedy directed by Sang-il Lee and co-written by Lee and Daisuke Habara. The film is inspired by real-life events of how a group of enthusiastic Japanese girls use hula dancing to save their small, dying mining village and found the Joban Hawaiian Center (later to become the Spa Resort Hawaiians), which later became one of Japan’s most popular theme parks.
The Darkroom platform is available as an app on all major platforms, including Google and Apple stores and via the web at www.darkroom.film. Monthly memberships are only $2.99.
Desperate to reverse the economic fortunes, the elders of a small Japanese coal-mining town in the 1960s decide to create a tourist attraction based on Hawaiian culture. The plan is initially greeted with hostility by the miners, but the company recruits Madoka Hirayama (Yasuko Matsuyuki), a down-on-her-luck dance instructor from Tokyo, to train local girls in the hula. At first, only a small group of girls take up the challenge.
Sanae (Eri Tokunaga) is worried that her widowed father will lose his job and his ability to support the four kids. She convinces her lifelong best friend Kimiko (Yu Aoi) to join her at the disastrous first meeting. The two girls are joined by Hatsuko (Shoko Ikezu), the organizer’s secretary, and Sayuri (Shizuyo Yamazaki), a large, clumsy girl.
Things go poorly as training begins, and a frustrated
Hirayama nearly gives up, until the girls’ enthusiasm persuades her to give the plan another try. As things progress, a tour is planned to promote the dance troupe. After a disastrous first performance in the tour, the girls come together as a team, and the tour is a great success, leading to a climactic hometown performance and establishing the Joban Hawaiian Center (now Spa Resort Hawaiians) as a tourist destination. The resort continues to operate and attracts thousands each year.
Hula Girls was critically acclaimed upon release in Japan and nominated for a total of 12 awards at the 2007 Japan Academy Awards and won 5 major awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (for Yu Aoi), and Most Popular Film. It also won two major awards at the 80th Kinema Junpo Awards, including Best Film and Best Supporting Actress (for Yu Aoi).
Source: Press Release
