movielex
movie
L
ex

Movies like Hula Girls

Key Features:
Community, Economic hardship, Revival, Female empowerment, Small town, Hawaiian culture, Dance, Friendship, National pride, Transformation, Ensemble cast
Tone:
earnest, humorous
Target Audience:
International film enthusiasts, Feel-good movie lovers, Cultural drama fans, Female-driven stories
Emotional Arc:
Despair → Hope

Hula Girls

2006-09-09
Hula Girls Poster - Find Similar Movies

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

Genres
Comedy, Drama, Family
Cast
Yu Aoi, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Shizuyo Yamasaki, Shoko Ikezu, Eri Tokunaga, Hiroki Miyake, Susumu Terajima, Masaru Shiga, Katsumi Takahashi
Crew
Daisuke Habara, Lee Sang-il, Lee Sang-il
Rating
6.8(53 votes)
Hula GirlsHula Girls
Select exactly what you are looking for


Mai Mai Miracle
6.958

Inspired by her grandfather's stories, young Shinko embarks on wild flights of fancy about the history of the little town she lives in. But dreams can't fend off the realities of growing up.



Rip Girls
Rip Girls(2000)
6.265

A teen-age girl and her father come to an island on Hawaii, they find a closer relationship to each other and think about changing the island. During her adventures, Sydney finds friends, a new hobby with her fantastic photography, and the truth about her mother.



Laid-Back Camp the Movie

Your favorite cozy camping anime returns with a movie as the former members of the Outdoors Club get together again, this time to build a campsite! Reunite with Nadeshiko, Rin, Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena as they gather around the campfire once more with good food and good company.



Midori
Midori(1992)
6.1

After losing her parents, young flower selling Midori is put up by a fairground group. She is abused and forced to slavery, until the arrival of an enigmatic magician of short stature, who gives her hope for a better future.



Kamikaze Girls
6.995

Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if you define ordinary as wearing elaborate lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th Century France. However, when punk girl and self-styled 'Yanki' Ichiko comes calling, her days as 'ordinary' are most certainly numbered...



Every Day a Good Day

A university student attends a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin. There she has the Japanese tea ceremony in her life and it's there for her during moments when she is sad or happy.



Typhoon Noruda
6.558

As an unexpected typhoon bears down on a small tropical island, a group of students trapped at school find themselves forced to put aside their personal issues and work together. Not only to save themselves, but possibly the lives of everyone on the planet!



The Resort
5.505

Four friends head to Hawaii to investigate reports of a haunting at an abandoned resort in hopes of finding the infamous Half-Faced Girl. When they arrive, they soon learn you should be careful what you wish for.



Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

The dance crew from "Breakin'" bands together to save a community center from a greedy developer bent on building a shopping center in its place.



Seven Days War
6.494

In the town of Saima, when summer is about to begin, a group of six high school students intend to live a secret adventure by spending seven carefree days in a ruined mining facility.



Spirited Away
8.534

A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.



Yearning
Yearning(1964)
8.1

War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.



Dancing Queens
5.9

The story of Dylan Pettersson, a 23-year-old girl from a small island in the Swedish archipelago with big dancing aspirations.



Swing Girls
7.8

A tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up poisoning and replacing the school's brass band.



Animal Crossing: The Movie

Ai, a self-reliant girl who moves to Animal Village and works at Nook's Cranny, gradually becomes part of the community with guidance from its residents and embarks on a quest to plant pine trees for a Winter Festival miracle after finding a message in a bottle.



The Girls
The Girls(1962)
7.5

A graduate of the culinary technical school of the cook, Tosya Kislitsyna, a naive and eccentric girl, came to the village lost in the northern forests. She sticks her nose in all affairs, seeks to help everyone. She met Ilya on the day of arrival: the "first guy in the village" fell upon her indignantly, and in the evening, to brighten up an unpleasant meeting, she decided to "make happy" with an invitation to a dance and was refused. Not accustomed to refusals, Ilya argues with Filya that during the week he will fall in love with Tosya...



Giovanni's Island
7.5

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast... and on the unhealed border in this remote corner of the world, friendship among children from two different countries timidly blossomed, striving to overcome language barriers and the waves of history. Inspired by true events.



Happy Hour
7.357

Four women in their thirties reevaluate their relationships, both shared and private, after a startling revelation concerning one's marriage forces each of them to ask one of life's biggest questions: "Am I who I want to be?"



The Great Seduction
6.691

When a golden opportunity arises to boost the fortunes of a forgotten fishing town, its residents set out to trick their way to making it happen.



