Flying Colors (film)

Flying Colors

Film poster advertising this film in Japan
ビリギャル
Directed by Nobuhiro Doi
Produced by Jun Nasuda
Junichi Shindō
Screenplay by Hiroshi Hashimoto
Starring Kasumi Arimura
Atsushi Itō
Music by Eishi Segawa
Cinematography Yasushi Hanamura
Edited by Junnosuke Hogaki
Sayaka Yamamoto
Distributed by Toho
Release dates
  • May 1, 2015 (2015-05-01)
Running time
 117 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Box office ¥2.84 billion (US$23.6 million) (Japan)[1]

Flying Colors (ビリギャル Biri Gyaru, Biri Gal) is a 2015 Japanese youth comedy drama film directed by Nobuhiro Doi, based on a true story.[2][3][4] The film was released on May 1, 2015 in Japan.[5]

Plot

Sayaka Kudo is a gyaru who wears miniskirts and dyes her hair blonde. Although she is a 2nd year senior high school student, she is on par academically with 4th grade elementary school students. She frequently transfers between schools because she is unable to make friends, and was once suspended for being caught with cigarettes. Eventually she attends a private all-girls high school where she plays and enjoys her extra-scholarly activities to the nth degree while skipping study altogether.

To prepare her for her university entrance examination, her mother decides to send her to Seiho Cram School. However, when the school director, Yoshitaka Tsubota, hears about Sayaka's academic problem, he makes it his personal goal to help her enter the university of her choice, Keio University, a prestigious university that is considered one of the most difficult to enter in Japan and to get back at her father.

After her father, whose main goal is to get her brother Ryuta into pro baseball, labels her an "air-head" and says she and her mother are being scammed by the cram school only for money, Sayaka becomes determined to study hard to prove her father wrong. Over the course of the summer holidays of her second year through to the exams at the end of her third year in senior high school, Sayaka studies extremely hard and goes without sleep to the extent that she nods off in her high school classes. She even dyes her hair back to black and cuts it to show her resolve. Her results progressively improve on practice tests and her academic deviation value increases tremendously from 30 to 70 in this short span of time.

Cast

Production

The film Flying Colors was first unveiled to the Japanese media on 13 November 2014.[6] It is based on the bestselling novel Gakunen Biri no Gyaru ga 1 nen de Hensachi o 40 Agete Keio Daigaku ni Geneki Gokaku Shita Hanashi (学年ビリのギャルが1年で偏差値を40上げて慶應大学に現役合格した話) by Nobutaka Tsubota, the director of a private school.[7] In this novel, Nobutaka writes about his experiences with his real-life pupil Sayaka Kobayashi and how she improved from a high school student who only had the knowledge of 4th year elementary school student to one who qualified for the prestigious Keio University in just 1.5 years.[8][7] As of May 2015, this novel has sold over 1 million copies.[7]

Reception

The film grossed ¥285.1 million on its opening weekend at the Japanese box office.[9] As of May 17, the film had grossed US$12.3 million.[10] It was the eighth highest-grossing Japanese film at the Japanese box office in 2015, with ¥2.84 billion (US$23.6 million).[1]

On Film Business Asia, Derek Elley gave the film a 7 out of 10, calling it "an entertaining time-waster that hides its didactic messages beneath likeable performances by the two leads".[8]

References

  1. 1 2 "Top 10 Grossing Domestic Japanese Films of 2015 Listed". Anime News Network. January 1, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ [ビリギャル]学年でビリだったギャルが、1年で偏差値を40あげて日本でトップの私立大学、慶應大学に現役で合格した話 [Biri Gal Original Post on storys.jp] (in Japanese). ResuPress, Inc. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  3. ↑ 名古屋の個別指導塾 坪田塾 [Private School in Nagoya Tsubota Juku] (in Japanese). Tsubotajuku.inc. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  4. ↑ Kevin Ma (May 26, 2015). "Initiation Love opens second-placed in Japan". Film Business Asia. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  5. ↑ 映画 ビリギャル(2015). allcinema (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ 有村架純、学年ビリの金髪ギャル役で主演！慶大に現役合格した実話を映画化. eiga.com (in Japanese). 13 November 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  7. 1 2 3 『ビリギャル』単行本＆文庫特別版 累計発行100万部突破！ 映画『ビリギャル』も観客動員100万人を突破!!. PR Times (in Japanese). 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
  8. 1 2 Derek Elley (June 4, 2015). "Flying Colors". Film Business Asia. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Japan Box Office Report – 5/2~5/3". tokyohive. 6Theory Media, LLC. May 7, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ Mark Schilling (May 18, 2015). "Japan Box Office: ‘Cinderella’ Wins Fourth Weekend". variety.com. Retrieved May 22, 2015.

External links

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