Swing Girls with Ayumi Shinozaki

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bechdelcast. The questions asked if movies have.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zeph and
best start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey Jamie, Hey Caitlin, do you want to start a
little band with me?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
No?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Oh, unless uh there's a baseball player I can impress,
but twist. I love playing the baritone sacks.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
And I love playing the trumpet.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
This movie is so powerful that it got me through
some Barry Sacks related trauma. Whoa that I will be
over sharing in a bit, please, but I really for
years I've hated to test to despise the baritone sex
for what it baritone sex, bartones sacks, okay, for what

(00:55):
it's done. And actually that was a Fridian slip though
shortly makes sense there for what it did to my life. Mm,
and now I realize that it's actually a tool by
which women can come of age and empower themselves. Yes,
and so actually it's amazing when well did properly.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
So true, so true. I don't have any saxophone related trauma. Brag,
thank you so much. And I was in jazz band,
and I don't have any jazz band related trauma.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
You were in jazz.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Band, yeah, because even though I played the clarinet, not
to freaking brag my ass off, no go for it,
but I was so good as a sixth grade clarinet player. Okay,
the band teacher was like, you should be in jazz band,
even though we don't traditionally have clarinets in the jazz band, but.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
It can be a jazzy instrument.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
True. True, So I was like flattery, Yes, of course
I'll be in jazz band.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
That's so cool. Wow, how prestigious, I know.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
And then I quit a year later because I was like,
I'm too.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Cool for band. Wow. And not to drag you, but
you're not. I'm not. I was so wrong about that.
No one's too cool for band. Look at this movie.
I know, I know that now being a band is
maybe the I actually do think that this, and I'm
also so excited to talk about this movie and conversation
with my favorite movie ever, School of Wrong, where it's

(02:22):
just like going to music class will turn you into
the world's coolest person, which is not true, but I
do like that it is a lie that is pushed
in movies for children.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Anyway. So today's movie is this Week Girls. Yeah, okay,
remember right, my name is Caitlin Derante, comma amazing clarinet player.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Period. My name's Jamie loftis comma amazing obo player. But
that's not jazz relevant. Yeah, I almost played the clarity.
And this is again. I've been talking about SpongeBob so
much on the podcast recently. I think the episodes are
gonna come out out of order. But I was talking
your ear off yesterday about it. And I will say,
in elementary school, where they like show you all the

(03:12):
instruments and they're like, okay, what instrument would you like
to play? I liked the clarinet a lot. But then
I was like, wait, Squidward plays the clarinet and squid
word sucks, and I don't want. And I was genuinely
afraid because I was a tall girl, that if I
played the clarinet, people would call me squidword. Wow. So

(03:35):
it was anticipatory bullying that kept me away from the clarinet. Oh,
it didn't even happen, but I played the Obo and
the Obo rocks, so yeah, it all worked out nice. Anyways,
this is our show where we talk about your favorite
movies using an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechdel test
as a jumping off point. But killing, what the hell

(03:56):
is that?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Oh my gosh, it's just a media metric created by
our best friend at this point, Alison Bechtel, who also sorry,
I have to say listeners that there's a lot of
commotion happening outside my apartment and in the apartment upstairs
where there's a dog who is howling loudly, so you

(04:18):
might hear.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Commotion on my end.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
But you know, this is a movie with some commotion
in it, true, especially before they get good at music.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Also, I love the part of this style of movie
when they suck. It's so great. It's so awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
This movie reminds me of one of my favorite movies,
The Full Monty, in the sense that most of the
movie is like them gearing up for a performance and
them like mostly sucking most of the time. Yeah, but anyway, okay,
the Bechtel test, Oh right, Yeah, it is a media metric.
There are many versions of it. The one that we

(04:56):
use is do two characters of a marginalized gender names?
Do they speak to each other? And is their conversation
about something other than a man. And we particularly like
it when it's a narratively meaningful conversation and not just
throw away dialogue.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
And it's a good day for the Bechtel Test on
the pod. Very excited, and it's it's a good day
on the pod for so many reasons. Because we have
an incredible returning guest.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
We absolutely do. She is a writer, translator, and host
and producer of Sparkle Side Chats podcast. It's Ayomi she Nozaki. Hello, Hello,
welcome a man.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
I'm so so so glad that I got the chance
to be back.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Oh my god, We're so happy to have you.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, and thank you for bringing us this movie. Holy cow. Like,
if you are listening and you haven't seen this movie,
you're gonna be in such a good mood. You're gonna
be in the best mood ever. We're covering Swing Girls
two thousand and four, and yeah, amy you this movie.
So let's start with your history with it. What's your

(06:03):
history with this?

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Sure? Yeah? So Swing Girls? Well, actually, when I first
watched this movie, I literally had no idea what it
was because, for anyone who doesn't know me, I was
born in Japan, and grew up in the US and
then came back to Japan right after college. So that's
where I still am now. And when I first got back,
one of my first things was like, oh, I really

(06:25):
need to try to consume as much like basically not
like all the media I missed, because there's simably way
too much, but I wanted to watch a lot more
basically live action Japanese media because frankly, ninety nine percent
of what gets exported around the world, especially in the US,
is animation, which is fine. There's a lot of good
stuff from Japan, but you know there's more now. In Japan,

(06:48):
we still have something called the video rental store. They
still exist, So wow, is that I know this ancient
ancient technology. But yeah, So I got myself like a
rental card or whatever, a membership to my local video store,
and I just would wander the shelves looking for TV shows, movies,

(07:09):
et cetera. And actually, important note for today's episode is
this is still the only way that you can actually
legally watch this movie in Japan is going to the
video store to get it, oh wow, or to buy
the DVD yourself. So I just saw it like on
the shelf whatever. I didn't have any idea what it was.
I just saw, you know, the traditional cover with just

(07:31):
Tomoco on it, jumping, and I was like, okay, well
I like jazz music. I myself did not play jazz,
though I did play piano as a kid, but my
father was in a jazz fusion band when I was
like very young in Japan. It was like a band
of a bunch of Japanese guys and then my white father,
so it's very interesting. And then my brother was in

(07:52):
a jazz band in high school. He went to Frank
Sinatra High School, so it was a whole like thing.
In my family, jazz was very big. So I was like, well, yeah,
this sounds like awesome. I love jazz music. I love
seeing a movie that's like a bunch of girls all
hanging out whatever. And it seems very common. And we'll
talk about this with the when we talk about the
other podcasts I'm coming out with soon, but like, this

(08:14):
kind of media is very common in general, of like
a group of kids doing club activities or whatever. Like
the other major film that this director did before Swing
Girls was water Boys, which was basically the same thing,
but it was about a bunch of boys who who
created a synchronized swimming club.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
M Yeah, I didn't realize that this is this seems
to be and you know far better than I do,
but it seems like this is like a formula that
he loves working with.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, I'm not super familiar with all of his other work.
It's coming out with a horror movie this year. It
was like his first movie since the Pandemic, and so
I don't know what he's up to these days. But yeah,
that movie water Boys was really huge, Like there were
like TV spin offs and stuff, and that was actually
based on a true story. So club activities in Japan

(08:59):
are like such a major thing. They kind of take
over your life. But I think what makes Swing Girls
so unique is that it's about a It's it's basically
like a rogue school club.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Right.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
They're not official, they're not tied to their own school
actually and everything, but they're like legitimized by the end
of the story. So I just think that that's part
of why I loved it so much. And of course,
once like I first watched it, I was just like
blown away and would like, you know, like look it
up and stuff and just kind of talk to people
about it, and it was huge obviously, like an award
winning film at the time, but because of its inaccessibility

(09:31):
in Japan, like officially speaking, it's really not stood this
test of time as far as like basically everyone I
talked to who wasn't around for it at the time
just has no idea what it is.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Oh, that's such a bummer.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, but like it's very I think because it's a
tea in a movie of a sort, Like it kind
of makes sense to me because like there's always something
new for the next generation of teens to like attach to,
you know. Yeah, So it's it's kind of like how
everyone who has like Disney Channel growing up has their
own favorite dcoms that are like, oh, these are like
the greatest films to ever exist or whatever. But then

(10:06):
if you like talk to someone five years younger, they
have a completely different sense of what that is.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Right, Yeah, I guess that this really hits because it's
like if you were a young girl in the early
to mid two thousands, there's just so many.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
It's a very two thousands movie for sure.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
She trades her computer for a saxophone. You're like, whoa, Yeah,
that would never happen to. Yes, that's so fascinating. I
love that there is still a prevalent video culture. There
actually is still prevalent video cult. I mean, I live
across the street from a video store, but they're you know, yeah,
I did watch it for free on YouTube. Ultimately, I

(10:45):
will confess my sin same same.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
It's interesting I did use that to rewatch for this
and that is not an official upload. So the subtitles
are also not an official translation. I still think it's
a pretty decent translation. There's a handful of things that
would have probably been checked by an editor. Like I
was very alarmed to see that they use the word
pow wow in the subtitles. I was like, what, that's
not what she says.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Oh yeah, I noticed that. Yeah I didn't see that, Okay,
yeah yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
I was like, that is not a word that like
even has an equivalent in Japanese. Okay, But but like
in general, they're passable or whatever. And it's very clear
that like a lot of people like that has tons
of us, right, so a lot of people have watched
this movie through that, So like maybe it's not official,
but like that's like, you know, that's a lot of
media is this way, like you wouldn't be able to

