Waterboys

The swimming club at a Japanese high school is close to folding. The new teacher who arrives coaches synchronised swimming, and talks the five remaining boys into performing at the school festival. That is how five kids the athletes make fun of end up in the water. Written and directed by Shinobu Yaguchi, the film draws on something that happened: at Kawagoe High School, male members of the swim team choreographed and performed their own synchronised routine. The film welds that idea to embarrassment, adolescence and stubbornness, and lets the heroic moment arrive underwater. It was a large success in Japan, drew eight Japan Academy Prize nominations and won two, and led to a television series that ran three seasons. Who it's for: Viewers who like Japanese sports comedy, misfit-team stories, and good-natured youth films. Who it's not for: The shape is predictable and the humour retreats into body jokes in places. Anyone braced for surprise will not find one.