“Flying colors” is an idiom that means to succeed brilliantly, as by easily passing a test. It derives from the small, colorful flags that boats fly when they come safely into port.
But as Doi Nobuhiro’s zero-to-hero drama with that English title begins, it seems a most unlikely outcome for the teenage heroine, Sayaka (Arimura Kasumi). Sporting blonde-dyed hair and wearing barely there mini-skirts, she is a typical
gyaru (“gal”) – a tribe of teenage girls who rebel against Japan’s conservative, conformist society through fashion, fun and, for many, doing as little schoolwork as possible. Some drift into outright delinquency, but Sayaka and her pals do not.
Sayaka’s mom (Yoshida Yo) refuses to give up on her, though academically, she is at the level of a fourth grader. At her mother urging, she enrolls her in a cram school to prepare for college entrance exams and the kindly, encouraging school director, Tsubota Atsushi (Ito Atsushi), takes her under his wing.
Based on a best-selling book written by the real-life Tsubota,
Flying Colors became a surprise hit in Japan following its May, 2015 release, earning $25 million – the 8th highest total for a domestic film last year. Its story, however, would seem to have a predictable, undramatic arc: Girl buckles down to the books and, after months of grinding, aces the big test.
That is, something only Japan’s notorious
kyoiku mama (“education mothers”), obsessed with their offspring’s academic standing, would find interesting.
But as its box office numbers indicate,
Flying Colors appealed to a wider audience by enlisting it as cheerleaders for Sayaka’s cause, while warming its collective heart and giving it food for thought without becoming soppy or preachy in the slightest.
Also, the film makes it clear that Sayaka quest’s to enter elite Keio University in Tokyo is the intellectual equivalent of a kid who only pedals to school and back deciding to enter the Giro d’Italia. Giving her current level of knowledge, Tsubota tells her, her chances are infinitesimal, but he smilingly agrees to help her reach her goal and, tough-love style, begins piling on the books.
Sayaka’s motivation is not only to prove to the world she’s no airhead: Her baseball-nut father (Tanaka Tetsushi) is grooming her younger brother Ryuta (Ouchida Yuhei) to be a pro player – and has no time for her. She intends to show him she is equally worthy of his attention.
Born in 1993, Arimura Kasumi has been acting in TV dramas since 2010 and films since 2011, but her lead performances in
Flying Colors and
Strobe Edge, a high school drama that was an even bigger hit last year, boosted her to major stardom.
In Flying Colors she totally inhabits the role of Sayaka, from her wounded inner core to her never-say-die grit. Arimura has won several domestic acting awards for this performance, including a Best Newcomer Prize from the Japan Academy. Meanwhile, Ito Atsushi, who plays Tsubota, and Yoshida Yo, who plays Sayaka’s long-suffering mom, were nominated by the Academy for Best Supporting prizes.
Ito impresses as a teacher who is as much an outsider as Sayaka. Cram school teachers in general do not have the social status of their public and private school peers and Tsubota, whose small school attracts students who cannot afford bigger and better-publicized afterschool academies, has less than average.
But freed from the rules and restrictions of conventional schools, he can interact with his charges more like a nerdy, if wise older brother than an authority figure. He can also tailor their studies to their needs, while motivating them more with the joy of learning than the fear of failing.
Does all this sound too good to be true? Perhaps, but believe it or not, it actually happened, flying colors included.