The typical Japanese movie about the travails and triumphs of a high school club follows an upward arc, as the audience cheers on the heroes to their foregone triumph over setbacks and defeats. The actualities of how they become more accomplished swing musicians, as in "Swing Girls," or choral singers, as in "Kuchibiru ni Uta Wo" ("Have a Song on Your Lips"), are sketched, but no one would ever call these films how-to guides.