While you are waiting for the new crop of Oscar-nominated foreign language films to come out on DVD, I suggest another foreign film to fill the gap, Hula Girls!  Best Picture winner of the Japanese Academy Awards in 2007, Hula Girls is a wonderful film.  Based on the true story of a town in Japan in the 1960’s struggling with the closure of the town’s main employer, the local coal mine.  The coal company comes up with an idea for a new industry, that of a Hawaiian theme park to draw tourists.  The coal miners’ daughters are enlisted to become hula dancers and train under a quirky dance instructor imported from Tokyo.  Funny, sad, and heartwarming, this film has it all!