Phat Girlz
4.6

Two large women struggle to find love and acceptance in a culture where thin is in. Their lives take a dramatic turn when they meet the men of their dreams in completely unexpected ways.



It's a Summer Film!
7.387

Barefoot and her friends decide to make a samurai movie, gather a unique cast and staff for the production, and try to screen it at their school festival.



Fireworks
Fireworks(2017)
6.598

Moshimo, Japan. The annual fireworks festival is about to take place and a group of schoolboys, arguing over whether they are round or flat when viewed from different angles, set out to find it out.



House
House(1977)
7.315

Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.



Our Little Sister
7.6

After the death of their estranged father, 3 adult sisters invite their teenaged half-sister to live with them.



In This Corner of the World

Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation quickly makes her indispensable at home. Inhabited by an ancestral wisdom, Suzu impregnates the simple gestures of everyday life with poetry and beauty. The many hardships, the loss of loved ones, the frequent air raids of the enemy, nothing alters her enthusiasm…



Bring It On: Fight to the Finish

When her mother falls for a wealthy man, Lina Cruz must move in with her new stepfather and transfer from an urban East Los Angeles public high school to an exclusive prep school in Malibu, where she struggles to fit in with her affluent new peers. After snooty cheerleading captain Avery blocks Lina from varsity, Lina recruits her best friends from her old school to help her whip the pathetic junior varsity cheerleading squad -- the Sea Lions -- into fighting shape.



Finding ʻOhana
6.2

Two Brooklyn siblings' summer in a rural Oahu town takes an exciting turn when a journal pointing to long-lost treasure sets them on an adventure, leading them to reconnect with their Hawaiian heritage.



Flying Colors
7.5

A high school girl, Sayaka Kudō was the bottom of the class. After a year, she improved her deviation value from 30 to 70, then passed Keio University that is considered one of the most difficult to enter in Japan.



Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade

In Enchanted Parade, Akko, Lotte and Sucy, having gotten in trouble yet again, are forced to team up with three other troublemakers; Amanda O'Neill, Constance Braunschweig Albrechtsburger and Jasmineka Antonenko, and must make an annual witch parade a success or else face expulsion.



The Asadas!
7.3

Masashi is a photographer. He has his parents and an older brother Yukihiro. Through the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Masashi begins to take staged photos of his family.



Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Janey is new in town. She soon meets Lynne, a classmate who shares her passion for the local show 'Dance TV'. When a competition is announced to find new Dance TV performers, Janey and Lynne are determined to audition. The only problem is that Janey's father doesn't approve of that kind of thing.



Okko's Inn
7.2

12-year-old Oriko Seki, who lost her parents in a car accident, ended up living in her grandmother's Onsen Ryokan "Haru no Ya." With the ghost "Uribou" cohabitating with her and all the other odds, she ended up training to be a young female innkeeper. At first, she didn't like the training, but gradually felt her admiration for her title and began to train seriously. Thus, the growth of the young warrior Oriko begins.



Hairspray Live!
7.32

A teenage girl living in Baltimore in the early 1960s dreams of appearing on a popular TV dance show.



Inu-Oh
Inu-Oh(2022)
7.2

A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.



Twenty-Four Eyes
7.685

From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.



Hana & Alice
6.96

Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.



Lilo & Stitch
7.249

The wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to mend her broken family.



Kamome Diner
7.4

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.



L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach

A stolen computer disk contains the location of a hidden tresaure trove. It's up to the sexy ladies of LETHAL (Legion to Ensure Total Harmony and Law) to find the treasure before the bad guys do.



Profound Desires of the Gods

Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island, where he interacts with the Futori clan, to drill a well to power a sugar mill.



Hana
Hana(2006)
6.6

In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.



Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase

Barbie and her sisters go to an island paradise for a dance competition, but they must work together as a team to find their pets after their furry friends go missing at a horse festival.



Breakin'
Breakin'(1984)
6.6

A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.



Moana
Moana(2016)
7.6

In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the demigod to set things right.



Sweet Bean
7.432

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.



Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

A reconstructed girl is created from the pieces of a vampire girl's mini-butchery. Slaughter abounds as both of them pursue the same boy.



Girls of the Sun

Bahar, the commanding officer of the Daughters of the Sun, a battalion made up entirely of Kurdish female soldiers, is on the cusp of liberating their town, which has been overrun by ISIS extremists.



