Comedy

MOVIE REVIEW [In Brief]. Hula Girls

The true story of the founding of Iwaki Prefecture’s Spa Resort Hawaiians, Hula Girls tells of the former mining town’s 1965 attempt to reinvent itself in the face of an energy technology paradigm shift. Faced with massive layoffs due to oil’s rising popularity over coal, an enterprising man seeks to make the cold little town a warm tourist spot, with a Hawaiian center providing island sun and haole-style hula thrills for cold hard cash. Initially the idea doesn’t go over well with the locals, given that the center can only hope to employ a quarter of the out of job workers, but a young group of intrepid dancers do their best to see that they do. Though they may not have dancing talent now, they’re willing to practice. And, once the people witness their sultry swinging hips, they won’t be able to help but forget their lost status as a productive, functioning city, and simply submit to their hypnotic undulations and the lures of touristic pleasures. Ahhh, the wonders of commerce.

While indisputably well acted and directed, Hula Girls ultimately proves tiring in its routine, cutesy, clichéd, trite, and ultimately lazy retreading of every other underdog dance story made within the past twenty years. The complete absence of suspense throughout only serves to wear on the viewer’s patience, as the endless procession of dance-a-thon staples stretches a good half hour past the usual 90-minute runtimes of those from which they are cribbed. The viewer knows from the get-go the “hopeless” and “talentless” miner girls, will receive their standing ovations at the end, and their alcoholic city-girl teacher will find a newfound respect and appreciation for the boonies. Everyone will feel great, despite the fact the mine is closing, and the bleak and soul-sucking future that awaits them through tourism (Try to think of another industry that generates as much distaste for the customer as tourism. Thankfully, in real life the Iwaki prefecture did reinvent itself, but in other forms of industry. The city does maintain a strong touristic facet, but it is not the primary source of income). If you’ve seen Billy Elliot, Save the Last Dance, The Full Monty, Flashdance, Footloose, Breakin’ 2, or any other dancing film, you’ve seen Hula Girls.

But then again, I could be completely off my rocker. Just in case that I was being my usual grumpy gus, I let Kris’s parents take a look at it. They watched a while, but ultimately grew bored, turned it off, and went to sleep. I took the film back, and they never asked about it again (it’s also worth noting Love and Honor they sat through in rapt attention). Alas, this leads me to believe Hula Girls is another case of awards gone awry (it won 12 in the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards, and a few overly glowing festival reviews stateside). Though Hula Girls may have received critical lauding, it’s as immensely forgettable as Chocolat, Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, or any of the other titanic misappropriations of praise from the past few years. Unless you really enjoy reruns, or are the type to dose yourself with happy-sauce in the face of impending hardships, these Hula Girls are ones to skip.

Note: If you’re ever interested in seeing real, traditional hula, head to the Bishop Museum on Oahu. They have daily educational sessions and are highly recommended.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.