Well don’t let this scare you
Waterboys was a sensation in Japan when it aired being very successful and spawning a spin off television series which had 3 seasons. After watching Swing Girls (same director) heaps long ago I checked out Waterboys shortly after because it sounded like Swing Girls minus instruments plus syncro with guys and I loved Swing Girls so surely this would be good as well.
Do you know how long this has been in upcoming reviews? xD
Main cast: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hiroshi Tamaki, Akifumi Miura, Koen Kondo, Takatoshi Kaneko, Naoto Takenaka
Genre: Comedy, somewhat Romance
Length: 117 mins
Released: 2001 Sep 15
Theme song: Many many songs are played
Yeh, HE’S the hero
Synopsis
The boys at the school join the swimming club because of their hot teacher but after they learn she teaches synchronized swimming all but 5 losers drop out. When they learn that their teacher is pregnant the club is disbanded but after Suzuki (leader) is enchanted by the dolphins at some sea park he calls the club together to practice under the teaching of a dolphin trainer (who has no idea about synchro at all) and put on a show… basically one of those underdog stories of achievement.
This film was based on a true story but please, if I tell you that after watching this movie you’d surely laugh.
My thoughts
If you take Waterboys for what it is (a funny, light hearted, feel good flick) then it’s a good movie, but when you go and pick out its flaws and analyze every part then you won’t enjoy it. I enjoyed Waterboys a lot, it was a rainy night when I watched it and it’s one of the most laugh out loud inducing movies ever. If you’re looking for a deep plot and character relationships then you’d better go elsewhere and find another film because this is certainly not going to give you that… but who cares?
They’re in swimming costumes. There are fish on the floor. The police are present.
How LOL-inducing is it? Very!
I prefer subtle and clever humour over silly slapstick any day but even though Waterboys is almost all slapstick I loved it. There were some of the craziest scenes ever in this movie and it’s surprising how most of it worked so well, kudos to the director for making such impossible things work because I’m sure that flaming afros or electrocuted dolphins don’t really go in real life.
Synchro attempt number 1
Funniest scene in the movie… yes, it’s flaming
Most of this great humour is attributed to the wacky wacky characters, they were stereotypical from the nerd who can’t swim to girly boy and the tough girlfriend but I didn’t care, it sure did provide for some absurd moments. Sure, half a year down the track I don’t even remember their names rather their over exaggerated traits but that doesn’t matter either. The acting was generally well done and you could actually believe some of the craziness going on. My favourite characters have to be the afro guy (OMGz yeahs CHIAKI with an afro ftw) and the dolphin trainer man (see no names xD).
If you have to pin-point the flaws of the movie there are a few. The film does start a bit slow but things do pick up after they get serious and that’s when the real action starts. The plot is pretty flimsy, it doesn’t really make sense and there are plot holes here and there to make it all work out, the story is a steriotypical “losers attempt to master a foreign field and magically succeed blowing everyone away” and don’t even go looking for “deeper” issues. Also, a small part of the humour could very well be pretty distasteful and disturbing for some people with the okamas and gay undertones but if you’ve seen similar themes in anime/ drama then you should be okay.
Mr dolphin trainer man
Our heroes and the 8 months pregnant teacher
Even though I see those faults I have much more praises for the film. First is the soundtrack which is filled with old J-pop, some of those tunes are really good and catchy especially those used in the synchro routines. Second is the synchro itself, the actors (all 20 something of them) make it look so real and professional. It was seriously impressive and the routine, although not Olympic level was very entertaining and fun in it’s own right. If you don’t like the movie, these last 15 minutes does make it quite worth it.
I can’t help but like this film, Swing Girls is much better than Waterboys imho but Waterboys does have its charms. When funny characters, absurd situations and a story of teenage sweat and tears (no, not really LOL) is done right this is what you get :D
I thought synchro was a water sport…
…Ah, much better
Final Thoughts
7 out of 10, take it for what it is: a funny and charming flick, think too much of it and you’ll just ruin the experience for yourself. This review seriously does not do justice for how funny this movie is since I wanted to keep spoilers at a minimum so give it a try just to see how funny it really is.
My, what a long review? I seem to be dishing out a lot of them lately
The FANTABULOUS Final Performance
GAH! This movie is WIN!
When you gave me this movie I could not stop laughing at these idiots doing syncro swimming. I swear the dolphin guy looks EXTREMELY familiar..I just dont remember his name. The pregnant teacher is so random; she didnt even notice that she was 8 months. AND the okamas couldve done a better job with their makeup~
IT WAS TOOOO MUCH! YAY for the director.
Well, Mr dolphin man was also in Swing Girls and Nodame Cantabile (from top of my head)
if you liked Swing Girls, there’s a new film from the same director Shinobu Yaguchi called Happy Flight.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/happy-flight-the-new-film-from-shinobu-yaguchi/
After watching Nodame Cantabile, I was looking at what other films or drama the actors/actress did. Then I saw Water Boy for Hiroshi Tamaki (Chiaki-sempaaaaaaaai~). I then remembered couple of years ago my cousin gave me the chinese VCD for it, but I didn’t watch it back then because I sucked at watching subtitles, currently I can manage to watch japanese raws with simpler shoujo animes. My…it was a good watch. Despite my only reason to watch it is to see what Hiroshi Tamaki was like back then. It was an extra LOL when he had an afro (thinks Masumi-chan), and more extra LOL when another girly-guy fell in love with him (thinks Masumi-chan).
The storyline was extremely simple, but the main reason you watch it this is for the comedy. The acting was surprisingly good, weird slapstick humour tends to be my kind of thing.
Mr Dolphin Man is Stresseman from Nodame Cantabile.