Hula Girls

Aroview: Feel-good true story of a depleted coal-mining town in Japan, and its residents’ efforts to build a Hawaiian-themed tourist attraction with performing ‘hula girls’.

Satisfyingly formulated, this offers the usual underdog clichés and uplifting finale with an empowering girls-can-do-anything message. Drama is derived from the town’s stubborn mining community (who refuse to yield to change despite the coal mine’s impending closure), and on the domestic front, where the film’s inspired teenagers must convince conservative parents of the merits of dancing in coconut bikinis and grass skirts. It all swells to a predictable, tear-enducing high in the tradition of SHALL WE DANCE? and OCTOBER SKY.