Flying Colors (2015) (Blu-ray) (English Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version) Blu-ray Region A

Dying her hair blonde and wearing various mini-skirts, Arimura Kasumi (Strobe Edge) takes the starring role of Sayaka, a delinquent second-year high school girl at the academic level of a fourth grader. Worried about whether she can get into a university, Sayaka's mother sends her to a tutoring school where Sayaka meets her teacher Tsubota Yoshitaka played by Ito Atsushi (Mozu). Though it's a big challenge for Tsubota to help Sayaka pass the entrance exam of the prestigious Keio University, he still devotes great effort to teach her. To prove that she is not the airhead labeled by her father and teachers, Sayaka studies very hard though her university dream is almost impossible.

Cram schools have become an alternative for students who can't catch up on lessons or want an extra edge, but they are also criticized for their exam-oriented teaching strategies and money-making policies. However, Flying Colors sheds the negative image of cram schools and fully exhibits the spirit of education: Education is about inspiration, rather than spoon-feeding. Tsubota offers one-on-one lessons and designs tailor-made teaching materials for each student according to their interests. Rather than giving model answers to the students, he encourages them to express their views from different perspectives and explore the world on their own. This kind of teaching is not possible in conventional schools where students at different levels are put together for lessons or at typical tutorial schools that stress efficiency and profits.

Though the film is mainly about the teacher-student relationship between Tsubota and Sayaka, it also illustrates the importance of communication in maintaining healthy family relationships. Many parents don't bother with their children's needs and aspirations, and force them to pursue the goals set by them. Sayaka's father teaches his son Ryuta to play baseball and hopes that one day Ryuta will achieve his long-time dream: becoming a professional baseball player. However, he doesn't know that Ryuta hates baseball. Ryuta may still persist in playing baseball if he knows how important baseball is to his father, but his father never opens his heart and always puts the screws to him. Forced to follow in his father's footsteps of becoming a lawyer, Sayaka's friend Reiji (Nomura Shuhei) gives up his studies in order to take revenge on his father. Yet, after seeing his father's client profusely thank him for winning a case, Reiji finally understands the meaning of being a lawyer, which is never talked about by his father.

Despite the predictable ending hinted by the blatantly hopeful title, Flying Colors arouses the audiences' interest in how Sayaka notches up her success. Moreover, the film's optimistic mood and comedic tones are effectively created thanks to Sayaka's frequent nonsensical dialogue. Apparently packaged as a dream-chasing youth film, Flying Colors is not about how a disobedient student goes from the bottom of the class to entering a top university, but about the spirit of education and the importance of family communication that have been neglected by too many teachers and parents.