Water Boys ...... again .....

[Torchwatch]

They played "Sugar Baby Love" on the radio at work a few times one week recently and I immediately was reminded of the Water Boys movie and TV series.
Feeling down this weekend I played the movie on You Tube and then started on the first season of the TV series. I will watch episode 8 of the first TV series tomorrow evening.

Dramafans.org seems better than You Tube for the TV series.

Synopsis/Summary/Review:
Two years ago, five high-school boys brought fame to a small town in Japan. What was so unique was that they formed a "men's synchronized swimming club." Their involvement and struggles while learning synchronized swimming - known to be a sport for girls - brought much attention to their school and town.
Two years have passed since that summer, and the boys of Tadano High School are still in the club. The Fuji Television drama "Water Boys" shows how these young boys fight to learn synchronized swimming, fall in love, and enjoy friendship with one another.

4 more episodes and 2 TV seasons to go....
The Synchro Shows at the end of each offering are amazing and full of speedo energy.

[Byron]

11 episodes are on http://www.dramafans.org/drama/waterboys_drama

Btw why do the first two guys ride girls' bikes?

[Torchwatch]

I think that they bought a job lot of really awful looking girls bikes for this show.
It is set in a small town where life is controlled and rather boring reflected in the bikes they ride. Mountain bikes were around in 2003 when this was made but using them instead of sit up and beg girls bikes would have made the viewer look at the bikes instead of the riders.
Part of the joke is that they have really awful bikes, that the holiday centre they stay in has the same really awful bikes and yet they have to go on really desperate long fast rides on them throughout the story.
Most Japanese kids were playing computer games at home in 2003, yet this has been ignored for the sake of the story, giving Water Boys a slower perhaps 1950's feel.

[Byron]

Yep, I agree.
Btw, didn't know where to post this but as we were talking about bikes.............
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb...r6lmo1_500.jpg

[Torchwatch]

I have reached Water Boys (season) 2, 2004.
This I think is my favourite Water Boys TV season.
Join me on :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqa...-boys-2-01_fun

Hate how dailymotion is full of annoying adverts.

I notice how even in 2011 there were still Water Boys shows taking place in Japanese schools.

[Byron]

DM is frequently a pain in the ass for me too - they keep you waiting for ages and the vid. has just broken down this time and I have to reopen it.
Btw, as these are amazing productions on such a scale are there enough pupils from only one school to create the effects - or do they join with others for filming?

[Torchwatch]

The movie and the 3 TV seasons are all done with actors.
They seem to take over a "closed" school during the summer holidays and make the whole thing in the time available.
The young actors start each project as able to swim, act and perhaps dance a bit and are trained in synchro from scratch during the season.
There are assorted bits of behind the scenes video on dailymotion etc. You can see them getting hypothermic during cold training sessions and hurt while learning how to build a human pyramid. You see them as the people they are not as the characters they portray in the stories.
It is interesting to watch the actors grow and mature during the course of each story, it is visible from episode to episode.

Remember that at the time the original movie was made Japan had gone through a period of bullying in schools initiated by teachers, carried on by students and resulting in the suicide of several children. Water Boys was an attempt to do something positive for the losers and drop outs who the system were failing, hence the drive for happy memories and no regrets.

[Byron]

Didn't know that - perhaps the nasty side of Japanese culture still survives?
The empire was after all isolated from the civilised world for hundreds of years and
it reminds me how they despised Singapore PoWs of WWII who should have committed hari kari and were thereafter treated so inhumanely.

[wanderinglust]

Hello
There is a group called INDIGO BLUE who post a lot of nice speedo photos like water boys...

[Torchwatch]

Have completed Water Boys 2 (2004).
Seen the first part of Water Boys Summer 2005 but cannot find the rest.

I could buy it on Ebay but suspect that the DVD's are for the USA market and will not work in the UK.

Has anyone any ideas?