Color / American Vista (1:1.85) / 2010 / 120 min / NTV

 

Director: INOMATA Ryuichi

Script: NAGATA Yuko

Cinematography: ICHIKAWA Masaaki

Art Direction: KITAJIMA Kazuhisa

Music: IWASHIRO Taro

Producers: FUJIMURA Naoto , SAKASHITA Tetsuya

 

Cast:

NARUMI Riko: HAYAKAWA Satoko

YAMASHITA Rio: OAKAZAKI Mio

SAKURABA Nanami: SHINOMORI Kana

KANEKO Nobuaki: I KEZAWA Hiroto

 

Synopsis:

The story is set in Shikoku Chuo City in Ehime Prefecture, the "City of Paper" that boasts the top output of paper in Japan. However, due to the long recession, the city has lost its former prosperity.

Satoko (Riko Narumi) is a senior in Shikoku Chuo High School. She is the captain of the calligraphy club and has won many awards for her works in various exhibitions. Satoko's father is a professional calligrapher, and for her calligraphy has always been something with which to win her father's approval; the need to please her father had gradually become stressful for her.

Satoko's best friend and vice-captain of the club, Kana (Nanami Sakuraba), appeals to Satoko one day that she wants to win a team prize for the effort she has put into the club for the past 3 years. But Satoko feels that the club members should work individually and is reluctant about working as a team. Satoko also felt depressed about her friend Mio (Rio Yamashita), who had quit the calligraphy club even though she had talent that rivaled Satoko's.

Then one day, Ikezawa (Nobuaki Kaneko) comes to the high school as a substitute for a teacher who is on maternity leave. Ikezawa is appointed the advisor of the calligraphy club, but he apparently has no intention of instructing its members.

However, when Satoko and the club members see Ikezawa perform in front of the school by fluidly writing a large script with music in the background, the activity within the calligraphy club begins to take a new direction. A club member, Kiyomi (Mitsuki Takahata), falls in love at first sight with Ikezawa's performance and begins mimicking him by writing large script to blaring music on some Japanese paper glued together. Although Satoko reproaches Kiyomi and tells her to take her "nonsense" elsewhere, she learns Kiyomi's reason for her actions and regrets being harsh. Kiyomi's father had decided to close down the family stationery store, and she wanted to stage a calligraphy performance to gather customers for the closing sale. Kana is touched by Kiyomi's sincere intention, and persuades Satoko to help prepare for the performance. But for Satoko and the other calligraphy club members, who had always practiced individually, cooperating with each other to create a single piece as a team proved to be more difficult than expected. The club's first performance for Kiyomi ends in disaster.

Satoko is hit hard by their failure. Then Kiyomi moves far away, and Satoko learns of another club member Koharu's (Fujiko Kojima) past of being bullied and her passion for calligraphy. She also witnesses her childhood friend Tomoya's (Tomohiro Ichikawa) family-run paper mill go bankrupt and burn down, and gradually comes to realize what needs to be done. The city's shopping district had become deserted because so many stores like Kiyomi's father's stationery store had closed down. So in an effort to revitalize their beloved hometown and cheer up the people living there, Satoko decides to organize a "Calligraphy Performance Contest." Her earnestness eventually touches Ikezawa, and under his guidance the calligraphy club begins training much like a group of athletes. The members of the club become a tight-knit group, and they eventually change the minds of the adults around them who had objected to their endeavor at first. They also persuade Mio, who had been contemplating dropping out of school for personal reasons, to reconsider her decision to quit the club.

The day of the Calligraphy Performance Contest arrives, and Satoko and the club members perform together. Their sincere passion for calligraphy and their earnest love for their hometown envelop the stage, and a small miracle occurs.