WATERBOYS

Country: Japan
Release Year: 2001
Genre: Comedy
Language: Japanese
Running Time: 90 minutes


[Cast]
Satoshi Tsumabuki
Naoto Takenaka
Hiroshi Tamaki
Akifumi Miura
Koen Kondo
Takatoshi Kaneko
Aya Hirayama
Kaori Manabe
Takashi Kawamura
Hiroshi Matsunaga
Yûya Nishikawa
Katsuyuki Yamazaki
Taiyô Sugiura
Koutarou Tanaka
Makoto Ishihara
Naoshi Saitô


[Director]
Shinobu Yaguchi

WATERBOYS is a type of movie that is hard to not like. It's a movie that contains a number of different funny scenes that it will quickly tickle your funny bones in no time. What could be funnier than five high school japanese boys who goes on a quest in to learning the basics, and mastering the art of...Synchronized Swimming???
Yes you read right! This movie is about High School boys doing synchro-swimming, and it's frickin' hilarious!!!



What ensues is some of the funniest, yet simplest hilarious humor ever written, and presented on the silver screens in Japanese Cinema. This is the movie that SWING GIRLS (2004) borrows most if not, all of its humor. So if you liked SWING GIRLS chances are you're gonna love WATERBOYS, and vice versa.



The beauty in watching WATERBOYS is that the movie looks like a regular J-Dram-edy, but the further you watch you'll slowly realize that the humor being thrown at you is sometimes funny, other times it's a laugh-out loud comedy. Wait until you see the audition scene by the pool when the boys tries to show their stuff to their school Principal played by Tetta Sugimoto, and the Dolphin Trainer played hilariously by Naoto Takenaka. Takenaka-san has never disappointed me yet, any movie that I've seen him in he's always delivered! This scene is one of the funniest in the movie, but definitely not the last.

Another element that will stick to you is the wonderful soundtrack that is used.
The music in some of the scenes are so memorable because it fits what is happening on screen. In essence, it helps illustrate, and heightens the otherwise normal scene.
For instance, the scenes were the Dolphin Trainer agrees to train the boys to become better synchronized swimmers by teaching them rythm. What beter way to learn than to practice on a DANCE,DANCE, REVOLUTION arcade machine! The soda-pop japanese song is so corny yet, so cute!

Like SWING GIRLS, Shinobu Yaguchi weaves a tapestry of different troubling, and not so troubling scenarios for the boys to overcome, and endure. There is never a dull moment in watching WATERBOYS because the movie keeps the boys rolling from one predicament, to the next. The obvious MacGuffin in this flick is Suzuki played with wonderful innocent, and geeky delight by Satoshi Tsumabuki. Although his character is a dork, you can't help but like the guy, and his four other friends as well.



Aya Hirayama is so adorable in this flick, she plays Shizuko. She likes Suzuki, and Suzuki likes her too but was put off when he learn that she's skilled at Karate. In fact after finding out that she can crush a soda can effortlessly with one hand he was completely terrified of her. Besides, he's also ashamed in way to tell her that he's participating in an All Boys Synchronized Swimming meet. In his thinking, being part of an All Boys Syncronized Swimming pretty much doomed his chances with Shizuko, or so he thought!



No doubt anyone who watches this movie will be completely absorbed, and completely entertained. It's just a simple story with no CGI's or anything. This makes viewing this japanese comedic gem a blast! Sometimes less, is more! Shinobu Yaguchi in my opinion, has mastered the simplest things in life, are sometimes the funniest of all, because his humor is the type that can happen to anyone therefore it's very easy for an individual to be able to relate with the boys. Especially with all of the everyday ordeals they had to go through. It could simply happen to anyone.

If you haven't seen a good-quality comedy in a long while, you should definitely check out WATERBOYS. If you haven't seen any foreign comedy, it might as well be WATERBOYS. Either way, anyone who gives this movie a try will no doubt enjoy this japanese comedy about the teenage life in rural Japan...mixed with Synchronized Swimming that is.