Suzuki Sensei movie

I've been waiting so long for this and its now available on the interwebs with Japanese subs! Suzuki sensei is to this 2K10 dorama era what Kinpachi sensei was to the 90s. Kinpachi sensei was an idealistic, preachy and moral look at various student and social issues while Suzuki sensei is smarter and looks at grey area issues. I'm not dissing Kinpachi sensei but Suzuki sensei is a more sophisticated dorama. Plus Kinpachi season 6 was the only time I thought Ueto Aya was a decent actress.

The movie is basically two episodes into which would have worked better separately; one is the high school council election and the second story is about two former students who are now 'rejects' of society. The student election story I enjoyed a lot more. Taruko sensei comes back and has the power to completely ignore Suzuki sensei's existence which becomes a running joke throughout the movie.

To combat spoiled votes, Takuro sensei changes the voting rules to require all ballots be signed. What follows is an interesting examination on right to not vote and its fun watching the students gear up for elections and having to give speeches. Good thing they didn't have to walk around the school with megaphones giving speeches about Japan.

The second story is about two ex-students who hang around at the park everyday with one of them being played by Mitsushima Hikari's brother from Soredemo Ikite Yuku. Those two are perceived as dangerous people and Suzuki sensei and Ogawa are the only two to treat them as normal. An incident happens in a park and suddenly the public ashtrays are removed and a sign erected saying be careful of suspicious people. Basically the two ex-graduates only place to hang out are taken from them.

One of them, having lost is hang out place ends up bashing his mom and Mitsushima Hikari's brother decides to go to school and make Ogawa his hostage. Suzuki sensei has always been about interesting arguments from both sides but hostage dude does not have an argument. I was excited about his casting cause of Soredemo but alas, there seems to be a law in Japan that every bad guy has to do the evil laugh.

The hostage situation is more to set up the payoff of Suzuki sensei's speech to the class about the merits of acting in real life and to the most wtf action scene in Suzuki sensei that had me in awe and laughing at the same time. The movie ends with the result of the hostage situation but the movie doesn't take time to appreciate the gravity and trauma of the hostage situation. Its as if it were just an everyday occurance.

Not the must watch movie I was hoping for but it doesn't suck either like the Gaiji Keisatsu movie which I'm trying to forget. I think the writer did what he could to make it work as a movie. I think its worth watching for fans of the show.

Here's some necessary vocabulary to watch to movie:

小川病 - sometime every guy in the movie has
公約 - public commitment
生徒会 - student council
選挙 - election
書記 - secretary
立候補 - announcing one's candidacy
記名投票 - registered ballot
無効投票 - invalid ballot
宣言 - declaration
立会演説 - campaign speech
規制 - regulation
不審者 - suspicious person