Foreign Film recommendations:

I’m always into various entertainments from abroad and recently I’ve been watching some pretty good shows and films from Japan that I think are worth sharing.

(Movie) The Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

• Japan Casts:
Enjouji Aya, Fujiki Naohito, Hayashi Chika, Hayashi Tomoka, Ida Kunihiko, Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, Kimura Tae, Kirari, Kobayashi Masahiro, Kondo Yoshimasa, Kubozuka Yosuke, Kuroda Miki, Mabuchi Erika, Matsushima Nanako, Murakami Rikako, Nakamura Aimi, Nakao Akira, Numata Baku, Oguri Shun, Sasai Eisuke , Shirakawa Minami, Shirakawa Yumi, Sorimachi Takashi, Tajima Reiko, Tateishi Ryoko, Tokuyama Hidenori, Yamazaki Yuta
• Description:
While peeping up girls’ skirts at a local shopping mall, Onizuka meets a girl who agrees to go out on a date with him. Onizuka’s attempt to sleep with her fails when her current “boyfriend”, her teacher, shows up at the love hotel they are in and asks her to return to him. The teacher is old and unattractive, but has enough influence over her that she leaps from a second story window and lands in his arms.
Onizuka, seeing this display of a teacher’s power over girls, decides to become one himself. In his quest, he discovers three important things:
1. He has a conscience and a sense of morality. This means taking advantage of impressionable schoolgirls is out… but their unusually attractive mothers are a different matter.
2. He enjoys teaching and most of the time, he teaches life lessons rather than schoolwork.
3. He hates the systems of traditional education, especially when they have grown ignorant and condescending to students and their needs.
With these realizations, he sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under enough pressure. He is hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately operated school to tame a class that has driven one teacher to a mysterious death, one to nervous breakdown, and one to joining a cult. He embarks on a mission of self-discovery by breaking through to each student one by one, and helping each student to overcome their problems and learn to genuinely enjoy life.
Review: This is a well known and popular anime/manga from Japan that’s been put into a great funny movie that works both the comedy aspect of GTO’s great narrative, while also inserting spot of real sincerity. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a great sit back “good feeling” comedy.

~J

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