"When it comes to great effort in order to achieve triumph, Japanese is one good example for it."

Swing Girls is a movie about a group of school girls (and a boy) that start to play Big Band Jazz as their way to redeem their fault for making their school's Brass Band unavailable to support their school's baseball team. Well, the fact that they plotted to join the band in order to skip their remedial class during summer school vacation, is just a way to kill two birds with one stone. Sounds tricky, huh? Well it is, since the movie itself is a musical-comedy.


Being able to skip their remedial class, is only a temporary enjoyment. When they got canceled for being the band that will support the school's baseball team (since the Brass Band has recovered from the illness), they find out their real calling for jazz. They realized that they do want to be acknowledged as a band that can play Jazz, this is where their will being tested against obstacles and hardships (and of course, lots of silly ways to go against the odds).

The cast includes Yuta Hiraoka (Takuo, the leader of the band), Juri Ueno (Tomoko), Shihori Kanjiya (Yoshie), Yuika Motokariya (Sekiguchi) and Yukari Toyashima (Naomi). Inside of it, you'll find that there are more than hilarious scenes and great jazz performance (the actors play their own music) ; the drama and the  morale of the story is definitely making this movie totally recommended to watch.

This movie reminds me to Water Boys, another great goal-seeking Japanese movie.

"Dog is a man's best friend"
That saying is something you probably hear a lot, but after you see this movie, I bet you'll see where it came from. *sobs*

This is a movie about a dog named Hachikō (ハチ公?, November 10, 1923–March 8, 1935) which remembered for his loyalty to his owner. This isn't a movie about a dog doing tricks, just saying.

Hachi was a dog that lived a common dog's life with its owner (Professor Ueno) in Tokyo. As a daily routine which was based upon their bond, Hachi always accompanied his master from their home to Shibuya train station where he departed for his workplace at Tokyo University. And in the evening, Hachi would wait his master at the gate.

The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a heart attack at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years, with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station.

This is tremendously touching me, in a subtle way; I always admire those street musicians, that perform with their soul to their best. And now they do it as a peace movement that goes all around the world.

The Inspiration

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world. (more)