Yaguchi Shinobu is quickly becoming one of my favorite Japanese directors. His movies don't pretend to have any agenda other than entertaining audiences. I enjoyed both his "Adrenaline Drive" and "Swing Girls" a lot and consider them some of my all-time favorite movies. "Waterboys" was made in-between the two aforementioned films, and while it shares the same type of lighthearted drama and infectious comedy of the others, I didn't quite warm up to it as much as the other films. Perhaps it has to do more with the subject matter at hand then anything else. I didn't find the humor behind an all male "synchro" swim team all that hilarious. Granted there are a lot of funny scenes in the movie especially when "Shall We Dance's" Takenaka Naoto begins training the boys using some very unconventional methods, like using the game "Dance Dance Revolution" to give the boys dance rhythm or using dolphin training exercises to improve their swimming. The ending performance was a bit painful to watch and many may cringe at the sight of skinny kids dancing to the J-Pop music of Puffy and Finger Five. That being said, I found "Waterboys" to be an enjoyable movie and while I don't like it as much as "Swing Girls", it certainly is another feather in the cap of director Yaguchi. Here's hoping he continues to make great and fun movies.
