Waterboys

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[edit] Profile

  • Movie: Waterboys
  • Romaji:
  • Japanese: ウォーターボーイズ
  • Director: Shinobu Yaguchi
  • Writer: Shinobu Yaguchi
  • Producer:
  • Cinemotagraphy:
  • Release Date: September 15, 2001
  • Runtime: 90 min.
  • Language: Japanese
  • Country: Japan

[edit] Plot

It's springtime in Japan and the Tadano High School swim team is barely keeping afloat. When a pretty new coach turns up with the nutty idea of creating a top synchronized swimming team of her own, she has just a few problems to overcome. First, she's teaching at an all-boys school; second, the 5 boys who have committed to the team are all hopelessly bad swimmers; third, she suddenly discovers she's 8 months pregnant and due for maternity leave.

Inspired by their darling coach's dream, the boys bumble through the spring and summer, preparing a routine for Tadano High's festival. They face great adversity: the derision of their fellow students, a swimming pool full of dead fish, the mounting pressures of college entrance exams, and worst of all, their own dismal record of constant failure. Their only encouragement comes from a gaggle of local drag queens and the crazy owner of an aquarium, whose idea of trainin them, is making them polish fish tanks round-the-clock.

When autumn finally rolls around, the boys have not only miraculously perfected a truly unique routine, they've won the respect and participation of a whole crew of new teammates. On the eve of the festival, the performance is threatened by one last catastrophe. Will the Waterboys hard work be wasted, or can they paddle their way to the success and recognition they've worked so hard to win?

[edit] Facts

Based on a true story Twelve years ago, members of the swimming team at Kawagoe High School, a boy's prep school in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, dreamed up an unusual event for their school festival: "men's synchronized swimming." Inspired by the popular Olympic synchronized swimming exhibitions on TV, the young men choreographed and successfully performed their own synchronized swimming event. A smash hit, it has since become the main attraction of the annual school festival, gaining popularity as well as sophistication over the years: an incredible 20,000 people came to watch the swim team's performances at the school's year 2000 festival.

The birth of a film In the fall of 1999, a producer happened to see a news program (on TV Asahi's "News Station") about the popular synchronized swimming event at the Kawagoe High School festival. His first-ever glimpse of the young men's highly acrobatic choreography convinced him to go to the festival and experience it in person, which led to contacts with the Kawagoe High swim team and in-depth research. After uncovering some of the more dramatic aspects of the story, including conflicts between the more conventional swim team members who want to race and the synchronized swimming enthusiasts, and the exhilaration of performing, the producer stepped up his efforts toward turning the story into a movie. With the plot under development, Shinobu Yaguchi was invited on board: this young director, well-known for his deft, off-beat comedies, joined the team and the script was completed.

The difference between women's and men's synchronized swimming The Kawagoe High swim team version departs in several aspects from the official definition of synchronized swimming. Sheer numbers is one: in "men's synchronized swimming," 30 people perform together, and each swimmer follows an individual routine rather than acting as a unified whole. Also, the event is held in a normal 50 meter pool, so the performers' feet touch the bottom. As with conventional synchronized events, however, the swimmers perform in time to music.

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