Gokusen (2002)

Chris Magee over at JFilm Pow Wow related an old adage a friend of his who worked in the Japanese film industry told him, “There’s a formula in Japan. First you have a manga, then you have a TV show, then you have a movie”. So it would seem that the hugely popular manga turned television series Gokusen is following that exact pattern. The popular drama series “Gokusen” is getting a movie version this summer. After three highly-rated seasons, the film will be the last time that lead actress Yukie Nakama plays the role of the teacher Yankumi.
Newly graduated Kumiko Yamaguchi wants to make her mark on the Japanese educational system as a teacher. All well and good until she finds out that the class she’ll be in charge of is full of troublemakers and rabble-rousers. But those guys don’t frighten her though for she has
Mack

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After I wrote about the move to the big screen for the very popular comedy/drama Gokusen in Japan I made a point of watching the show to find out more about it. And after the first season I couldn’t stop and a few weeks later I have watched all three seasons. Yukie Nakama [Shinobi] stars in all three seasons and the film marks her last time taking on the role of a young teacher named Kumiko Yamaguchi who no matter which school she ends up at is put in charge of the notoriously misbehaved class 3-D, a class full of delinquents and wannabe thugs. The big secret of course is Yamaguchi isn’t just any ordinary young teacher. She’s also the 4th-generation heir to the Ooeda yakuza family, which is run by her grandfather since he took her in at a young age when her parents were killed.
Mack

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The more I see of this upcoming movie addition to the Gokusen canon the more I can see that the production team behind it is really, really catering to only fans of the show. Thus dictates how successful they will be at the box office but with the new trailer and announcement of a lot of the returning cast from the first two seasons making appearances in the film it should boost their success at home in Japan. And then there are the gaijin like me who like the show as well who will want to see this as well but will have to resort to getting it on DVD cause I don’t imagine this could travel outside of Japan as a stand alone film.
With “Gokusen: The Movie” less than a couple months away, a new announcement has revealed that six more actors from the drama’s earlier seasons will be returning,
Mack

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