Birigyaru

Tender and touching, this movie is a real story (based) of following your dreams and of how a great teacher can help people to realize their true potential.

The main hero, Sayaka - thickly painted social butterfly at the start of the story, with no knowledge and no skills to speak of - with the help of 'cram school' teacher working overtime because of his belief in his students - is gradually transformed over the course of the movie into successful student, sure of herself and her abilities, who applies for the entry exams into one of the finest universities in Japan.

Great story and great cast -- frankly, I was quite skeptical when I started the movie, but all the performances were so believable, and the flow of the story is so finely woven that it completely won me over long before the movie was over.

This movie moves you on many different levels - girl's struggle with her own insecurities, her troubled relationship with her family, the teacher finding ingenious ways to help students who are not interested in learning, to start with - everything is told with so much skill and so much heart that you can not help being pulled in by the story.

Watch it! One of the external reviews called it "an entertaining time-waster". Well if it is, it is probably the most useful way to waste two hours of your time :)

I inevitably compare this film with the former TV show Doragon-Sakura and its sequel. That's the reason why I chose to watch it.

The fact is, this film is not as good as Doragon-Sakura in many ways. The most serious one is the image of that key teacher. Kanji Sakuragi was so cool and determined in Doragon-Sakura, while in this film, the teacher was so weak and unimpressed. This disappointed me the most.

Another reason why this film performed poorer than DS is the length I guess. After all, 10 episodes showed a greater advantage than 2 hours in terms of atmosphere and depth.

All in all, this film didn't successfully transfer the spirit I needed originally. What a pity.

Have you ever wanted something so bad you gave everything you have to accomplish it? That is what Flying Colors is all about, perseverance, dedication, strength and will power, all to accomplish your goals. I enjoy the concept, and this movie was by no means poorly done, but I think they could have done a lot more within the frame of an almost 2 hour movie, I think a run time of 1 hour and 30 minutes would have helped this movie out. Essentially this movie ends up being an hour or so of just watching the main character study, where we barely get to even learn anything along with her, we just watch her look at some text books intently. I also had a problem with the teacher as a character. I felt they didnt do much with his character, which does not make sense. He is supposed to be this magical being, almost, that convinces these troubled youths to change their ways and try to learn and do better in academics. But as a character, he sure is boring, not charming, and just completely empty. We didn't know much about him, and I didn't care enough to know more by the end, which is a shame, because they push the dynamic between the main character and the teacher, all throughout the movie, and yet they have no chemistry as student and teacher, and thats because his character is flat and the interactions are nothing special. So the idea that he's supposed to be able to convince these people, who no one else has been able to change for 14 years or more, in like one meeting... it just makes the relationship between everyone seem so fake, because of the basis of how it starts off. I think the story between the main character and her family is the most interesting in all of the movie, and that is not given enough screen time at all. The ending is nice, definitely sweet, which I will give this movie credit for also, it was uplifting, to see someone working so hard for what they want, and prove everyone wrong. But because the character work was not amazing, and development was poorly spaced out through the movie (she tries to change almost immediately and when she decides to stop trying to do well, it only lasts for a few minutes, so there was not enough time to actually believe she was giving up, the drama ended there). If you are interested in a simple, slightly uplifting and motivating movie, with not complex characters and have almost 2 hours to burn, then I'd say go for it, but for me, it was just forgettable

Very encouraging movie. My son and I watched it during his last year in high school sitting for public exam. A must for school students

It was a very heartwarming and touching family movie. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie. It managed to truly touch the real family life....the great expectation the parents have on their kids.

Really worth spending almost 2 hours watching this movie.