This is basically the Japanese version of Mighty Ducks, without the big corporate backing, as this was a personal pet project of the director Jinnai who fell in love with hockey when he became a hockey dad. It’s amazing that that the project got the go ahead at all, as hockey has been used in major Japanese dramas and movies only once within the last 10 years (weekly TV drama “Pride” with heart throb Kimura Takuya of SMAP who looked like bambi on skates in the starring role.)
The acting is typical for Japanese dramas and movies that don’t make it overseas (ie. cheesy overacting that seem to mimic manga and anime). But there’s enough entertainment packed into the movie and it’s fairly well edited, so it feels shorter than the actual nearly 2 hour running time. Oh yeah, and one of my new favourite geinoujin (TV personality/actor) Kato Rosa’s in it 🙂
http://go-smilers.jp/index.html