Hula Girls (2006)

Hula Girls is a Japanese movie directed by Sang-il Lee. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2006 and was released by Cinequanon in Japan on September 23, 2009.

The film is set in 1960s Japan. The small mining town of Iwaka is going through a severe economic downturn. The mining company decides to combat this by starting a Hawaiian center in town to encourage tourism.

They hire a dance teacher from Tokyo named Madoka (Yasuko Matsuyuki) to teach some of the local teenage girls how to hula, but it’s soon clear they’re a hopeless lot when they hesitate to bare their midriffs or shake their hips.

Madoka is ready to give up on the whole ordeal, but eventually is inspired by the kids’ perseverance and decides she’ll stick with it until she makes them great hula dancers.