Swing Girls Response Questions

1. What scene in the movie demonstrated the concept of gamabari?


Having only reviewed the movie once, some of the scenes are still slightly fuzzy. One of the scenes that comes to mind is the one in which the girls try to get instruments to play on. This results in selling a video gaming system/TV/Computer to a pawn shop to be able to afford a saxophone. However, they all decide to get jobs in order to pay for instruments. Another scene that could possibly demonstrate gamabari would be the intense scenes of practicing. The cymbal player did not give up, but pursued the idea of creating a big band ensemble.


2. Do you consider Naomi as a gamabari in terms of losing weight using the muscle stimulator?

Not really, no. I understood gamabari as working so hard that it is unhealthy. I believe that her use of the stimulator was more or less a joke about gamabari. Like a, "I can say I'm working out but I'm really not" kind of thing.

3. Least and most kenkyo?

I'd say that the senior baseball player had the least kenkyo. Due to his arrogance on the field and his "there are two types of people in this world" motto, he ultimately failed his team by striking out. I'd say the person who practiced the idea of kenkyo the most would be the shy trombone player (blanking on her name). Her politeness and timidness eventually helped the band tune their cold instruments at the end. There are two types of people in this world; those who are modest and those who are not.

4. Although the band was honestly having fun discovering their new found talents and love of brass instruments, when the original players came back to reclaim their spots, she played it off as never been interested in the first place. I believe she lied because the norms of society would push this reaction; never being interested in order to show their dislike for brass, but in reality, they enjoyed it all along due to an interior intention/motive.


5. Gamabari seems to always be a constant. To work hard and enjoy it or to work hard and not enjoy it. I think once a passion is finally discovered (in this instance, big band jazz), they will pursue it until they are experts.

6. I think I would end this movie with a romantic comedy twist. Without the working drive behind the band, they will all fail and end up falling in love with each other. The guitar players and the junkyard guys, the math professor and conductor, and the piano player and saxophone player.

7. I'd say that amae is present between students and teachers from the beginning of the movie. For example, the math teacher allows the students to take the movies to the band and by doing so, the band got sick. Because the band was sick, they all felt inclined to help them out and replace them. It seems to be a sense of obligation or guilt.

8. I think the concept I'm having the most difficulty in understanding is amae. Is it an obligation to do good things? Is it a guilty feeling? Inner and outer circles? The only thing I can compare it to is the saying "treat others how you'd like to be treated".