In her review of Linda, Linda, Linda and A Taste of Tea, Senior Ninja Consultant Erin F. opined:

You really can’t go wrong with Viz Pictures so far. All of their live action titles are solid entertainment. It’s almost as if Viz Pictures is your cool friend, out there attending festivals and recommending movies to you.

Having just watched two of Viz’s most recent acquisitions, Hula Girls and Ping Pong, I’m inclined to agree with Erin. Viz has done for mainstream Japanese cinema what Criterion has done for the classics, handpicking the best titles for Western audiences and packaging them with care. (Read: idiomatic subtitles, crisp transfers, worthwhile extras.) If you’ve been interested in expanding your horizons beyond the world of anime, these two crowd-pleasers make a great place to begin your survey.

Hula Girls

Directed by Sang-il Lee
Viz Pictures, 108 minutes
Unrated

The year is 1965. Faced with dwindling demand for coal, a large-scale mining operation plans to shut down, leaving more 2,000 lifelong employees out of work. The company hatches a plan to save the town from ruin, however: build a Hawaiian-themed park on top of the area’s natural hot springs, then hire the locals to sell tickets, play steel guitar, and dance the hula. The latest Anglo-Celtic feel-good comedy? In fact, this true story forms the basis of Hula Girls (Hula gâru, 2006), an award-winning Japanese film now making the rounds on the American festival circuit.

Most of the movie explores the relationship between a jaded ballerina and the motley crew of coal miners’ daughters who struggle to master the hip-shaking basics under her tutelage. Madoka Hirayama (Yatsuko Matsayuki), a former SKD* member who’s deeply in debt to loan sharks, accepts a teaching gig in Iwaki, a barren little town in northern Japan. With her chic clothing and graceful carriage, she cuts an incongruous figure among the hard-working miners, who see her as an unwelcome reminder of the planned theme park (and a snob to boot). Recruiting dancers for the Hawaiian Center proves difficult, as the local women find the costumes and movements immodest. But Hirayama’s star power attracts a small, dedicated group of girls—Kimiko (Aoi Yu), Sanae (Tokunaga Eri), Shoko (Ikezu Shoko), and Sayuri (Yamazaki Shizuyo)—who steadily evolve from klutzes to swans, convincing their peers to join the troupe and selling the town’s outspoken opponents of the Center on the expressive beauty of hula.

Though the plot and some of the scenes—humorous montage of beginning dancers, anyone?—may remind viewers of The Full Monty, the film’s appealing performances, meticulous attention to period detail, and exhilarating dance sequences breathe life into a familiar underdog story. Yatsuko Matsayuki, in particular, brings a steely elegance to the role of Madoka. Her performance captures both the character’s fierce, independent streak and her shortcomings as a teacher. Though we learn very little about the circumstances that led her to Iwaki, Matsayuki convinces us that Madoka is a survivor, not a victim, a strong woman who finds dignity in compromising situations by holding herself—and others—to the highest standards.

Hula Girls has been screened at dozens of festivals already, and will travel to Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix before Viz Pictures releases it on DVD this winter. Click here for more information about the film, including dates and screen times for showings in your neck of the woods.

* SKD = Shochiku Kageki-dan, a prestigious dance troupe.

This is an expanded version of my review in the September issue of Chopsticks. Viz has not yet announced the release date for the Hula Girls DVD.

Ping Pong

Directed by SORI
Viz Pictures, 114 minutes
Unrated

Based on Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga of the same name, Ping Pong focuses on a pair of friends: Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka), a flamboyant table tennis star who’s obsessed with the game, and Smile (Arata), a reticent young man whose primary motive for playing is to spend time with Peco, whom he quietly regards as a hero. Peco’s swaggering style—complete with acrobatic leaps, trash talk, and frequent dives—makes for good theater, but he’s trounced in a tournament by long-time rival Demon (Koji Ohkura). Despondent over the loss, Peco quits the team and burns his paddle. The coach, himself a former champion known as “Butterfly Joe” (Naoto Takenaka), then turns to Smile to lead his peers to victory in the next major competition, a responsibility Smile is reluctant to accept.

Like Hula Girls, Ping Pong’s basic trajectory is predictable. Smile discovers his inner competitor. Peco discovers that he can’t live without ping pong. “Butterfly Joe” imparts wisdom to Smile. And so on.

Three things elevate Ping Pong from run-of-the-mill sports flick to sublime entertainment. First, the colorful cast of supporting characters. There’s Peco’s chain-smoking grandmother (Mari Natsuki), a fierce devotee of the sport who runs a table tennis dojo; China (Sam Lee), a washed-up Chinese champion seeking a fresh start in Japan; and Dragon (Shidou Nakamura), a competitor who shaves his eyebrows in an effort to look more intimidating. Second, the director’s painstaking efforts to recreate the look and feel of Matsumoto’s original work. From the casting decisions to the extreme camera angles, jump shots, and fleeting fantasy sequences, the film successfully captures the manga’s slightly heightened sense of reality. Third, the ping pong matches. Yes, it’s cliché to contrast sports with ballet, but the table tennis is superbly choreographed.

Fans wanting a behind-the-scenes look at the table tennis action or a few pointers for their own game will want to view the omake on this two-disc set, which includes a 54 minute “making of” documentary, a short “how to” feature reviewing ping pong techniques, and the usual assortment of trailers, tv spots, and cast profiles. All in all, a great addition to your library, especially if you still have dog-eared copies of No. 5 kicking around the attic.

This review is based on a complimentary review copy provided by the distributor. Ping Pong will be released on September 4th.