Flying Colors

A nice family film about how a girl who couldn’t care less about anything in the world wanted to get into a prestigious college in Japan. It's nice to watch a teacher who can motivate students to try, to find in them what they didn't even see in themselves – all in a completely natural, un-cheesy way. Atsushi Itō is a great actor, and he handled playing a teacher who motivates his students like this with complete grace, obviously getting everything he could out of the character. Kasumi didn't do anything world class, but it didn't matter because her character was a perfectly average lady who didn't need to be played by a prodigy. The second string consisted of Tanaka Tetsushi, Yoshida Yō, and Nomura Shūhei – of whom Yoshida Yō stood out the most as the mother of our student, who tries her best to support her daughter. A nice picture for the whole family. (11/24/2015)