Writer: Erny Suzira

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Watch this if you liked: “Bring it On”

The Good, the Bad and the Preppy Cheerleaders:

When we talk about cheerleading movies, the one that always comes to mind is the cult favourite "Bring it On". But just as you may think that "Let's Go, Jets" seems like the Asian version of the Hollywood cheerleading movie, that's where you're completely wrong.

The only common theme between the two abovementioned movies is the cheerleading. While the Hollywood one focuses more on the unique and creative cheerleading sequences, the Japanese counterpart is more about the friendship and drama between the cheerleaders.

Like every other Japanese or non-Japanese coming-of-age film, the plot is pretty much predictable from the beginning to the end. One member is going to drop-out from the team, another one is going to get injured, and the group will initially fail and be humiliated - you know, all those typical high school drama cliches.

But of course, that doesn't make this film any less interesting as all of the characters and even the side characters, are very much likable even though many of them are conformed to particular stereotypes like; the rich brat, the gloomy emo chick, the overachiever, and the insecure fat girl; but these exist in almost every high school drama, so it's quite expected.

Also, since this is a Japanese comedy drama, there are moments when the movie may seem a bit anime-ish, which is also quite common in many Japanese comedy movies and dramas, but if you're not use to those kind of tropes, then you may not get the humour very well.

Despite being a cheerleading movie, the movie doesn't show much cheerleading scenes, and even during practice, the sequences doesn't seem very hard to achieve, which is understandable as most of these actresses are not even real cheerleaders and mastering the sport is not an easy task.

Thankfully in the end, the team puts on a complete performance which doesn't looks so perfect, but that's the beauty of it as it looks very realistic and you can definitely see the hard work that these actresses have put to complete those stunts.

Trivia:

• The movie is based on the true story of the cheer dance team from Fukui Commercial High School, who swept to victory at the 2009 National Dance Alliance National Championship in the US.


Cinema Online, 05 June 2017