Hula Girls
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Profile
- Movie: Hula Girls
- Romaji: Hula gâru
- Japanese: フラガール
- Director: Sang-il Lee
- Writer: Sang-il Lee, Daisuke Habara
- Producer: Hitomi Ishihara
- Cinematography:
- Release Date: September 23, 2006
- Runtime: 108 min.
- Studio: Cinequanon
- Distributor: Cinequanon
- Language: Japanese
- Country: Japan
Plot synopsis
1965 in Iwaki, a coal mining town in Fukushima Prefecture. Sanae (Eri TOKUNAGA) sees a flier recruiting hula dancers and invites Kimiko (Yu AOI) along, insisting that it’s their only chance to escape from the town. For generations, the men have worked as coal miners, and the women as ore-dressers. However, with oil gradually supplanting coal as the main energy source, one mine after another was closing down. Faced with an economic crisis, mining company officials and the town leaders came up with a brilliant idea to develop a resort facility, the “Joban Hawaiian Center”.
Kimiko’s mother Chiyo (Sumiko FUJI) as well as her older brother Yojiro (Etsushi TOYOKAWA) work at the mine; her father had died in a cave-in accident years before. Chiyo vehemently opposes the plan to close the mine, saying “Our mine’s continued for 100 years, and even the Emperor’s visited this mountain!” But Kimiko and Sanae attend the hula dancing orientation. The other girls quickly flee, complaining “I can’t shake my hips like that,” or “The belly’s in full view!” Only Kimiko, Sanae and Hatsuko (Yoko IKEZU)—a secretary and mother—are left, before a rather heavyset girl, Sayuri (comedian Shizuyo YAMAZAKI), is brought by her father.
To train the young girls, the Hawaiian Center’s department head Yoshimoto (Ittoku KISHIBE) invites Madoka Hirayama (Yasuko MATSUYUKI), a professional dancer from
Tokyo who’d learned hula in Hawaii. At first condescending towards the rural townspeople and disinterested in teaching the amateurish young girls, Madoka is soon taken by the passion in Kimiko and the girls. With her mother’s debt weighing heavily, Madoka had been giving herself up to despair, but in her interactions with the earnest girls she’s reminded of the importance of having a dream. She teaches them that they must never lose their smile, no matter how tough times may be.
With her mother completely against her dancing, Kimiko leaves home and begins staying at the training facility. Soon, more girls join the team by the day as their fathers are fired from their mining jobs. Just then, Sanae’s father (Katsumi TAKAHASHI), dismissed from his mine, decides to move to a mine in Yubari. Without a mother, Sanae must move with the family to look after her younger brothers and sisters. “If you’re quitting, I’m quitting, too,” Kimiko says, but Sanae stops her, encouraging her to become a star dancer. “You’re going to be a star, and I’m going to brag to everyone that I knew you since we were babies.” The next morning, Sanae tearfully thanks Madoka, “This was the best time of my life,” and departs.
The publicity tour begins, but as the girls clumsily dance in a small banquet hall, Kimiko gets in a fight with a drunk audience member who heckled them. In the bus ride home, as the girls blame each other’s failures, Madoka admonishes them, “If you’re not doing well, can’t you help each other out or encourage each other? If you don’t feel ashamed about it, just quit! I’m embarrassed to even watch!”
But before their final performance on the tour, a message is delivered to the dressing
room that a father of one of the girls was in a cave-in accident. Madoka moves to have
the whole group go home together, but the girl whose father was the victim insists, “Let
us dance!”
Held responsible for continuing the tour despite the accident, Madoka is told to return to Tokyo. Kimiko and the girls rush to the station, but Madoka sinks in her seat to hide from their view. On the opposite platform, the girls begin a hula dance meaning “I love you from the bottom of my heart.” Madoka, understanding the message, sheds a tear.
Kimiko’s brother Yojiro continues to proudly work as a miner, but has been quietly cheering for Kimiko and Madoka as they enthusiastically dedicate themselves to hula. Meanwhile, Yojiro’s close friend Mitsuo (Hiroki MITAKE) has been put in charge of the botany for the Hawaiian Center. However, with the grand opening approaching, the palm trees from Taiwan are about to wither from the cold weather. Mitsuo goes to the residents who’d opposed the Hawaiian Center and gets down on his knees to beg them to loan their stoves to keep the trees warm. Moved by the sight, Kimiko’s mother Chiyo herself comes out with a cart to help carry the stoves. “I don’t want to squash these kids’ dreams just because of dead trees,” she says. “Please let us borrow your stove.” Yojiro joins the efforts as well. Despite the cold of winter, the residents loan their stoves, which are kerosene stoves rather than coal—another sign of the inevitable sweep of the times.
Thus, the Hawaiian Center “by and for coal miners” is assembled, with the former miners serving not only as the hula dancers but also as the hotel receptionists and botanists. The band comprised of former miners rehearse until their fingertips are practically bleeding, and the receptionists finally begin to feel at home wearing a smile. At last, the Hawaiian Center is set to open. As the rhythmic music resonates and the seats fill with customers, the hula girls—beaming with smiles—finally take the stage...
Production Notes
The Year 1965
1965, the year Kimiko, Sanae and the other girls discover hula, also saw the United States begin bombing North Vietnam in February as well as a war between India and Pakistan beginning in September. Japan’s population was just over 98 million, and the average life span for men was 67.24 years-old and for women 72.92 years-old. While Kimiko’s mother managed to send her to high school, Sanae was less fortunate, working as a coal dresser as her nails blackened. During this year, the national percentage of students advancing to high school surpassed 70%, and for the first time, the total number of university and junior college students exceeded one million. In fashion, the miniskirt, invented by Mary Quant, became a worldwide sensation. This was also the year that The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” became a hit.
