Teiichi no Kuni (Blu-ray) (Normal Edition) (Japan Version) Blu-ray Region A

In what seems likes his umpteenth film of the year, Suda Masaki plays Teiichi, a pretentious freshman determined to one day become Prime Minister. As history has shown, the president of the school's student council goes on to great things, while the losing candidate – like Teiichi's bureaucrat father – continues to falter one step behind in his career, forever ruing the loss. As such, Teiichi is singularly focused on becoming student council president, a carefully calculated journey that starts in his freshman year as class representative. He must align with the right faction and presidential candidate in his first year to establish support for his own future run. One mistake could spell political suicide, and traps and challenges lie in wait every step of the way.

A comedic manga adaptation set at an all-boys high school begs an ikemen cast playing popular archetypes and crazy side characters, and Teiichi duly delivers in this department. As the hero who vacillates between ingenuous strategist and pathetic underdog, Suda Masaki brings depth to a cartoonish role through his ability to be shamelessly hysterical yet desperately vulnerable. As Teiichi's even more farcical childhood rival with an equally overbearing father, Nomura Shuhei has less to work with in terms of character development, but he amuses with a blusteringly over-the-top performance. Chiba Yudai and Mamiya Shotaro also fit their sempai roles to the dot, with the former as the cool unflappable thinker and the latter as the wayward cautionary tale (with a mane of glory). Japan's latest it boy Takeuchi Ryoma is the calm in the storm as the popular boy-next-door who maintains a voice of integrity and emerges as a wild-card rival to Teiichi's ambitions.

Director Nagai Akira and writer Izumi Yoshihiro embrace and amplify the magnificent silliness of Teiichi both visually and narratively, such that this colorful teen comedy is hyperactive at all times and teeming with juvenile jokes, snickers and fan service. At the same time, the film makes apparent its satirical elements, mirroring the lame fighting between high school boys with the lame fighting between adults in powerful positions. The wheeling, dealing and strategizing between and within campaigns also offer an exaggerated representation of real-world politics, as Teiichi and company hilariously demonstrate the art of spying, lying, sniveling, backstabbing, bribing and parroting empty platforms. Teiichi gives audiences a good laugh about the frivolous yet destructive practices of vain, spineless and deceitful politicians with tunnel vision. It's too bad that in the real world they don't look like live-action manga characters.