(11:35):
find it otherwise. And there's just like so much Japanese
media that goes like unnoticed, and it's especially media for
girls and women honestly that don't get exported as often,
at least in English.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Right, So sure, I mean to the point that I
had never heard of this movie, because to speak to
what you were saying, there's not a lot of live
action film from Japan that crosses over that gets exported
to the US. And I mean, obviously that's true for
so much media from so many countries where our own

(12:11):
media making machine and a lot of our output is bad,
but it does get exported all across the world, whereas
we don't import that much media from other places because
of our weird US supremacy, which.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
I think is slowly changing, but slowly changing.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I was not familiar with this
at all, and I had no idea what to expect, really,
and I loved this movie. It is so fun, it's
so charming, it's such a romp absolutely ten out of
ten on the Rompometer. It's like mostly pretty grounded, but

(12:54):
also there are moments where it delves into like pretty
absurdist territory, which I love, love of absurdist humor. Yes,
there's just funny jokes throughout the whole base. It's so
great and I'm so glad you introduced it to us,
and I'm so excited to talk about it. But yeah,
this was my first time seeing it. I had not

(13:14):
watched it before like three days ago, Jamie, what about You.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
I was not familiar with this movie. I saw when
I was logging in on letterbox. There were a few
friends who had seen it, and they were all like,
why is no one talking about this? So I do
feel like this is the kind of movie that, especially
because of what a wildly thriving market millennial nostalgia is,
and like this movie should be playing places. People would

(13:42):
flip for this movie because I mean, like you and
I connected with right away, Caitlin, like two of our
favorite movies have the same formula. It's a classic formula
that rarely, if ever, centers teen girls, and like it Happened,
it's centered teen girls. Yeah, I also I hadn't seen it.
I also really loved it, and it also at first

(14:03):
I was like, oh my gosh, it's a band movie,
which I feel like in a lot of Hollywood media
the band movie outside of School of Rock, but those
kids are much younger, so it's different. The band is
like I don't know. I was deep into the band,
and the band is portrayed as horny and weird and

(14:26):
side characters. But what if there were horny and weird
and main characters. And that is what Swing Girls explores.
But no, I really loved it. I loved being in
band as a high schooler. And I dated the baritone
saxophone player and he did break my heart. It is

(14:49):
very funny how he did it, though, Yes, so I
was obsessed with him. He was two years older than me.
I played the obo, he played the barry sax and
it was an unspoken rule in band that you weren't
supposed to date within your section. And we were both woodwinds,
so already it was like, oh my god, fascinating, like scandal, scandal.
And also he was really really good, like I was

(15:11):
like a serviceable second chair oboist, but he was really good,
like he wanted to go to college for it, and
so I was Also my involvement with him was interpreted
as a threat to his baritone saxophone career. Oh gee,
his AIM screen name was Barry sax Sex God. Wait,
you have talked about this.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Incredible.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
He's kind of iconic, Like now I think he's like
married with kids, but like he's icon in my life,
it will always be Barry sack Sex God. I will
never forget my first AIM notification from Barry sack Sex. God.
I was like, oh my god, it's my big day. Anyways,
so he went to college for Barry sax He literally

(15:56):
measured in saxophone at Music College, question Mark. I don't know,
but I was still in high school. And then about
halfway into his freshman year in college, he broke up
with me and gave me the and said at the time,
which I did not believe. He was like, I can't
be in a relationship with you anymore. I don't have

(16:17):
enough time to practice the baritone saxophone. Like he literally
dumped me for the baritone sax which is why I
have such beef with this thing. For a long time,
I was convinced that the love of my life was
taken from me by the baritone saxophone. But I saw
him like a couple of years after that, and I
was just like, please put my mind at ease, like

(16:39):
it was another person, right, like you met someone at
college and he was like, no, it was the baritone,
and by that point he had no reason to lie
to me about it, so I was left for the
baritone saxophone a humbling experience.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
This is a movie, Jamie. You have to write this
script like this is so funny.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
My mom literally let me take the day off of
school because which was one of the nicest things she
ever did, where I was like too sad to go
to school and she was like, yeah, okay, sure, But yeah,
my first breakup was literally because of the baritone sax
So when I see it, I'm like, hmm, what are
you gonna do to me this time? Motherfucker.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
At least the barry sax isn't super prominently featured in
this movie. We see it on screen, but it's the
tenor Sacks that really.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Gets the tenor the star of the show, and that
just wasn't really my type. I'm like, give me the
biggest sex fund you have. But but yeah, no, I
was very familiar with this scene, and I also think
it's really I'm really excited to talk about how like

(17:49):
this cultural exchange between Japan and America that like, part
of this movie is sort of based around and I
did a little research into like how did jazz get
to Japan? And I'm just like really excited to talk
about all this stuff. But at the end of the day,
it's a movie about girls making a jazz band and

(18:10):
becoming the coolest people at their school. Like it is incredible, incredible,
And there's a token boy.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah it's swing girls and a boy, which he writes
on a sign.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Right, He's like, I demand to be perceived. I'm like,
I guess, I guess why not? I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
So by the end the whole the band name is
just swing Girl, so he does become a swing girl himself.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I think you can say, yeah, it's true, Yeah, swing
boy erasure.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
You actually love to see it.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
But yeah, let's take a quick break and then we'll
come back for the.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Recap and we're back.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Okay, what happens in Swim Girls? I can't wait to
watch this movie again.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yes, Okay. So we open on a group of high
school girls taking a summer makeup math class. Among these
students are Tomoko, Yoshi and Naomi. Although I don't think
they're friends yet, they just all happen to be in
class together.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah yeah, it's kind of breakfast club vibes s Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
None of them are thrilled to be there, including their
teacher mister Ozawa. Tomoko, who's like daydreaming and staring out
the window, sees the school brass band load onto a
bus and she realizes they leave without their lunches, So
Tomoko convinces mister Ozawa to let her and the other

(19:55):
girls in the class blow off school and take the
lunches to the band, who are playing at another school
during a baseball game.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
One of the.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Members of the brass band is Takuo, who is a
teen boy who plays the symbols, and he seems to
be considering quitting the band. He has like a note
that he's ready to give to the band leader. So Tomoko, Yoshi,
and Naomi and the other girls hop on a train

(20:26):
to head to the other school. They eat one of
the lunches along the way, they fall asleep, so they
miss their stop, which means they have to get off
at a different stop and walk, which means they're out
in the heat with all of this food. They're like
spilling some of the food on the ground and then
like gathering it back up and putting it back in

(20:47):
like the bento box.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
It is shocking that by the time the food gets
to the band that it's basically intact, right, But I
am headcanon convinced that it is very much the girls
dropping the food onto the ground that got the band sick.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
So what happens is they finally arrive at the other
school and pass out the lunches. Taco ends up not
receiving a lunch because they're short one because they ate
one of the lunches on the way.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Oh my god. And then the greatest slow zoom in
all of cinematic history, where you know, like everyone is
lying about it, And then there's which character is there's
a slow zoom into the side of her mouth where
there's a single grain of rice. Yes, and that being
the initiation for their relationship is so delightful.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
And he doesn't say anything, he just notices and keeps
it going.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, he's not a narc. He's not a nark, but
I do think he takes it out on them over
like that that lost lunch. There were consequences for Tomokov.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Right, But because he doesn't eat one of the lunches.
It means that he and he alone avoids getting sick
because everyone else in the brass band ends up in
the hospital with food poisoning, which means the school is
looking for a substitute band and the girls in the
makeup summer class are made to join the band and

(22:19):
like be the substitutes as like punishment for ruining the lunches?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Which does that mean that their teacher just like is chilling,
Like is it just no longer teaching a class?