From Mining to Hula
The Joban Coalfield, which stretched from northern Ibaraki Prefecture into Fukushima Prefecture, was
first exploited in the late Edo Period, then experienced its second golden age starting in 1950 due to
special procurement demands from the Korean War. By 1953, there were 130 mines in operation,
employing 16,000 people and producing 6.6 million tons of coal per year. The Iwaki Mining Pit, where the
Joban Coal Mining Company did much of its mining work, was riddled with hot springs, which not only
made labor conditions extremely harsh due to high temperatures and humidity, but also required massive
costs to remove the water. It is said that for each ton of coal to be mined, they pumped out 40 tons of
hot spring water. A portion of the water helped support the Yumoto Hot Spring inns, but the great
majority were dumped into rivers.
With the advent of the energy revolution, the Joban Coal Mining Company announced in 1962 a plan to
reduce personnel by 2,000. In order to build a regional industry to replace the declining coal industry, the
company decided to take advantage of the abundant hot springs to enter the leisure industry. By 1964,
Joban Yumoto Hot Springs Tourism Co., Ltd. was established, and the following year, the Joban Music
Dance Academy opened.
The Joban Hawaiian Center opened its doors on January 15, 1966. Initial attendance projections predicted
1,000 people on weekdays and 3,000 on weekends and holidays, but the resort became an instant
sensation, attracting 1.5 million visitors per year. The company paid off its debts from the mining days
within 10 years, and became a forerunner to the health center culture that proliferated throughout Japan.
In 1990, the name was changed to Spa Resort Hawaiians, and continues to evolve even as it remains a hot
spring resort integrated into the local fabric of life.
“One Mine, One Family”
Because the occupation of mining is always fraught with danger, the words “One Mine, One Family” were used to inspire the notion of everyone uniting together to dig a single mine. The new enterprise, too, was undertaken with a “One Mine, One Family” spirit, as the facility’s staff, dancers and band members were all drawn from the mining company’s employees and their families. Not a single one had ever danced hula before, but all trained intensely in preparation for the opening.
“The Real-life Instructor”
Kaleinani Hayakawa was the woman who taught the girls dancing at the Joban Music Dance Academy. Hayakawa had trained in ballet since she was small, but in 1956 she traveled to Hawaii and learned traditional Polynesian dancing, and returned again in 1962 to further her training. In 1965, she became an instructor at the Joban Music Dance Academy and oversaw the formation, direction and choreography of the hula dancing show at the Joban Hawaiian Center for 32 years thereafter. Meanwhile, she also opened her own Hayakawa Dancing School (Japan’s first hula dance studio) in 1976, taught hula at various cultural classes, and continues to be active in using hula to further cultural understanding between Japan and the United States. The leading figure in creating the current hula boom whose participants are reportedly some 500,000 today, Hayakawa still serves as senior adviser to the Joban Music Dance Academy.
“The Real-life Instructor”
Hula refers to the traditional dance and music of Hawaii. In Japan, it has long been called “hula dance,” but today it has been correctly standardized as simply “hula.” The origins of hula are not clear, but it is believed to have been performed as part of religious ceremonies to honor the gods. In the absence of written language, hula reportedly served to communicate ideas like respect for nature and divine revelations to posterity. Though Hawaiians practiced hula for ages, Christian missionaries who arrived in the 18th century banned it, denouncing it as a heathen dance. In the late 19th century, however, King Kamehameha V and King Kalakaua encouraged the traditional arts, and hula was revived. Today, the appeal of hula’s spirituality and of the dance itself has led to worldwide popularity, with some 500,000 devotees in Japan alone.
The Production Design
The production designer, Yohei Taneda, sought to bring together the two contrasting spaces—the coal mining town and Hawaii—under an aesthetically consistent world of 1965. Thus, the miners’ residential quarters and the tiki house (the Polynesian domicile with a triangular roof built on the Hawaiian Center stage) recall each other, while the giant heap of discarded coal that towers over the town is reminiscent of Honolulu’s Diamond Head. Also, the production excluded commonly used materials like aluminum sash and artificial turf, which did not exist in 1965, and emphasized use of wood and other natural materials, faithfully recreating the “Hawaii” built in the middle of a mining town.
Director's Notes
In the 1960’s, the world steered itself away from coal and towards petroleum. Amidst a tidal wave of change that mercilessly swept through a rural coal-mining town in Japan, the people stirred. From their deep attachment to the “good old days,” to their anxiety over an uncertain future, as well as hope for something new, I wanted to show their spirit — and the smiles on the girls who revive a town towards a brighter future — to today’s Japan, where a feeling of resignation has taken hold.
Cast
- Yasuko Matsuyuki - Madoka Hirayama
- Etsushi Toyokawa - Yojiro Tanikawa
- Yu Aoi - Kimiko Tanikawa
- Shizuyo Yamasaki - Sayuri Kumano
- Shoko Ikezu
- Eri Tokunaga - Sanae Kimura
- Hiroki Miyake
- Susumu Terajima
- Masaru Shiga
- Hiroshi Okochi
- Daikichi Sugawara
- Katsumi Takahashi
- Ittoku Kishibe - Norio Yoshimoto
- Junko Fuji - Chiyo Tanikawa
- Meikyo Yamada
Trailer (U.S.)
Image Gallery
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