Release Date: October 22, 2011 Length: 86 minutes Director: Sho Tsukikawa
Main Cast:
Yuu Kikkawa as Kanna, Student Council treasurer and only person who was a solo artist.
Akari Hiyama as Asami, president of the Manga Club and member of the group Momiro Clover.
Naomi Anzai as Yuri, president of the Fashion Club and member of The Possible.
Natsumi Iwamura as Eliza, president of the Culture Club and member of PASSPO✰.
Yuki Goto as Tsukapon, president of the Broadcasting Club and member of The Possible.
Mori Shiori as Sachi, president of the Basketball Club and member of PASSPO✰.
Anna Tami as Kurimi, president of the Computer Club and member of PASSPO✰.
Saki Mori as Youko, president of the Tea Ceremony Club and member of Up Up Girls.
Yurika Akiyama as Kazuko, president of the Mathematics Club and member of The Possible.
Mikiho Niwa as Marimo, president of the Table Tennis Club and member of Canary Club.
Konatsu Furukawa as Koharu, president of the Student Council and member of Up Up Girls.
You may not believe it but the above may end up being the hardest part of this review. You can find the cast names in English but not what characters they played, was kind of a chore as I only knew four of the eleven by their faces and those screenshots really came in handy. Also the cast list at the end of the film helped though it was all in Japanese, least my reading ability has been improving dramatically by small leaps and bounds lately.
Yuu was definitely 98% of the reason for me watching this movie, I've had it for well over a year but for some reason kept putting off viewing it until now. Yuu has appeared in many dramas and films though almost are low budget features, she's far from being the best actress around but I've always enjoyed her performances.
Above is how the title is really spelled, the 11 had to do with the amount of members on the cheerleading squad that was formed. No school name nor year was revealed to us, we'll say it's 2011 and the month for sure was July. There's was a meeting of the high school club presidents, it's time for them to submit their budgets and the treasurer Kanna tells them they all have to work on making cuts to each of theirs.
Bit of complaining from the presidents but they all agreed to it, being July it's sweltering and they just want to leave the school. There was a mad dash to see who could get out of the school first, no winner was decided as before the outcome they crashed into a statue. Not just any kind of statue but one that was very precious to the school and would cost one million yen to fix it's broken arm!
Gulp, I'd be in fill agreement with Yuri's suggestion. It never happened and the girls think that the school's head master who they were talking to is a faggot, that's what they called him. One million yen between eleven girls shouldn't be too difficult to come up with, they had agreed to share the responsibility for damaging the statue. The girls said they would all get part time jobs, the debt will be paid off in no time.
However there's a school rule which prevents students from working. Most of the girls can come up with 90,000 yen but not all. The head master suggests to them to enter a cheerleading contest that will be held the following month, first prize is one million yen. The head master had fondly recalled Kanna's sister as she was an ace cheerleader who won many awards, he suggested the competition as he was hoping Kanna would follow in her sister's footsteps.
At one time Kanna had wanted to be a cheerleader, seems as though she became discouraged as she would never be as good as her sister. But she was the only gal of the eleven to have any experience so it was left up to her to organize everything. Which Kanna did though her personality at times could be like a drill sergeant and before you knew it the team only consisted of ten girls.
That's Asami in the bottom screenshot, she does most of the narration for the film. She's friends with Kanna though the pair aren't too close or at least not yet. Not being closer is kind of breaking Asami's heart as she has such a crush on Kanna(!), not sure it's in a sexual way but she really idolizes her. Those glasses Asami is wearing are fake and don't know why she wore them, eventually she does ditch them. And as you see she's never been to Kanna's house, she looks sad there because she had overheard a conversation and to her dismay Sachi from the team is going home with Kanna.
Asami is determined to join the two, they had quite a head start but Asami managed to catch up to them on her bike. Through some nifty word play Asami also gets invited to Kanna's house, it's a dream come true for her. Not much happened at Kanna's place which is a small apartment where she lives with her sister and mother. The trio map out some plans for the practice sessions and exercise to an instructional video, except for Kanna none have cheerleading experience and there's only a month to go until the competition.
At least ten members are needed for a team, only eight of the eleven joined which left them two short, three short now as Yuri has quit due to the harsh training ways of Sachi. Mentioned above that Kanna at times acts like a drill sergeant, Sachi seems to be that way most of the time which has created quite a bit of friction between the remaining members. Sachi is on the Basketball team, her competitive ways don't go over so well with non athletic types.
Eventually though Sachi does apologize to Yuri who is the queen of fashion, she constantly talks about the trends of Shibuya though unknown to all she's never been there once in her life. Shortly after her return the team ranks have risen to nine as Youko has also joined. She's kind of a quiet gal and couldn't imagine wearing a skimpy costume in front of an audience.
