Swing Girls (2004)

Swing Girls is a 2004 teen jazz band youth comedy written and directed by Shinobu Yaguchi. It was released by Toho in Japan on September 11, 2004.

Juri Ueno stars as Tomoko Suzuki, a student at a high school in rural northern Japan. In order to ditch a summer school math class, Tomoko and her friends offer to bring the school’s brass band lunches they left behind before heading off to the big game. However, when the entire band is stricken with food poisoning, Tomoko and company see an opportunity to ditch summer school for good—by learning to play instruments and joining the brass band as temporary replacements.

Even though the girls have absolutely no talent to speak of, they soon find themselves falling in love with jazz and what was once a scam to get out of class becomes an all-out mission. Unfortunately, the real band soon returns from their hiatus, leaving the girls to wonder how they can fulfill their newly-acquired musical ambitions.