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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: PCM, Dolby True HD 5.1 Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic) + 1080P HD Languages: Japanese Subtitles: English, Japanese Region Code: A Year Made: 2001 Running Time: 91 Release Date: 10/24/2008
Production Note
Real Story, Real Training
Twelve years ago, the swim team at a Japanese boys high school gave their first synchronized swim performance, which became a crowd-drawing annual event. Inspired by their story, director Yaguchi decided to cast actors who looked terrific in swimsuits but didn't know a Dolphin from a Flamingo. Cameras rolled after just a month of intensive synchro-training making WATERBOYS' stirring finale a testament to the actors' dedication to their new skill. TAKENAKA Naoto, the flamboyant dancer of SHALL WE DANCE? is featured as the boys' reluctant trainer.
The birth of a film
In the fall of 1999, a producer happened to see a news program (on TV Asahi's "News Station") about the popular synchronized swimming event at the Kawagoe High School festival. His first-ever glimpse of the young men's highly acrobatic choreography convinced him to go to the festival and experience it in person, which led to contacts with the Kawagoe High swim team and in-depth research. After uncovering some of the more dramatic aspects of the story, including conflicts between the more conventional swim team members who want to race and the synchronized swimming enthusiasts, and the exhilaration of performing, the producer stepped up his efforts toward turning the story into a movie. With the plot under development, Shinobu Yaguchi was invited on board: this young director, well-known for his deft, off-beat comedies, joined the team and the script was completed.
About the cast
The actors playing the roles of the "Waterboys" are all new faces. From among hundreds of auditioners, 28 young men were chosen on the basis of their swimming ability and good looks. In the film, these young men are supported by a number of seasoned actors, veterans of the Japanese film world. The role of the synchronized swimmers' coach, Isomura, is played by Naoto Takenaka ("Shall We Dance?"), joined by Akira Emoto, Sawa Suzuki, and Tetsuta Sugimoto.
Story
 It's springtime in Japan and the Tadano High School swim team is barely keeping afloat. When a pretty new coach turns up with the nutty idea of creating a top synchronized swimming team of her own, she has just a few problems to overcome. First, she's teaching at an all-boys school; second, the 5 boys who have committed to the team are all hopelessly bad swimmers; third, she suddenly discovers she's 8 months pregnant and due for maternity leave.
Inspired by their darling coach's dream, the boys bumble through the spring and summer, preparing a routine for Tadano High's festival. They face great adversity: the derision of their fellow students, a swimming pool full of dead fish, the mounting pressures of college entrance exams, and worst of all, their own dismal record of constant failure. Their only encouragement comes from a gaggle of local drag queens and the crazy owner of an aquarium, whose idea of trainin them, is making them polish fish tanks round-the-clock.
 When autumn finally rolls around, the boys have not only miraculously perfected a truly unique routine, they've won the respect and participation of a whole crew of new teammates. On the eve of the festival, the performance is threatened by one last catastrophe. Will the Waterboys hard work be wasted, or can they paddle their way to the success and recognition they've worked so hard to win?
Director's profile
Shinobu Yaguchi - Director's profile
 Yaguchi Shinobu's first film, ?gDown the Drain?h, completed when he was only 26, won high praise at the 1993 Toronto Film Festival and was included in MOMA's New Directors, New Films in New York. After a brief foray into television, he returned to the screen with the madcap 1996 comedy ?gMy Secret Cache?h, which debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. ?gAdrenaline Drive?h (99) was widely released outside of Japan and enhanced Yaguchi's reputation as a deft and quirky storyteller. Yaguchi says of this film: By setting a film about boys and sports in this completely wacky context, I've eliminated the predictable elements of competition, guts and determination and created something almost completely ridiculous. The boys only get involved with the team because they want a chance to hang out with their pretty swimming coach, and they stick it out hoping that they'll get more chances to meet girls. All of their motives are completely suspect, but they somehow bumble into creating a fabulous show. By the end, I hope the audience will think, "It doesn't matter how goofy the whole idea is, what matters is that they pull it off!"
Review
05/13/01 WATERBOYS "Variety"
By David Rooney
Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (market), May 10, 2001.
 The production team behind Japanese hit "Shall We Dance?" moves off the dance-floor into the pool with "WATERBOYS", a goofy but charming comedy about a bunch of high school misfits who find acceptance and a sense of achievement in an all-boys synchronized swimming team. Ripe primarily for remake consideration, the warm-hearted teenpic's broad humor, expansive acting style and less-than-smooth plotting make it not an item for discerning art-house denizens. But its exuberant sprit, appealing young Speedo-clad cast and rousing triumph-of-the-underdog finale could help secure theatrical and video sales in some territories.
High school senior Suzuki (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is the last remaining member of the lacklustre swim team, which risks being wiped from the program. The arrival of a cute new female instructor (Kaori Manabe) prompts a sudden boost in interest, but when she reveals her dream of coaching a synchronized swimming team the numbers plummet again, leaving only five boys. Along with Suzuki, the Esther Williams wannabes are Afro-haired failed jock Sato (Hiroshi Tamaki), calculus nerd Kanazawa (Koen Kondo), skinny Ohta (Akifumi Miura), who's desperate to beef up, and painfully shy Saotome (Takatoshi Kaneko), a gay boy nursing a secret crush.
When the coach's pregnancy takes her out of the picture, the boys are left to train themselves and develop their own routine for the school carnival. Working through summer vacation and facing a growing stack of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, their sole encouragement in the community comes from some local transvestites. Suzuki stumbles upon a solution during a date at Sea World, convincing an ex-ploitative, but unwittingly helpful dolphin trainer (Naoto Takenaka) to polish the boys' skills. Some unplanned TV news coverage attracts lots of last-minute sign-ups, turning the carnival performance into a major splash.
 There's something decidedly unrefined at times about the scripting of writer-director Shinobu Yaguchi, troweling on stumbling blocks in the team's path rather than exploring the boys' characters with any real depth. At times the agreeable tale feels overburdened with wacky developments and eccentric touches such as the drag queen supporters. But the laughs are frequently disarming, the boys genuinely likable, and their poolside dance routines and water-ballet moves set to lively Nippon-pop tuned provide a fun, upbeat ending for this colourful, summery comedy.
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