Kanna eased Youko fright and told her they won't be wearing revealing outfits. They're going to design their own, actually Yuri is, Youko can help decide which uniform the team will wear. One more person is needed to get to ten, Kanna is usually too stern but does have a nice streak and manages to convince Kazuko to be a member of the team. Kazuko is in the math club and she thinks like a mathematician would, only looking at things in black and white. Kanna poses a challenge to her which couldn't be refused, now it's an eligible team and time to step up the pace of practicing.
There was a vote to decide who would be the team's official captain, there was no doubt that Kanna would win easily though Marimo did vote for herself. The Student Council president Koharu oversaw the voting, she's not on the team but secretly really wanted to be. A few of the team members do know of her yearning as they've seen her watching them practice, took no persuading as Koharu was asked to join the team and immediately accepted, that brings the total members on the team to eleven.
That number will stay the same until the end. The team knows of Kanna's famous cheerleading sister and hopes that she can help them train. However her sister Mika works full time and is unable to attend a practice, she does help out by watching videos of them at practice and gives them some helpful tips that way. Had thought the age difference between the two sisters was small but looking at them it doesn't seem that way as Mika appears to be so much older.
She and her sister's mother were just in a few scenes but one was a shocker which affected Kanna's life. Mika at dinner one night confessed to the mother that she was pregnant, she had broken up with the father but was going to keep the baby. This eventually led to a serious argument between Kanna and her mother, it was so severe that Kanna stormed out after her mother said she had the option of staying or going.
The word 'Juku' above is the what cram school means in Japanese. Kanna had been attending one with Asami but once the cheerleading squad began she stopped going, that was another reason for the spat with her mother who had paid a hefty tuition. After the blowup Kanna headed to Asami's house to spend the night or should I say many weeks. Needless to say Asami's dreams were answered as the love of her life had come to stay with her but the good times wouldn't last forever.
Not that Asami didn't want Kanna living with her but she's surprised that Kanna could just leave her house and never return, especially seeing as how her pregnant sister Mika may need some help. Those words of advice seemed to reach through to Kanna who does eventually head back home, before that happened she had returned to Juku with Asami. In the meantime the training to become cheerleaders seems to be going well too, kind of hard to believe that in less than a month girls who had never done an activity like that have become so good.
Getting very near the end of the film, not as easy to make ones like this sound exciting. Much easier to make a horror/thriller film appear that way as they usually are much more interesting, this was an okay movie but the intensity level was extremely low throughout. Upon her return home Kanna had discovered her mother had checked into a hospital, nothing serious as it was more for exhaustion as she had to do all of the work around the household which Kanna had always done. Time has been flying, before we knew it the date was August 31st which was the day of the competition.
Many experienced squads were there, you wouldn't think the team would have much of a chance in winning though they usually do in these types of movies. They coined a team name which was 'Mitsukai-do Bonze', no idea if that was the name of their school. The gals put on an energetic performance, seemed to be much more dancing than cheerleading but the crowd really got into it and gave them a rousing ovation, Kanna's mother had been released from the hospital and was there.
However the ending didn't turn out like most of these teen films do as the underdog squad failed to capture the million yen first prize but they didn't seem to be upset about it. The statue did eventually get repaired and have a feeling that the school's head master ended up paying for it. A lot of the film was narrated by Asami who was using the story for a manga she had been writing about the team and their quest to win first place. In the manga she did have them winning the prize and even though it didn't happen in real life she didn't change the ending. As far as endings go that was it for this film which was an enjoyable watch but like this review it wasn't all too exciting.
You can normally tell when reading through a review how I feel about a film or drama. Been noticing that when I really enjoyed what I viewed it comes out much more interesting and the words seem to flow out much easier. In reviews like this one where I thought it was just a so-so watch it's not nearly of an interesting read, not that it was a snoozer but just a trend I've noticed.
These types of teen underdog films used to be so popular in Japan but there hasn't been as many of them the last few years, like this one there's only so many believable stories. It was a fair watch, viewed many worse films than this one but it's not a movie that I'm going to watch multiple times. Will give it a grade of 7/10, that's not too bad as any film that has a seven or above from me is worth checking out at least once. Will go back soon to watching more horror type films, not the biggest fan of them in the world but they usually do end up being more interesting.
Wanted to watch a film with Yuu in it who will once again be in my top ten, she did a fine job in her role. Most of the cast also did well and it wasn't their fault the movie wasn't more interesting. Akari is a fave who I constantly forget about, her "Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles" drama from a few years ago is a show that's highly recommended. There was one other good thing and that was hearing about the J-Pop group Canary Club. Think I've heard the name but know zero about them so it's time to do some investigating on them and hopefully will be rewarded with some solid tunes.
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