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah? Basically, I think I think there were other students
in the class, so it's not just that, but like
it's like basically that whole group of girls, and they
were definitely also like you know, doing it to get
out of taking class, right, but for sure basically they
could be excused, like get a special excuse for missing
out on the class by doing this instead.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Right, Yeah, which is always what a pre bot. I
was like always looking for that excuse. There was an
algebra class I took in high school where I couldn't
do well, and then the teacher was like, if you
write book reports for books you're reading, I'll give you
ten extra points on quizzes that you fail. I was
like okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
Yeah. The first like the opening scene of the girls
all clearly just like fucking around not actually trying to
play any instruments, reminded me so much of when I
was in junior high school, because in my junior high
school you could have like a you would have like
what's called the talents class, which was like basically year
one extracurricular. So in I think eighth grade, I switched

(23:30):
to Latin because I'm a nerd, huge surprise, and the
Latin class was clearly like the class that like half
the kids were there just to fuck around and not
actually study. And it was very frustrating because the other
half was like, no, but we actually are here to
learn Latin because we're very serious about it.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Everyone else is like suete omnes, Wow, that's all I
remember that.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah, hello, I learned how to play Egyptian rat screw
in Latin class. I don't think that was part of
the curriculum.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
I know, I really I we took Latin in middle
school and high school as well, and I was like
I should have been forced to take a Spanish class.
Like all I know how to say to this day
is stupid boy, futu is poer because that was the
only time I used it. Yeah, it was just a
yell at boys. Very important in any case, we.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
See these girls being made to join the band Slash.
They're pretty willing to do it because, yeah, it gets
them out of their math class. Also joining the band
is this like pretty shy, quiet girl named Kaori, as

(24:43):
well as two like punk girls who play bass and guitar,
Yuka and Hirom. And they all get together and everything
is chaos because the girls are all goofing around. Most
of them don't know how to play the instrument or
how to read music. Brass bands don't even have guitars

(25:04):
and basses. And Takua is like, well, maybe we're not
a brass band. Maybe we're a jazz band. And I'll
play piano because even though he sucks at symbols, he's
a good piano player. So the girls start learning their instruments.
Tomako on tenor saxophone, Yoshi on trumpet, Naomi on drums,

(25:30):
and Krie on trombone.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Naomi on drums is so iconic.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah, incredible two thousand and four wig on her by
the way, just yes, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
The helmet wigs like incredible, but there is nothing There
is still nothing cooler in the world than a girl
who drums. It's just a.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Fact, you know, true.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
And then after a like training montage of them getting
into shape because the girls have low lung capacity and
they can't even blow into their instruments, so they're like running,
they're blowing on tissues against a window, they're sucking air
out of bottles, like basically everything besides learning how to

(26:15):
play their instruments.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yes, very much. Yeah, this movie is not afraid to
get silly. It is so silly.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, And the girls are frustrated at first, but soon
they start improving at their instruments, but they also still
suck pretty bad. And there's this baseball game coming up
that they're supposed to play at, and for a while
it seems like the stakes of the movie are like
we have to help the baseball team win their game.

(26:48):
But just then the other band shows up, the ones
who got food poisoning, and they're like, we're better now,
we'll take back over, and the girls are like, fine,
by me. This will all just to get us out
of doing that math class. So Tomoko Yoshi, Naomi, Carrie
and the others give their instruments back to the band

(27:11):
and they leave. But it turns out they actually loved
being in the band and they're very upset not to
be playing anymore. There's a scene where they're all walking
and like sobbing and wailing. It's very funny.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
It's a lot, but it's so sweet where it's like
and that's like so teenager, too depic I don't care
who gives a shit, And the second you step out
of the room first like you're like, yeah, I did
that a lot.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
Yes, these are the most realistically betrayed teenage girls like.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Ever, yes, you're like, no, this sucks. I actually hated it.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
And then they also go to the baseball game that
they were supposed to play at that the like you know,
the brass band is now playing at and the whole
thing is a flop, and then school.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Starts back up again.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
The girls are still sad that they're not in the band,
so Tomako looks into buying a new saxophone, but they're
very expensive, so she sells her computer and her little
sister's gaming system so that she can use the money
to buy a used saxophone at a pawn shop. God

(28:22):
and then she goes to the other girls to encourage
them to buy their own instruments, but no one really
has any money to do that except for Takuo, who
has already bought his own keyboard. And there's comments about
how like, ooh, good for you, you come from a
rich family.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I really like it. We'll talk about like how classes
just like effortlessly sort of put into the plot of this.
I mean, even though this movie does feel very two thousands,
I feel like it avoids so many tropes that I
associate with two thousands teen movies. Yeah, another one just
like really but the fact that her kid's sister acts

(29:02):
like a kid's sister, where I feel like a lot
of American like Sun Dance round Coms had like Abigail
Breslin giving a Shakespearean monologue about like the nature of love,
and it was always really weird. Yeah. I was just like, no,
this child has had their gaming system stolen. They're gonna

(29:23):
yell I hate you, you know, like it yeah makes sense.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah, and we never see the sister again, but I'm
sure she's gonna feel like that kind of you know,
spite for the rest of her life because oh totally yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Because that's what sisters are supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yes, So in order to earn money to buy instruments,
the girls get a job at a grocery store, but
they're goofing around too much. They're kissing mannequins in an
elevator fun. They get fired after accidentally setting off this sprinklers.

(30:01):
So Tomoko, Yoshi, Naomi, and Kyrie and Takoo start another job,
which is gathering mushrooms on a mountain.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
In Adida's tracksuits. Yeah, they're literally wearing like, oh my gosh,
what was the Jane Lynch character in Glee? I didn't
watch thee they're wearing. They're all wearing that outfit. Yes, yes,
Coach Sue, is that it Seue Sylvester. Yes, they're all
rocking to Seue Sylvester before Sue Sylvester.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Was Yeah, it's true. So they're gathering mushrooms, but then
they realize they're trespassing on private property and so they
run away, but then a wild boar starts chasing them
in one of the silliest scenes in the movie, and
then they accidentally kill the boar via Naomi falling from

(30:57):
a tree and landing on the boar's head, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
This did either of you. I covered this on sixteenth minute,
and so immediately I was like, but the thirty to
fifty wild hogs, of course. Yeah. I immediately was like,
thirty to fifty wild hogs and here's one of them.
It's just I was like, wow, wild hogs. It's a
problem nation like globally. I didn't realize wild hogs was
a global issue that a twenty year old movie has

(31:25):
a goofy, high octane feral hog problem. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
And because of them accidentally killing this wild hog, the
teens are considered heroes because the bore, the hog whatever
it is, had been ruining the local farmer's crops amazing,
and so the teens aren't awarded money, which is what

(31:52):
allows them to buy some used instruments. But the instruments
they buy are pretty like and damaged and falling apart,
So they team up with the bass and guitar players
Yuka and Hiromi, who take them to a junkyard where

(32:12):
Yuka and Hiromi's ex boyfriend's slash former bandmates work.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Picture this. You show up at the junkyard and two
men who are weirdly obsessed with you and your friend
won't let you enter like bridge trolls until they recite
their horrible poetry. Yes, they really are behaving like it's
bridge troll behavior. And then they're doing.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yeah yeah, they're like, babe, why'd you break up with me?

Speaker 1 (32:39):
I still love you? And also the very two thousand's
plot point that they are pivoting from punk to bad
folk music. Absolutely you're like ooh two thousand and four.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yeah, yeah, because then they play them a song that
these teen boys wrote and then they finally fix the
girls instruments, and then they like officially form their band
called Swing Girls.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Hey, that's the name of the movie.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
They play a few small gigs which are mostly just
like on the street in the neighborhood or outside of
a grocery store, and they still suck and they play
all out of rhythm, and afterward Carie talks to a
mysterious man who tells them that they need swing, they

(33:33):
need to be more in rhythm with each other. So scary,
so everyone chases after the man for more help and advice,
and he turns out to be their summer math teacher,
mister Ozawa, who is a jazz officionado, and the teens
think that he knows how to play and that he

(33:54):
can teach them, but his big secret is that he
can't play at all. He's learning, but he's terrible, but
he doesn't let them know this, and he ends up
being their conductor.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
He kind of has I like wrote this down. I
was like, this isn't quite right, but like he does
have like redditor kind of energy right, where like he's
really like he's really interested, but he has no skill, right,
and he's kind of mean, and these are all qualities
of redditors, passion, cruelty, inability to follow through right, right,

(34:35):
but he still.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Inspires the group to think and play more like jazz musicians. Yes,
and there's this fun little sequence where they're like clapping
along to the music from like traffic signals and ping
pong games and like people beating their laundry.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I love that sequence where all of a sudden, jazz
is everywhere, like it's really beautiful.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, So then they play outside the grocery store again,
and this time they're good, and the dozen or so
other girls from the summer class who had previously quit
the band to go shopping and hang out with the
baseball team and stuff. They see the swing girls play

(35:24):
and they rush out to buy instruments so they can
rejoin the band. Then we cut to wintertime. The band
learns about this student musical competition.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Festival, and now it's going like kind of school of
Rock vibes here, You're like, okay, it's kind of a
battle of the band situation happening.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Right, And to enter, they must submit a video audition tape,
so they film themselves playing, which is followed by them
having a snowball fight because these kids love goofing around.

