Amateur movie with Big budget

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I mean seriously there were more hawt babes in this film than there are in the state of Florida. Around here what passes as 'girl' is a tattooed trash with a fat bottom who is twerking after class... nothing wrong with it if it weren't for the thunder thighs (so gross)... No tramp stamp in site hot Japanese party girl who is anti-authority becomes motivated to attend a top university. With some conflict at home and a lot of encouragement at a school she changes colors... literally and figuratively. While in America parents are beating their daughters for getting hair high lights (in the news today) it seems (if this film is true) in Japan they have made the human body a non-issue and accepted nature for what it is: natural. Watch it.

A movie that the title (and description for that matter) doesn't do it justice. Truthfully, they both make it sound like a comedy that would quickly get boring. But, it is actually quite an enjoyable film, with the leading lady rocking it with her performance. The movie had a light feeling, but explored the family dynamics very effectively, giving it a little depth. The fact that the film makers didn't focus, or added, a romantic element into it, to overshadow the whole main story, helped a lot to turn the film into a more unique movie than the rest manga like movies. However, the romance "danger" was there, with an other outcast dropped there, dangerously approaching the girl. But the film just kept focused on the main plot, having the girl outsmart herself and aim for the miracle. So, 8 out of 10.

Viewed at CineMatsuri 2016. Director Nobuhiro Doi trodes the well-worn path of the home drama genre by delivering a standard family sitcom complete with role stereotypes, caricatures, and silliness masquerading as drama/comedy. This feel-good, sophomoric, movie fantasy would seem more appropriate for domestic TV viewers than movie theater audiences. The Director ensures that there will be no surprises (except maybe one) by aggressively telegraphing future events. The possible exception is the sudden and radical change in hair styles! Lead actress Kasumi Arimura never completely leaves her juvenile "Japanese cuteness" baggage behind as she progresses (at warp speed!) from bottom of the class in public secondary school to acceptance by a prestigious private university via a year (or so) of private, cram-school coaching. Acting by Atsushi Itô playing the cram school teacher/psychologist/philosopher/hand-holder/parent/would be lover/... is hard to swallow almost from the start and even more so as his character morphs into a caricature. Actress Yoh Yoshida takes on the typical role of a career-frustrated and long-suffering mother, but does so with aplomb; she consistently delivers the best (and most believable) acting in the film. All that being said (and at the risk of speculative over analysis), there is, perhaps, another angle to be considered: soft core propaganda with Doi's channeling of Mary Poppins (and her use of sugar to camouflages the bitter taste of medicine). The Director may be employing a cleaver multi-layered pop entertainment wrapper to disguise his lectures on pressing societal issues. Targeted multi-generational audiences have seen programs of this genre before (they seem to be a staple of contemporary Japanese TV) which only adds to the effectiveness of the sugar coating. First up, of course, is the theme of the film which is an unrelenting indictment of the Japanese public school system with its focus on mass rote learning (with zero consideration given to individual student needs) and it's failure to prepare students to think for themselves as they become adults. Replacing public schools with privately chartered ones is the unmistakable message (sound familiar?). Then there is the negative impact of traditional child rearing where parents force children into a career path that the adults were denied or unable to succeed in. Student bullying or group-enforced conformity to the lowest educational level of achievement is also covered. (And there could be a few more packed in there.) The film is way too long (by half) and boringly repetitious. The screen play (and direction) look suspiciously like they may have been puffed up to increase the film's duration. Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color), lighting, scene continuity, and film score are okay. Subtitles often provide less than accurate (or complete) translations of line readings, and, essentially, can present a parallel story to the one in the movie! Many signs are not translated. Fun to watch, but only with a ton of popcorn! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

There are some out there who believe that mainstream films can never be artistically great or entertaining. I am certainly not one of them - and this film definitely proves it. True, it's not groundbreaking by any means. But is it interesting? Is it emotionally gripping? And most importantly, is it memorable? This is all three, and more. Taking literally the best parts of what characterizes Japanese film - over the top acting, narrative exposition, classic tugs at the heart-strings moments and melodramatic long pauses - this film pulls great screen writing, direction and acting to produce what has to be the best two hours to come out of mainstream Japanese cinema in a very long time.