Cutie Honey
6.3

When Honey's uncle gets kidnapped by the evil criminal gang known as "Panther Claw," she must use her magical powers of transformation to save him. Meanwhile the same crime group has been responsible for a number of other crime sprees across Tokyo. In the process, Honey teams up with the seemingly cold police woman Natsuko Aki and hot shot journalist Seiji Hayami as well as battle the four "claws" of the Panther Claw gang to save her uncle and the rest of the city.



Lu Over the Wall
7.007

In a small fishing village, a gloomy middle school student named Kai meets a mermaid named Lu.



Grave of the Fireflies

Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.



One Million Yen Girl
7.055

A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.



The Return of Sister Street Fighter

When Koryu's childhood friend Shurei is abducted by gangsters, the desperate young woman recruits a female martial artist and a tough-as-nails stranger to join her for a dangerous rescue mission.



Late Autumn
7.7

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.



To the Ends of the Earth

A young Japanese woman named Yoko finds her cautious and insular nature tested when she travels to Uzbekistan to shoot the latest episode of her travel variety show.



Waterboys
Waterboys(2001)
6.5

In a Japanese school, 5 adolescent geeks join the new sport teacher and take up the challenge to take part in the synchronised swimming competition, in-spite of the mockeries of the real sportsmen.



Donovan's Reef
6.3

After her great aunt's death, a high-society woman arrives on a Hawaiian island in search of the heir - the father she has never met.



High School of the Dead: Drifters of the Dead

In their efforts to find a safe haven from the zombie apocalypse, the gang find themselves on a deserted island. Now, they take advantage of the momentary respite to enjoy some surf, sand and bathing suits!



Teen Beach 2
6.764

When characters from the movie musical “Wet Side Story” get stuck in the real world, teens Brady and Mack must find a way to return them home.



Ladies
Ladies(2017)
6.385

Lucie is in remission and her illness is almost a distant memory. Her family pushes her to live life to the fullest, and in doing so Lucie meets the charming and arrogant Clovis, who is immediately beguiled by her wit and humor. It is Dalila, however, an eccentric and delightful dance teacher, who inspires Lucie to rebuild her life and to grow into the woman she always wanted to be. For her mother, for her daughter, for Clovis.



The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance.



Step Up: Year of the Dance

Youth from different social classes in Beijing come together to form China's best dance crew and learn what it really means to be family.



Virgin Mountain
7.177

Fúsi finds comfort in the familiarity of his routines, until an involuntary dance class forces him to encounter the real world.



From Up on Poppy Hill
7.531

Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.



Fireworks
Fireworks(1997)
7.686

Beleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With his wife suffering from leukemia and his business partner paralyzed from a brutal gangster attack, Nishi borrows from a yakuza loan shark and then robs a bank to clear his debt.



Typhoon Club
6.375

Offering a caustic immersion into the lives of disaffected junior high students on the cusp of adulthood, the film takes place over the 5-day period before, during, and after a ferocious, seemingly liberating typhoon, which six of the students endure while marooned in their school.



My Neighbor Totoro
8.068

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.



A Small Southern Enterprise

Mamma Stella is on edge. As if she hadn't got enough trouble already with her daughter Rosa Maria, who has left her husband now Costantino, her son, has disrobed. Afraid to be the talk of the village, relegates him to a distant lighthouse belonging to the family. But Costantino does not remain far from the madding crowd for long. It does not take long indeed before all the local (or even distant) outcasts flock together there: Magnolia, a retired escort girl; Arturo, Rosa Maria's estranged husband; Valbona, a lesbian; Rosa Maria herself; and, to crown it all, two eccentric workers accompanied by a little girl... After a period of chaos, this small world gradually discovers that unity makes strength.



Hairspray
Hairspray(2007)
6.7

Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad auditions to be on Baltimore's most popular dance show - The Corny Collins Show - and lands a prime spot. Through her newfound fame, she becomes determined to help her friends and end the racial segregation that has been a staple of the show.



Ocean Waves
6.4

At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...



Love & Pop
7.7

Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.



Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

King Randolph sends for his cousin, Duchess Rowena, to help turn his daughters, Princess Genevieve and her eleven sisters, into royal material. But the Duchess strips the sisters of their fun, including their favorite pastime: dancing. When all hope may be lost, the sisters discover a secret passageway to a magical land where they can dance the night away.



Still the Water
6.8

On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.



Rapa Nui
Rapa Nui(1994)
6.4

Inter-tribal rivalry leads to a competition to erect a huge Maoi statue in record time before Make can take part in the race to retrieve the egg of a Sooty Tern. The reward for winning this race is to rule the island for one year.



The Ramen Girl
6.476

An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.