Speaker 6 (36:04):
Their kids, And the movie realizes that, right, I mean,
and all of the best, like teen or comedies for
kids have that very simple ask of like kids that
are actually acting like kids and making mistakes that make
sense for kids and aren't.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Like plotty or weirdly adult or whatever the fuck else. Yeah,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
So a few days later, after they've filmed their audition,
Tomako realizes that she forgot to send in the audition tape,
so she rushes to mail it, hoping it's not too late. Meanwhile,
Yoshi works on hitting a high note on her trumpet,
which she's finally able to do because a rat crawls

(36:51):
on her and she's like.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
With her trumpet, and then I immediately thought, Okay, Remy
the rat rat Timber, like we've talked about, wrote it
so much on the show that I no longer flinch.
I was like, okay, roll that, get the camera out.
This is a Pixar movie. Pixar movies are documentaries exactly,

(37:18):
so that's happening.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Also, Taco finds out that mister Ozawa cannot play music,
so their teacher quits being their conductor. He's ashamed and
he's like, I'll step away. Then Tomaco receives word from
the music festival that their band submitted their audition tape

(37:41):
too late and all the spots are full, and Tomaco
is too ashamed to tell anyone else. So the whole
band gets ready for and heads to the festival thinking
that they're going to play, and they're on the train,
but that gets delayed due to bad weather and like
a tree falling across the tracks.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Various hijinks.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yes, a lot of train related hijinks in this movie.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
True. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
But then the other band, the original brass band, the
one who got food poisoning, rescues the swing Girls and
tells them that a spot opened up at the festival.
And lets them ride on their brass band bus. So
the swing girls show up at the festival at the

(38:30):
last minute. They're disheveled, they've forgotten their uniforms, their instruments
are cold, they don't have a conductor. No one in
the audience is taking them seriously. But then they start
playing and they're really good. And then mister Ozawa shows
up and starts conducting them from like the back of
the room. Our friends do various solos. The audience loves it,

(38:57):
and that's the end of the movie.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
I love it, love it so good.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
So let's take a quick break and we'll come back
to discuss.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Burber Ber.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
So I have a surprise for you guys.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, you pull out a barysax.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
Did you know that this movie can be connected to Shrek?

Speaker 2 (39:31):
No?

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Tell us everything, walk us threat, We're open.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
So mister Ozawa's actor actually is the dub voice actor
for Puss in the Shrek movie.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
WHOA, that is great, And now that you've said it,
I see it. That's so cool. Yeah, wow what of
what rain?

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Yeah? Yeah, he's like I mean a lot of the
adults in this movie like they were big actors. They
have been big actors since a lot of the teenagers
because these are teens playing these teens, a lot of them,
you know, they have careers on and off whatever, but
none of them have like super huge careers, et cetera. Okay,
so like you know, but that's like super super common honestly.

(40:16):
But yeah, yeah, as far as like the adults go, like,
he's a he's a huge actor, and that's one of
his things. He doesn't do a lot of dubbing, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
How I'm also saying that his other major dubbing role
was Nick Fury in all of all of the Marvel movies. Wow. Yeah, incredible.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
He's also in the Happiness of the Kategoris, a movie
that I have mentioned on the podcast before, a cuckoo
bananas movie. Ami, have you ever seen it?

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I have not seen that particular movie.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
No.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
I never know how to describe it because partly I
forget what it's about and partly it's just so bananas.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
When did you see it?

Speaker 3 (40:55):
I saw it in college. Okay, we'll put.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
A pin in that.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
I'll try to find a log line and describe it.
But it's a very wild movie. But anyway, he gives
a great performance in Swing Girls, yes, as do everyone.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
I really appreciated that the two teacher. Again comparing this
to School of Rock, which is my favorite movie ever
but a flawed movie that maybe disproportionately focuses on the teachers.
And this movie, I think I was really pleasantly surprised
at Ozawa's arc that he had an arc, because he

(41:33):
appears as like at the beginning, as a very you know,
kind of stock character that checked out teacher, and so
giving him multiple beats of an arc of like, oh,
there's more to this guy, because he's a jazz afish
nado and also he sucks at it. And also he
has this like small arc that is mostly just communicated

(41:53):
in the performance of like he finds that he does
love teaching or you know, we don't know, maybe he
used to love it and then fell out of love
with it, who knows. But I really like that, and
I like that. I also is expecting, again because I
was just projecting other early two thousands movies onto the
dynamics of this movie, that the other music teacher who

(42:17):
does the brass band Yayotami, that she would end up
being antagonistic, but instead she is extremely supportive and is like, yeah,
this is great, which actually makes way more logical sense
than what we're used to seeing in American movies, where
it's like there's two teachers and there can only be one,

(42:38):
where it's like, if you know teachers, they're never not
grateful to have a second person who is like working
towards a common goal with them. And it just felt
like they were in the movie the exact appropriate amount,
and like that the girls were always at the center,
which you don't see enough in this format.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Totally.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
There's even like that little hint of the romance that
like Ozaba clearly likes her, and like the only reason
why there were all those big band records in the
band room in the first place is because he was
giving them to her all the time and she didn't
even think about it, and everyone else was like, Okay,
this is very obvious what's going on here. But like
it doesn't like none of the romances like come to

(43:19):
any fruition or anything because they're not the focus of the.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Movie, right, which kind of like made me less bothered
by their presence. Where again, like in a movie that
comes out in two thousand and four, I kept waiting for,
like the romance between Tomaco and Takuo to take a
larger place in the plot, and it's referenced in like

(43:43):
I think, a very sweet, authentic way, but it never
becomes like I'm doing it for him, right, which is
I feel like what you see a lot in like
teen movies that I grew up watching. Mm hmm. Again,
it's just nice being like, oh, music brought them together,
but even if if it didn't, they would still both
love music.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I wrote that down too. As
far as any like crushes or flirtations that were present
in the movie, they never really come into any fruition
or they're only hinted at, and the focus is always
the music and the friendships that develop, whether they be

(44:27):
between or among the girls, or the friendship between Tomako
and Takua. Like, yeah, it's just it's a focus on
just like camaraderie in this activity that they're all doing. Yeah,
and yeah, it's it's mostly girls in the band. You

(44:48):
love to see it.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
There's nothing cooler.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
There is the one boy who helps them, And I
thought it was interesting that it's written in such a
way the movie that the only boy is the one
who has all this prior music experience and knowledge, and
he becomes the kind of de facto leader of this
group of girls. Yeah, And I was like, Okay, well,

(45:12):
why couldn't it have been another girl who takes them
under her wing and leads them, which I would have preferred.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Yeah, but it's a small thing. Yeah, exactly, Like in
the large scale of how wonderful this movie is, you're like, okay,
you know it was two thousand and four, right, another
big you know. When I saw this setup of the
dynamic between like the popular girls who are richer, who
have nicer clothes, and who I think are like originally
in the Brass Band, I also love just like so

(45:44):
popular hot girls of course are in the Brass Band,
I was like, this is not a trope I'm familiar with,
but let's go with it. And they have. They're like
dripped out in all the most two thousand forest fashion
and the entire world. It's very like my wall covered
J fourteen stuff. But that instead of you know, because

(46:05):
this is the same year as mean girls of instead
of this really toxic dynamic. It starts that way, and
they do start by behaving I think kind of like
more stock popular bullies. But then when they realize that
what swing Girls is doing is really cool. They're like, oh,
we're gonna sell all of our like Louis Vutan shit

(46:28):
and join the band. Like you're just like yeah, great.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah. They're definitely like portrayed as like I don't know
if I would say that they're necessarily popular girls, like
they they seem to like they have, you know, the
modern sense of fashion everything, and.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Yeah, I guess I just associate that with popularity.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
No, that's fair as fair I mean, and they probably
are at least kind of right, Like it's very clear
that's when the girls do meet like outside of the
summer school like that, there's like definitely like different dynamics
going on and stuff. But like for me, I think
more than being portrayed as po I think they're portrayed
more as like ditsy for the first part of the movie,
because like they're very quick to leave the band because

(47:08):
like only the main group actually gets kicked out of
the supermarket job just because you know, they they're the
ones that set off the sprinklers, right, and the other
girls are like, well, but we like we're gonna keep
working here. We don't have to quit just because you
guys got fired or whatever, which is like totally reasonable,
you know, and they're clearly already using the money they're making.

(47:28):
Now it's a little absurd to think that a supermarket
job as a teenager is gonna get you all those
designer goods. But that's another, you know, thing altogether. But
still like they're just like, okay, we're still doing our thing,
and you know, that's why they give up on it.
But of course they are inspired by the power of
jazz then they you know, they turn around. But I
think that it's it is definitely interesting that of course

(47:50):
it makes sense you're both comparing these two American teen movies.
So like for me, it was a very different experience
because I was comparing it more to what I already
knew of Japanese media, my expectations of it. Yeah, So like,
for example, a lot of media that especially is music centered,
so like idle media et cetera, that is about a
group of girls, it often doesn't have any boys in it.

(48:11):
But also there's a big difference in terms of how
this kind of media is marketed. So like this is
definitely a teen movie for teens, and you know, probably
primarily targeting teen girls, but the fact does a lot
of other stories that star teen girls aren't necessarily fourteen girls,
and so they're going to be portrayed a bit differently.

