Flying
Colors (Biri Gyaru): Written by Hiroshi Hashimoto, directed
by Nobuhiro Doi. Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Atsushi Ito, Shuhei Nomura, Tetsushi
Tanaka, and Yo Yoshida. Running Time: 117 minutes. Based on the book of the same name by Nobutaka
Tsubota.
Rating:
3/4
Is
it ever too late to start again? Can a
dog really be too old to learn new tricks?
Sometimes, it seems a person has fallen so far behind in their life that
no amount of effort or willpower can overcome the effects of past
mistakes. And sometimes, a person in
such a situation tries anyway to overcome them, in spite of all the odds
stacked against them, and remake their future.
Based
loosely on a true story, Flying Colors,
from director Nobuhiro Doi, is the story of Sayaka, a teenager who has spent
nearly all of her school life up to now doing little else other than partying,
ignoring teachers, and trading makeup and boy tips with her cadre of similarly-unmotivated
girlfriends. There are a lot of reasons
why she’s dropped in class as far as she has, the biggest probably being a lack
of attention to her studies at home; her father is solely obsessed on turning
the only son in the family into a baseball superstar (and to hell with whether
he wants to or not), and early on wholly abandoned any involvement in the lives
of Sayaka and her younger sister, leaving their overstretched mother to try and
make ends meet for the three of them.
When
her grades truly hit rock bottom, her mother takes her to a cram school, headed
by an eccentric young teacher named Tsubota.
Convinced that anyone can succeed in studying with the right approach, he
convinces Sayaka that she is smarter, more talented, and more capable than she
thinks (and certainly more than her bully of a schoolteacher thinks), and that
her mother’s faith in her is well-placed.
Feeling truly inspired for perhaps the first time in her life, she
finally buckles down and sets her sights on getting into a program at one of
the those prestigious Tokyo universities.
From there, it’s off to the races, as Tsubota confronts one mental
obstacle after another in trying to overcome Sayaka’s years of intellectual
neglect, and both try to push back against the overwhelmingly loud and
insistent voices of those around them that they are on a fool’s errand, and
Sayaka will amount to nothing.
In
the main, this is much like many similar teacher/classroom-style animes or
mangas (think Assassination Classroom
for a not-too-unapt example); a student comes in with low hopes and
expectations, and oddball and eclectic teacher with strange methods believes in
them, and through trial and error they forge a new path forward. It’s cute, and often very funny, and
certainly provides some great moments of real pathos for its characters, but
ultimately we’ve been here before, and there aren’t a lot of surprises in store
for engaged viewers.
If
there is one thing that drags the film as a whole back, it’s the number of “fakeout”
climaxes it has. As I understand it, the
Japanese school system has a fairly complex testing system for admissions into
universities and individual department programs, with passing grades in several
rounds required to gain ultimate admission.
We follow Sayaka through each one of them, which would be fine if not
for the fact that every single one of the tests is followed by an extremely drawn-out
sequence of her waiting for her results; her sitting nervously in front of her
computer; waiting about 5 minutes before clicking on the “get grades” button; a
shot of her staring in shock; another of her running/biking/driving somewhere
with the same shocked look on her face, neutral enough that you can’t tell if
the news is good or bad; her arriving at home or at the teacher’s office; and
THEN we get to find out what the test results.
And then on to the next round!
This
might sound testier than it should, but it’s really the only substantial
problem with what is otherwise a solidly enjoyable film, which made it stand
out all the more, since it’s the biggest reason the later parts of the film
feel a lot slower than the beginning. As
it is, I’m afraid I’m grasping a bit to try and find more to say about the
film. If you like this kind of scrappy-underdog
story, then this will provide you with a lot of laughs and maybe even a few
tears. If not, this might not be your
new favorite film of the year, but there’s enough meaning and heart in it that
giving it a watch would not go amiss.
-Noah Franc
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