Flying Colors

Sayaka is in the bottom stream at school; her teachers have given up on her entirely and her academic level is that of a primary pupil. Her mother takes her to a cram school. The teacher there, Tsubota, sets a target: Keio, one of the hardest universities in Japan. Nobody believes it, least of all her schoolteacher and her father. Nobuhiro Doi directs. Kasumi Arimura plays Sayaka. The source is a bestselling book by a cram school teacher, and the story is based on a real student. What interests the film is the family rather than the exam. The father's attention is entirely on his son and he does not count his daughter at all; the mother's quiet resistance is the emotional centre. The teacher is outside the type. Tsubota is not harsh, gives no motivational speeches and does not shame the student; his method is to establish what she does not know without judging her for it. The Japanese education system is the background: streams decided early, the cram school industry, and a future determined by a single examination. The shape resembles a sports film and the film does not hide it; the study sequences are cut like training. It did well commercially in Japan and Kasumi Arimura became widely known through the part. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese youth drama and stories built on education. Who it is not for: the emotional pitch is high, the template is familiar, and the father is too one dimensional.