(48:33):
So there's there was that kind of comparison. So like,
for example, we didn't talk about it in the recap,
but there is like this one very short little scene,
this little kind of joke scene about I think it is, yeah,
Naomi getting like her skirt like breaking, because yes, like
she she is the fat character. So there is some
fat phobia in this movie, and that's kind of the

(48:54):
main issue with it.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Which honestly didn't even register for me because down yeah right,
I mean, and maybe that's like my naivete, but it also,
I mean, just brought me back to how rigid body
typing was and is now. But in the two thousand specifically,
where I can think of other movies where that's the
case too, where there's quote unquote the fat character and.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
It they're not fat fin yeah, yes, yes, but she
is like the token she's the quote unquote fat character
in the movie. But yeah, so like there's a thing
where her skirt breaks, her her skirt falls down, and
so we see a boy who's biking nearby, like fall
down a hill, humble because he sees her under just
completely just wipes out and just keeps going and doesn't

(49:40):
say anything, and we never actually see the underwear on screen.
But like other Japanese media would not have done that,
They would have shown us that panty shot, if you will,
So I definitely for me, like that was huge for me.
I'm like, oh, somebody gets it. Somebody figured out you
can do this without being weird, like because there's a there.
It's not a lot of media, but there is some

(50:01):
media that does do this, Like I actually just recently,
I'm I'm in the middle of watching a Magical Girls
show from the eighties where like this is there's an
episode where this is a major blot point and they
show the underwear and it's like, we don't we don't
need to see it. It's not that hard, right.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
I remember talking about this in the Spirited Away episode.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Yes, oh yes, not spirit Away, I think because you
guys asked me about the Kiki's delivery service.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Where a lot of those movies and it's not sexualized now.
But it's like, why are we seeing all these shots
of like little girls underwear is a little jarring.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Yeah, yeah, it's a.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
It's a weird thing. And yeah, a lot of times
it is not sexualized but ends up getting sexualized by
fans later on, which is the kind of main problem. Right, So, like,
for example, with it an animation, you have the cells, right,
like the actual physical pieces of like paper that or
plastic that have the drawings on them, those get the
ones with pannies get sold for a lot more money

(51:00):
because people are free.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
I hate to hear that.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
Yes, I know, I'm so sorry, but like so yeah,
so for me watching this movie and seeing a scene
like that, it was like, okay, good so somebody has
figured out that this and it's like twenty years ago,
we still usually we don't have this problem these days,
it's it's definitely been reduced, thank goodness, but it still
can be a problem depending on the target audience of
the media in question. And I'm trying to think of

(51:28):
something else, like there were like a small a lot
of small things like that that were like, oh yeah,
if this in other Japanese media, it might be a
little bit different. Oh. The other big thing for me,
it's not necessarily like an important aspect, but I do
believe it is Yoshi, right, the trumpet player, like her

(51:48):
thing with she has a crush on mister Ozawa and
tries to make a move on him, and it's like
very subtle, but like he very clearly immediately is like no, right,
and he's like he's clearly not interested for one thing.
He is he likes someone else obviously, but like a
worst movie or worst story would have something happened there.
So that like really stood out to me as well.

(52:10):
So like I was definitely seeing this in the grander
scope of like a lot of other Japanese media that
has a lot of issues with their teen stories.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised that there was nothing majorly
problematic in this two thousand and four movie.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
Yeah, but we still see the girls are like, you know,
they're still definitely like you said, they're horny girls their teens.
They make out with the mannequin's. It's still one of
my favorite teams. Is just peak comedy for me.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
It's so fun because you know, like.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
I don't know any teen girl who wouldn't have done
that in.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
That moment, right, Like right, that didn't feel like, oh
look how hot this is? It's like it's silly, right, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
I guess I'm curious. I was back and forth about
it because at the beginning you don't really see a
lot of like I think this movie kind of starts
more of a slacker comedy and then becomes a different
thing as it moves on, and you very rarely see

(53:05):
slacker comedies that center girls, especially in American movies, where
slacker comedies like it's ninety percent seth broken sure, or
it was for a long time, right, Like, there's always
kind of a slacker of the moment, And so at
first I was like, Okay, like most of the girls
towards the beginning are being kind of portrayed as like lazy,

(53:27):
lay about kind of kids. But I do feel like
there is a like outside of the brass band, who
I feel like are more like we're you know, dorky,
upstart kids that everyone of all genders are kind of
portrayed that way. I don't know, I'm curious what you
think of it that.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Yeah, yeah, I think, Well, one thing I find really
interesting is that there's clearly the kind of hierarchy where
obviously our hour swing girls are you know, somehow below
the brass band, but the brass band is very clearly
below the baseball team, right or like the jocks, right,
And so it's like we see that dynamic play out,

(54:07):
so like there's these different levels to it, but like
who knows if those the baseball team is actually cool
or not? Right, It's very interesting and again it's just
like also just portrayed like this is clearly like a
kind of smaller town scenario. There's probably only one supermarket, honestly,
and uh, in general, the just like the different dats

(54:28):
again like with class and everything, like the cost of
things and everything just like super made sense for like
the honestly not even like a super like you don't
have to actually be like a super poor family for
stuff like a PlayStation too to be expensive or whatever. Yeah,
I just love like the detail of the computer is
so funny because like Tomoco is so like cannot be
bothered to figure out how it works that she like

(54:50):
clearly like drew all over it or whatever.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
You put stickers on it or something.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yeah, and then her whole family is like, Tomoco, what
the fuck is like.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
That was expect have yes, yes, but that's part of
her arc where Yeah, to your point, Jamie about like
slacker comedies, I wrote down like visibility of girl mediocrity
right totally. It's really refreshing to see because and they
don't stay mediocre. They get good at their instruments, but

(55:21):
it's only because they discover this passion they have for
music and they practice and work really hard at it.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
And also it's like connected to the fact that they
are not being like I'm trying to think of the
less weird word, but like they're not being like stimulated
at school at all. Like look at the summer program
they're in with and like, of course, you know, thankfully
their teacher as Awa, like he ends up kind of

(55:49):
waking up. But it seems like so much of their
slacker energy is like made out to be like a
personal fault when it's like, well, there's a lot of
reasons that could be happening, one of which is your kid,
and like it also doesn't seem like they're being given
a very like any sort of meaningful outlet for their energy. Yeah,
and then the ones that the outlets that exist, and

(56:12):
this is true for kids everywhere, Like a lot of
the outlets that exist there is like a financial threshold
and like a barrier to entry, which this movie like
is not afraid of talking about, but is also not
like we're stopping the movie to talk about something very serious,
which is like cool, yes.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, And then again for a Tomaco like, her arc
is that she starts out by never finishing the things
she starts like she got the computer, and I think
maybe there's different other mentions of an activity that she
started and that her parents spent money on, and then
they're resentful because she never followed through on it, and

(56:53):
they get on her case for never finishing anything. So
when she asks for money for a saxophone, they're like, no, oh,
you're just gonna, you know, drop that after a few weeks. Also,
but this is actually something she follows through on, and
I thought that was just a really that's a very
normal arc for a teen or a kid to go

(57:14):
through where you know you don't know who you are yet,
you don't know what you're interested in. You explore different
things and some of them you find out you don't
like after all, And unfortunately that is expensive, but it's
very normal, and I feel like you don't even get
to see that explored for characters who are women and
girls because their arcs are so often like a romantic

(57:38):
arc or some other thing that just like doesn't there's
no interest in exploring, like what's a pretty standard thing
that a teen girl might go through, oh, discovering like
trying to discover what your extracurricular interests are or your
artistic pursuits, because again, they're so often tied to some

(57:59):
like romantic storyline and not that those are inherently bad.
And I really like again the way that the like
flirtation between her and Takul is represented, because it's not
you know, there's a flirtation between them, but they don't
like get together at the end and have some big
cinematic kiss.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
It's what we are always saying we want to see
in yeah movies, where it's like that romantic interest is
an element of her life, it is not the all
consuming thing totally. I'm super corny with stuff like this,
but just seeing them all become collectively excited in the
second act of like, oh my god, music is awesome,
let's talk about it, Like I was like, oh so nice.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Yeah, we do actually have I feel like, because things
like club activities are so important for teens, and I
think part of why these girls at the beginning are slackers,
is because they haven't found that thing yet. Right, So,
like when you're in a Japanese school, clubs usually meet
not like for example, like once a week or whatever,
it's usually like every day. Often you'll come to school

(59:05):
on the weekends to do like one more thing or whatever.
Like it's very very invested. And also it's it's a big,
big thing because a lot of schools require that like, Okay,
if do you want to be in this club, you
have to have a certain level of grades, right, So
like it's a it's encouraged because kids finding that like
interest will help them. And depending on the school, you

(59:25):
can really do anything. Like I didn't get to go
to a Japanese high school, but my spouse did and
they were in bookkeeping club.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Oh incredible, right, so you.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Can find passions about whatever. It's really interesting to see
like and then yeah, I depending on how you know
popular your club is whatever, that will affect how much
funding you can get and all of that, and like
it's all it's one of those things like help kids
prepare for adulthood or whatever. But like hobbies, etcetera are
like such a big thing that like a lot of waves,

(59:55):
and this movie is one of those of like things
that like a bunch of teenagers and japan get into
are often inspired by a piece of media, whether it
be like a whatever sport is popular at the time
or what have you, and so like this obviously just
helped blow chazz blew up for teens because this made
jazz cool and uh yeah, so like in terms of

(01:00:17):
the story, like these girls were looking for something, and
also obviously Takuo was also trying to find something because
he was clearly unhappy playing the symbols kind of okay
in the Brass band, because the hierarchy in the band
in that band was such that he just was clearly
like at the lowest rung as well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Yeah, so it's.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Like, yeah, the joys of finding that thing that you
become passionate about is that is a very common storyline
in a lot of Japanese media featuring teens, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Nice in the US, it's what evil bet can a
man teen boy?