The Dream Factory

Four friends come up with an unusual idea to make some money and have fun doing it. For a small fee, they will impersonate and act out any character role for their customers. In the course of executing this novel service, they encounter a whole spectrum of people in society, finding ways to genuinely help them boost their morale and overcome their fears, while gaining unusual and new insights into the human condition.



Miss Hokusai
6.669

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.



Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers.



Hot Gimmick: Girl Meets Boy

A quiet teen's life is shaken up when she's forced to be her arrogant neighbor's slave. He loves her, but they both have a lot to learn about trust.



Salsa
Salsa(1988)
6.868

Fatherless barrio Puerto Rican Rico is a menial car mechanic by day, but lives for the nights, when he dances and dates hot dancing girls, cockily convinced the title of Salsa king in fancy nightclub La Luna's upcoming contest is to be his. He encourages his best friend, courteous gentleman Ken, to date his sister Margarita so he gets a free hand with her flirtatious classmate Lola. The reigning salsa queen Luna's interest in Rico as dance-partner threatens his on-off relationship with Vicki. More jealous trouble follows when Ken and Margarita fall in true love.



Sister Street Fighter

Li Mansei is a martial-arts champion turned undercover agent. When he is captured by a drug lord, his sister Li Koryu turns to his former martial-arts school, including the powerful Sonny Kawasaka, for help in the inevitable battle royale.



Nostalgic Christmas
7.043

When Anne helps her father close the family's toy store, what she finds will help inspire an entire town that is need of some Christmas cheer.



When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.



Material Girls
5.3

Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth.



Johnny Tsunami
5.9

A Hawaiian teenage surfer shows off his skills when he takes to the snow slopes in Vermont.



Dodes'ka-den
7

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.



Cuties
Cuties(2020)
5.1

Amy, an 11-year-old girl, joins a group of dancers named “the cuties” at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity—upsetting her mother and her values in the process.



My Neighbors the Yamadas

The Yamadas are a typical middle class Japanese family in urban Tokyo and this film shows us a variety of episodes of their lives. With tales that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking, we see this family cope with life's little conflicts, problems, and joys in their own way.



Teen's Confessions
6.3

Four sisters work together to raise rent money after learning they have to move to another neighborhood in this coming-of-age drama based on the series.



Hawaii
Hawaii(2013)
7.01

Eugenio offers his childhood friend Martin work for the summer. With a game of power and desire a relationship starts to grow that goes beyond their friendship.



The Virgin Psychics

After receiving a cosmic blast while masturbating, a virginal teenager gains psychic powers and joins a group of ESP virgins in order to defend the world from evil psychics.



Barbie: Dolphin Magic

Barbie and her sisters take off on another exciting, global adventure to visit their friend Ken at his summer internship at a beautiful and exotic coral reef.



Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

In a loose retelling of the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series, Utena Tenjou arrives at Ohtori Academy, only to be immediately swept up in a series of duels for the hand of her classmate Anthy Himemiya and the power she supposedly holds. At the same time, Utena reunites with Touga Kiryuu, a friend from her childhood who seems to know the secrets behind the duels. Utena must discover those secrets for herself, before the power that rules Ohtori claims her and her friends, new and old.



Camp Takota
5.7

With her personal and professional life in shambles, Elise ends up having to take a job as a counselor at her old summer camp. There, she reunites with two estranged friends who attended camp and never left. When the future of the camp is put in jeopardy, the three friends must band together to save it, changing the course of their lives forever.



StreetDance 3D
6.474

In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.



anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The Movie

A year has passed since Menma's ghostly return to the Super Peace Busters. Although the time they spent together during that summer was short, the five members reminisce about what happened as they each write a letter to their lost friend.



Early Summer
7.842

A 28-year-old single woman is pressured to marry.



A Madea Christmas
6.5

Madea dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on rural town when she's coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas.



Pompo the Cinephile
7.026

Operating out of the movie capital "Nyallywood," Pompo has been shooting one B-grade entertainment flick after another that anyone would enjoy. One day, Pompo's "movie buff" assistant Gene spots a new script written by Pompo and is moved by its exquisite story. In a fit of passion, he proclaims, "I want to see this as a finished work in theaters as soon as possible!" However, Pompo tells him, "So you shoot this film." Thus, Gene takes on his first directing gig. Meanwhile, Natalie, an ordinary girl who just arrived in town with movie actress dreams, has been discovered by Pompo...



StreetDance 2
6.188

After suffering humiliation by the crew Invincible, street dancer Ash looks to gather the best dancers from around the world for a rematch.

AboutPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceContact Us