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
We still have those two, don't worry, we have a
lot of We have all the all the same trash meat. Yeah,
for sure still exists in Japan, don't you worry. But yeah,
just like there's a little bit more. I think there
are more variations on like different kinds of stories because
teens are respected more as a target demographic in Japanese media.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
In my personal opinion, yeah, I also was pleasantly surprised
at the way that Takoo interacts with the other because
he's like the soul boy among a large group of
girls that keeps getting bigger throughout the movie.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
Yes he is the and a boy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Yes he's the token boy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
And again he's in this position of kind of I
guess power, not that you know, he's in a leadership
position over them in the sense that he has this
prior experience. He sort of wrangles them and like he's
their coach when he's trying to get them into shape
and stuff like that. But it's so rare to see

(01:02:04):
a like singular boy or teenage boy or man surrounded
by a group of women or you know, people of
marginalized genders. And if you do see that, you would
generally see, at least in Western media, the man or
the boy feeling super emasculated by being surrounded by so

(01:02:27):
much feminine energy, and that he would be degrading and
or condescending to them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Which he can. He can be condescending to them.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
He is a little bit here and there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
Yeah yeah, when he's like, you guys can't even breathe, right, Like,
he can be kind of condescending.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Yeah, he was. Definitely. He wasn't very mean at the
beginning for sure, right yeah. Yeah, but he was also
like very much thrown into that leadership role by the
food poisoning incident and it was those girls fault, so
I could understand him having a little animosity in that moment.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
I agree. I think we have the proper context for it,
and the fact that like as time goes on and
the girls become more and more invested in swing girls,
when he tries to buy I mean, there's like that
great scene that I feel like you get the like
sort of juiciest class commentary of the movie where you know,
it's like the conversation about buying instrument secondhand, and Takua

(01:03:28):
is talking about, like, well, why don't you just get
second hand? It's not that hard, and they're like, oh cool,
with what money? With what money? With what money? And
like so they also, like the girls never hesitate to
push back once they feel confident that like this is
something we are committing to and like it's one thing
to talk down to us when we don't give a shit,

(01:03:50):
but now we do, and like shut up and he does,
and he like takes that feedback, which I don't know,
it's like it works.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Yeah, And an act of solidarity, he goes mushroom picking
with them, even though he doesn't need to buy a
new instrument. He already has one, but.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
He gets it his so Sylvester suit right along with
the rest of them.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Yeah, yes, and it's you know, this is a little thing.
But it's not like he has to save them from
the hog. You know, he's being chased along with them.
So I feel a lesser movie would have him be
the one who defeats the wild animals. He's the man
and they're the girls who need to be protected. But
nothing like that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
It's such a funny twist too. Yeah, it's so good. Yes,
I wanted to just really quickly and I have done
very very cursory research on this, so if people listening
and if people on the call no more than me,
please pick up. But I was really interested where like
two thousand and four in my mind, and then I

(01:04:53):
like went back to sort of cross verify this was
I feel like a huge moment in the US for
a prob creating Japanese culture, like oh yeah, this is
the year of Gwen Stefani Harajuku girls, like yes, yes,
So I thought it was interesting. I was like, okay,
so here is not the inverse of this because it
is nowhere near you know, the same thing, but a

(01:05:16):
Japanese movie about a group of Japanese teenage girls getting
really excited and into this black American art form. And
I was interested into like how, like what Japan's relationship
with jazz is. I got a little bit of information.
I just wanted to share it. If people know more,
please let me know more. And I'm pulling this from

(01:05:38):
a scholarly journal Wikipedia. But the two papers that this
has been built off of are Jazz Journeys to Japan
The Heart Within by William Minor and Blue Nipon Authenticating
Jazz in Japan by Taylor Atkins. So just for some
fun context, I guess we're not actually not fun context,

(01:05:59):
but context nonetheless is that jazz came to Japan mostly
through like Transpacific ocean liners, often from American occupying forces,
but also from Filipino artists who were then occupied by America.
So it's like a story we're very familiar with where

(01:06:20):
this art form is proliferating because of colonialism essentially. But
once jazz gets to Japan in the nineteen tens, it
becomes very popular. It is banned in the nineteen forties,
but it doesn't work really because at that point there
is a whole sort of culture around Japanese jazz.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
And to be fair, a lot of things were getting
banned in the nineteen forties in Japan, so.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Right, and not for no reason. But I did think
it's interesting that like this specifically black American art form
has such wide reach and is I think, like so
lovingly hell in this movie that comes out in two
thousand and four, where in America we are absolutely you know,

(01:07:08):
decimating Japanese culture and whitewashing it like it's no one's business.
But yeah, I just I would like to learn sort
of more about that story because obviously it's a very
complicated one.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I haven't read those works,
I can't speak directly to it myself, but certainly, like
in general, I mean, even now, jazz is definitely more
associated with older people anyway. But sure, I think from
my experience it's been always like I guess one of
the things about this movie is they do name drop

(01:07:42):
some you know, like big people of jazz and all
of that, but I find that like they don't really
like show them so much, so you could I imagining,
like as a Japanese viewer end up not really learning
about jazz history from this movie, which you know, it doesn't.
It's not that kind of movie, So that's kind of fine.

(01:08:03):
But I do think that it is important to acknowledge
that there is like the kind of default of foreigners
even today is still like white people, especially white Americans,
So you know, there could be a way to incorporate
things and like one thing about this movie and like, honestly,
it's you could do this conversation with like all kinds

(01:08:23):
of Japanese media, but like the issue of the lack
of diversity in Japanese media, there is this prevailing myth
that Japan is like an almost an f no state
level of like being extremely one race. Like even Japanese
people as a whole are not just one people, right,
We have indigenous groups, we have you know, just like
we stem from different ethnic groups et cetera. But also

(01:08:46):
like we have a ton of foreigners, but we don't
have the data for that because of how the Japanese
system works. So like, if you want to become a
Japanese citizen in Japan, you actually have to change your
name to a Japanese wall so that like kind of
system just in that way, like erasist people who are
not ethnically Japanese who become Japanese in nationality and stuff

(01:09:10):
like that. So like we do have a ton of
people from like all over and we have of course,
you know, mixed race folks are just myself, and we
have people who are for example, black and Japanese. So
it could have been and it would have been appropriate
at the time to have like one of these kids
maybe be mixed race or you know, have have like
just even like a little bit of something when you

(01:09:30):
have such a big group of girls. One of the
things about the two thousands is that while it wasn't
about jazz music being super huge, but like we had
one of the biggest pop stars in Japan at that
time was a black and ethnically Korean Japanese woman named
Crystal Kay who she's you know, she's still doing music now,
but like the people are there, right, Like it's it's

(01:09:51):
not hard to find, you know, the people to to
help create the kind of diverse cast you might need,
because yeah, that that is one thing that is a
little lacking here. But like it's also like not necessarily
the movie that would like focus on that. It's just
like a small kind of possible grade. But it's like
not exclusive to this movie. It's like a general Japanese
media problem for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Sure, And similarly, again, there aren't these hugely pervasive romantic
storylines that are sweeping across the movie and drawing all
the focus away from the band, But there are these
little romances and flirtations here and there, but they're all hetero, yes,
And I'm not surprised because in two thousand and four,

(01:10:37):
at least the media that I'm most familiar with, which
is you know, Western mostly American media, there was a
huge reluctance to portray queer characters explicitly, or maybe there
was a small hint.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
Or if they were it was coded, it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Was coded, or they were the butt of a joke.
So sure, you know, I'm not surprised by the lack
of representation in this movie from two thousand and four.
But yeah, you know, it's something worth noting for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
But I guess just getting back to the strengths of
this movie is it's I feel like a lot of
movies say they're focused on friendship among teen girls, but
then it actually isn't. It's folk Like I think, I again,
I cannot I'm like compulsively comparing this to American movies.
But John Tucker Must Die is a great example of that,

(01:11:30):
where it's like the group of girls like become friends
through this hatred of this guy, but it really is
just a redemption arc for the guy. You're just like, ah, fuck,
this movie actually delivers on the promise of the thrust
of this movie is about teen girls for make a
jazz band. That is what the movie promises, and that

(01:11:54):
is what happens. And it makes you cry and they
play Benny Goodman at the end, and then it ends
on Nat King Cole like you're just like, yeah, it's
the good ship. It's the good ship. It's like the
feel goodiest movie that never feels like trite or forced.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
I love that I've gotten you to say thrust No, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
I know you've really rubbed off on me, rubbed off. Okay, yes,
you thrust it off on me, and things are getting hardy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
I do kind of wish we got a little bit
more specific about some of the friendships, like if we
kind of honed in on a couple.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
Of them, Yeah, I agree, Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:40):
Saw them connecting a bit more, maybe about something other
than music, or just saw them kind of interacting in
a more kind of intimate way.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Or saw that. I mean, we really only and again
this is like getting nitpicky because they weren't really thoughts
I was having on my first viewing. The first viewing,
I was just like whoo whoo. Yeah, but Tomako is
the only character who we get insight into her home life,
Like I think that there is room to get Like,

(01:13:10):
if we really want to have these are our three
main girlies, I feel like we do need an insight
to their home life or their life outside of the band,
and that doesn't quite happen in this movie. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:22):
Yeah, yeah, Like it's a general friendship movie with girls,
but we don't get a lot of one on one
interpersonal stuff for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
Yeah. I would love to see just I mean, in
general more Yoshi and Naomi especially Naomi Yesh, she's my fave. Yeah,
but you know again, I'm like grading this on a curve,
on the two thousand and four curve, like really top
marks all around, right, yes, and the fact that I
had to check. But they end up forming like they

(01:13:50):
have a seventeen piece full band, like they did the
damn thing. Imagine coordinating seventeen teenagers to do something I
cannot imagine. And and it didn't feel again like there
was this like inherently capitalist message that was running through

(01:14:12):
it too, because I feel like sometimes when you see
young people find their passion, it's like and then they
won the trophy where they got the thing, and it's
like they harness their love and passion in order to
sort of achieve this capitalist goal. School of Rock also
famously gets around this because they lose the Battle of
the Band. They do not win.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
Yeah, we don't know, like it's I wouldn't say this
is like a battle of the bands per se. It's
more like a recital situation. I don't think there's like
an actual competition here, right, but we still don't know
like what the result the ending is the performance, and
I think that's really good. It's perfect certainly there are
other stories that would do would get to what happens next, right,

(01:14:54):
but like, yeah, I think that's honestly also really common.
There's like the stories of Dean's doing their best is
definitely a huge segment of Japanese media for teens. So like,
I think that it makes sense that was kind of
the main focus of like and maybe not necessarily like
like it's basically, they hear a bunch of obstacles and
here's how they get overcome them to meet the final

(01:15:17):
goal of just the basic thing of like performing and
performing well clearly because like it's it's definitely it's very
effective because the way that we see their progress and
like see them practicing, they don't necessarily always sound great.
And that's also because these kids were really learning how
to play these instruments, right, and then the final performance
is like whow, I didn't know they got this good?

(01:15:39):
And it's very very satisfying.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
I know, Yeah, does anyone have anything else they'd like
to talk about?

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
Oh, there's one thing, so the what's it called the
Repair guys the Ex Boyfriend folk group. So the scene
is definitely peak comedy because like the way that they
they definitely overemphasize the way they speak, but it's basically
the Japanese equivalent of like speaking like they're in due
to Wars, my car or something like that. But the

(01:16:09):
thing about that that I didn't really notice, I think
the first few times they watched, but like preparing for
this episode, I realized, we don't know how old these
guys are, and I think they might be adults, like
young adults, but adults. Yeah, So, like it's because they're
they're working and have like more or less a more

(01:16:30):
proper job than the like what we usually see teenagers have, right,
but we see like we don't know exactly how old
the teen girls are supposed to be, Like they're in
high school, we don't know exactly what year, right, and certainly,
like typically the way the Japanese system works, if once
you start your your what would be your equivalent of
senior year of high school, you're typically already eighteen. But yeah,
that was just like something that like kind of stood

(01:16:51):
out to me a little bit of like, well, these
girls in this band, the you know, guitarist and bassis,
like we don't know exactly how old they are, and
they were in this band with these two guys who
are like secretly losers but they want to be so cool, right,
and it's very funny. But like, yeah, like in hindsight,
I was like, what was happening here, Like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
I didn't even consider that because I just kind of
assumed that they were also in high school. But now
that I think about it, I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
Yeah, I guess see, we don't explicitly know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
Yeah, teen boys don't usually learn how to use welding
tools and stuff like that, so you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
Know, right, unless there was a great shop class at
this school.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Highly doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
Yeah, but we don't ever see them at school, no,
that's for sure. So yeah, now that you say it,
that could be potentially an upsetting, yeah situation.

Speaker 4 (01:17:43):
Yeah, yeah, though the whole scenario, it's always shown that
like clearly the girls are the ones like in power,
they're the ones that like they dump these guys, right,
they're the ones that left the band, et cetera. Yeah,
and these guys are like groveling at their feet basically,
but like, yeah, it's definitely so it's it's a little
bit of a weird situation for sure, but it's just

(01:18:03):
like something like hmm, this is like the small thing that, like,
I think they probably wouldn't have realized as opposed to
for example, with you know, the crush on Misster Rozoa,
that like it's like that's very clear, like wrong, and
it's shown that way right the show and is like
to not be you know, something to to move forward with.
But with this one, it's just like, oh, maybe like
it could have been a situation like maybe they were

(01:18:24):
all in high school when they started the band or
something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Right, we don't know sure, right.

Speaker 4 (01:18:30):
So there could there could be ways for it to
be like okay or whatever. And and I think that
even now, like honestly, there would be people who wouldn't
necessarily like blink out the idea of like someone who's
like young and like of college age, like dating someone
in high school whatever, like if it's only a few years,
like that's kind of understandable, but like also just like yeah,
against it. You know, we don't know the situation at all.

(01:18:51):
It's not clear in the story.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
It's not clear. Yeah, I found those characters be like
the one off jokes are funny, but it's like again,
I just was like, I'm not familiar with this stock
character because I am familiar with the like take me back.
But then I was surprised that they actually did help.

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
Them, right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
I was expecting them to be like malevolent and be like, no,
you have to be my girlfriend again. But then they
do help them. But then at the end they're like,
but take me back. I was like, all right, I.

Speaker 4 (01:19:18):
Don't know, right, they're still there. They're at the music festival. Yeah,
with is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
It like banner that says like take me back? Yeah
I love you?

Speaker 4 (01:19:28):
Yeah, Like it's actually it's very sweet, how like everyone
is there, even the supermarket people that fired them or
in the audience. It's very silly.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
Yeah, yeah, was there anything else? I love this movie.
I'm so excited that I have it in my life now.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
Yes. Yes, with all the nidpicking that we've been doing,
it's still like such a good movie.

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
It's yeah, yeah, and as we've discussed, holds up far
better than most media from two thousand and four. It's
not perfect, absolutely, but yeah, especially media centering teens, where yeah,
a lot of stuff usually goes really wrong from this era.
But yeah, there's not a whole lot to complain about.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Yeah, no, it was. Every movie has its flaws, but
if you haven't seen this movie. You're going to be
in such a good mood. I'm excited for you. Yes,
and Amy, thank you so much for bringing this movie
to us, because yeah, like we didn't know it existed,
and now it's going to be you know fully in
the rotation of course.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
And it passes the Bechdel test very handily.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
Boy, howdy does it so much.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Talk about jazz, about trumpets, etc.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
About computers that you're not using enough? Yeah? I think,
like truly, if they had just changed Takua's character to
be like a cool, older teen girl, it would be
the perfect the perfect film.

Speaker 3 (01:21:00):
Yeah, we didn't bring it up yet, but that movie
that we covered a while back, We are the best,
That Swedish film about the like tweens, yes, who start
a punk band in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
Great double feature.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
And then and then top it off, if you want
a triple threat, top it off with some Josie and
the Pussycats, Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:21:20):
And then if you need a palate cleanser, throw in
Spice World.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
Incredible, yes, and then School of Rock and then Full
Monty and then by that point you're asleep. That's too
many movies to watch it around.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
Yeah, yeah, I would say, the Bechdel test is definitely
for me, like a such a Western test that doesn't
necessarily always work with Japanese media because again, like there's
so much Japanese media that not only like there are
shows that have no male characters in them, but the
target audience is men, and so like talking about like

(01:21:55):
what isn't isn't feminist media, it's like so different in Japan.
Like a lot of like Jeffy feminism like discussions and
stuff are different in a way that I can't get
into on a podcast like this, but not in for
one episode anyway, but like, yeah, like you could have
shows that like, like this movie is great barely even
passes the reverse Bechdel test because I think the only
characters that talk to each other that are guys are

(01:22:16):
Takuo and mister Ozawa. But there are other shows and
movies and so on that are like definitely more for
the male gaze and only feature women. So like, well, okay,
sure it passes the Bechdel test, but it's also still
like very not good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
I mean that's true of a lot of movies we
cover too, Like I think it's ultimately a flawed metric.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
Yeah, right, And We recently covered a couple movies about
the prison industrial complex that feature predominantly men, such as
Holes and Shashank Redemption. Yes, and even though there are
hardly women on screen, especially in Shawshank Redemption, I mean,
they still generated very interesting conversations. And it's not it's

(01:23:02):
a like, as we always say, the Bechdel test is
a jumping off point. Yeah, sometimes it doesn't apply or
doesn't mean that a movie isn't exploring intersectional themes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Or issues for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's just a jumping off point.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
Yeah. Holes is definitely an interesting one for sure in
that card.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
Yeah yeah. I mean it's just like it's not always
going to be an applicable test because it wasn't designed
to be so.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
Totally so that you know what was though our nipple scale, yes,
the Bechdel Test nipple scale where we rate the movie
zero to five nipples based on examining it through an
intersectional feminist lens. And this one gets pretty high marks
from me. Look, give it like a four. You know,
we talked about the various things that pinged ever so

(01:23:51):
slightly for us, but you know, nothing too major. I
love that it is a focus on teen girls discovering
something they're passionate about and forming like camaraderie and community
around that. There's no like unnecessary petty infighting among the girls.

(01:24:14):
I feel like a lot of like a lesser movie
would also be like, well, there's a bunch of teenage
girls together, so obviously they're going to be so petty.

Speaker 1 (01:24:23):
Well that's what I thought was gonna happen with the
Louis Vuitan girls. Basically reggae would become enemies, but they
instead join forces and then have a full band, And
you're like.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
They so quickly change their mind.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
They're literally like, oh got it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
They like show up. They see the swing girls, like
when it's the whatever five or six of them playing,
they say, oh my god, this is so cool. I
want to be a part of this. They run to
the instrument store, they buy instruments, and they come back
while the swing girls are still playing. So it's been
a matter of minutes. They do it so quickly. They're

(01:25:02):
so enthusiastic about rejoining the band. So yeah, I love that.
And it's not as though there's not like moments of
tension among them where they'll get, you know, maybe frustrated
with another person or impatient or whatever. But it's it's
never out of like pettiness. It's always contextualized, and it's
always fleeting, and it's yeah, just such a fun movie.

(01:25:23):
I love the absurdist, silly, goofy moments. And again, I
love that you see teen girls being bad at.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Something at first.

Speaker 3 (01:25:32):
I love that you see them diligently working at it
and becoming better at something. I love that you see
them being goofy and silly and kissing mannequins and throwing
snowballs and all the goofy stuff that they do. It's
just such a refreshing fun movie.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
It's super fun.

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Yeah, it's available on YouTube. It's also on Internet Archive,
but I couldn't figure out how to turn the subtitles on,
so same, same, yeah, but yeah, if you don't know Japanese,
and if any listeners want to watch it with English subtitles,
you can easily do that on YouTube. So highly recommend

(01:26:09):
four nipples and I'll distribute them among the swing girls
I'm gonna meet either.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
Yeah. I feel like we've talked through, you know, the
places where this movie has like room to improve. But
I think again for using a two thousand and four Yardstick.
It's pretty fucking incredible, Like it's really.

Speaker 3 (01:26:30):
Yeah, honestly, I would give it, like, adjusted for two
thousand and four inflation, I maybe even give it a
five nipples.

Speaker 1 (01:26:37):
But yeah, while there are, you know, valid criticisms of
swing Girls, it is hard to be too mad about
most of them based on what a fun watch it
is and how like again, it's like twenty years later
and a movie with this kind of joy and centering
on teamgirls is still very rare, actually, like teen girls

(01:27:01):
that you might actually meet in the world and not
teen girls that you know. And I love a Diablo
Cody movie. But but but teen girls don't talk like that,
you know, So it just still feels like a very
rare thing to this day. I just I love comedies
about teen girls being passionate about something something to give
it four nipples, and I am giving them all to Naomi.

(01:27:23):
She's my favorite. She can have her too, and then
you know, do whatever she would, maybe two for the drums.
I don't know, Oh sure, I don't know. She's my
favorite character Anyimi, how about you?

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
Yeah, I think for me, like, you know, because again,
because it's two thousand and four, because it's a Japanese
movie've in two thousand and four. I just love so
much about this movie and like, yeah, all the little
like nippicking flausas that are are like the same flaws
that are were in like basically everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
At that time exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
Yeah, So yeah, I actually would say for me, this
is a four point five hell yeah yeah, just like
everything is. It's just like so refreshing, such a standout film.
I can watch over and over. I don't know, I
have no idea who translated the movie on YouTube because
it's not an official translation, but they did, you know,
a pretty in stelled job that has made it, you know,

(01:28:13):
more accessible to everyone around the world. And I'm so
glad for that because like it is a movie that
definitely more people should know about. And yeah, I just
think it's it's just like such a such an incredibly
good time and still holds up even though it's still
varied two thousand and four. The technology and stuff, et cetera.
Like I tried to imagine, you know, it's reboots and stuff.

(01:28:35):
We have the same thing here that you know, it
happens from time to time, and it's like, could they
do it now? How would it look different. If they
did the same thing, would they just set it in
two thousand and four? Again, there's so many questions, but yeah,
I just think that it's just a special thing that
like I'm so I'm so glad exists. I'm so glad
it was, you know, such an acclaimed movie and an

(01:28:56):
awarded and nominated movie here in Japan and everything even so, yeah,
like the only teenager in my life that I talked
to recently has no idea what this is. She was
just like, oh, that's from before I was born, And
I'm like, oh, why did you say that? Yeah, but
you know, that's I just think us it's the nature
of like teen media in Japan as it just comes
and goes. So yeah, yeah four for me.

Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
Well, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, and
tell us where people can follow you on social media,
check out your work, and tell us about your new
upcoming podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:29:32):
Yeah, of course. So basically on most socials, I'm at iu.
She knows personally that's a y U s H E
K N O w S. And the podcast I have
been doing for the past five years, Sparko Side Chats,
is all about magical girls and we are going to
be talking about Magical Girl Friendship Squad later this year.
I'm very excited about that.

Speaker 5 (01:29:52):
Oh my gosh, finally, wow.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
Do I want to know? My gosh, people were so
mean to that Shawan.

Speaker 4 (01:30:01):
Oh, there's the discourse is very interesting. But anyway, yeah,
so magical Girls, Yes, we're probably never gonna stop talking
about them, et cetera. I mean, god, with all the
shows coming out right now, I'm like overwhelmed. But yes,
if you like magical Girls, even if you have never
watched a Magical Girl show in your life, it's still
a good fun time over there. There's something for everyone

(01:30:22):
for sure in that genre. And yes, on the socials,
you can find that at Magical Girl Iu or ayu.
And as for my new podcast I'm co hosting with
my friends Aaron and Leon is called charm Point Radio
and it's all about idle media, so oh, you know,
basically the Japanese pop star. Though we are gonna try
to cover other stuff from you know, around the world,

(01:30:44):
it's just primarily Japanese. And you know, we're going to
the history of where the term idol got brought into
Japanese because that's from a French movie of all things.
And just like looking at all kinds of variations of
this genre. TV shows for kids, TV shows for adults,
and all of.

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
That jazz, all that jazz, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
Well sometimes jazz.

Speaker 3 (01:31:04):
I hope we haven't covered all that swing.

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
All the you know, it is typically going to be
like you know, your pop music, etc. But the storylines
are often very similar. But even with that formula, there
are so many variations and it's just such a fun time.
So we go through all kinds of weird things. Sometimes
we get into stuff about horses and sports and whatever.
There's so many things in the idle genre as well,

(01:31:30):
so I'm really excited for that. We don't have the
official date of release yet, but it should be coming
out by the time you hear this, because it'll be
sometime in early June that we launch. But we already
have social media links up everywhere, so find us at
chart Point Radio Amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:46):
And thank you again for joining us.

Speaker 3 (01:31:47):
Come back anytime I would love to, and you can
follow us mostly on Instagram as well as our Patreon
aka Matreon, where you get two bonus eppasisodes a month,
surrounding a brilliant theme. This month has been about men
in prison, so.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
But also also it must be, it needs be said.
It is your birthday month, and you chose this for yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:32:15):
And it's because I believe that men belong in prison. No,
but but we did Shashank and Oh Brother, We're art
Bell on the Matreon and then Holes was my big
birthday episode on the main feed.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Of course.

Speaker 3 (01:32:30):
Anyway, check out all of that on patreon dot com
slash Bechdel Cast. You also get access to our entire
back catalog of Matreon episodes as well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
And with that, ooh, okay, final question of the pod.
What instrument are you picking up? In swing Girls? You
have been invited, You've been summoned to be a swing girl?
What are you playing?

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
Ooh, I'm gonna play the guitar like hero me.

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Nice? Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:33:00):
I'm afraid my only instrument is piano, so I might
have to stick with that. Okay, respect, But does that
make me the and of boy is the question?

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
No? No, you're reinventing the narrative, Jamie. I'm going bariou Sax.
I'm reclaiming it. Oh whoa, it can't hurt me anymore.
Hurt Jamie, You're You're healed. I'm barry a sack Sax.
God now, yes, this very a sax sex god now Wow.

(01:33:31):
Okay bye, all right, bye guys.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by
Caitlin Derante and Jamie Loftis, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited
by Mola Board. Our theme song was composed by Mike
Kaplan with vocals by Catherine Vosskrosenski. Our logo and merch
is designed by Jamie Loftis and a special thanks to
Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about the podcast, please visit

(01:34:00):
link tree slash Bechtel Cast

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