Plot
Shikokuchūō is a town that specializes in making calligraphy paper. However, the town had been devastated by the Japanese Recession, and many shops in the town's shopping arcade were forced to close. Over at Tsumishima High School's calligraphy club, a membership crisis ensues after many of its members left the club in quick succession. Satoko refuses to be worried, and continues to focus on her work for the upcoming national calligraphy competition. One day, a new relief teacher, Ikezawa, is assigned to the calligraphy club as its adviser. After Satoko and Kana mistake him as a thief, they throw calligraphy ink on him, thus leaving a bad first impression. After hearing that the club only has seven members left, Ikezawa puts up a performance calligraphy show to attract new members. This enraged Satoko, who strongly believes in the traditional method of calligraphy. However, another member, Kiyomi was deeply impressed by the performance and started practicing it, putting her at odds with Satoko, who later chases her away from the club. Satoko later has a change of heart when she realizes how much calligraphy meant to Kiyomi. She also agreed to put up a performance to commemorate the closure of the shop that Kiyomi's father runs. Ultimately, the performance was a failure, but the club members were surprised at the number of people who came to watch their performance. Just before Kiyomi moved toCast
* Riko Narumi as , a third-year student and the president of Tsumishima High School's calligraphy club. Although she is the daughter of a calligraphy teacher and is good at it, she has no interest in calligraphy until she discovers performance calligraphy. * Rio Yamashita as , Satoko's main calligraphy rival. She quit the calligraphy club because she needed to work part-time to support her sick mother. Her dream is to become a calligraphy master. * Nanami Sakuraba as , a third-year student and the vice-president of the calligraphy club. She is an enthusiastic person, and is also a good friend of Satoko. * Mitsuki Takahata as , a member of the calligraphy club. She is unable to read people's feelings, and is not good at studies. Her father runs a shop selling calligraphy supplies, though the shop eventually closed down. She later moved to Hiroshima Prefecture. * Fujiko Kojima as , a member of the calligraphy club. She was bullied in junior high school, resulting in her fear of going to school. Even in high school, she is a person who rarely says anything. She uses calligraphy as a means to express herself. * Nobuaki Kaneko as , a temporary teacher and the adviser to the calligraphy club. An accomplished calligraphy master, he lost his passion in calligraphy after participating in numerous competitions. Thanks to the students, he later found his passion again. * Tomohiro Ichikawa as , Satoko's childhood friend. * Win Morisaki as , a member of the calligraphy club. * Ryu Morioka as , a member of the calligraphy club. * Ryotaro Sakaguchi as , a member of the calligraphy club. * Junkichi Orimoto as Tomoya's grandfather. * Meikyo Yamada as Satoko's father, a calligraphy teacher. * Mayumi Asaka as Satoko's mother. * Yoshiko Miyazaki as Mio's mother. She is a single parent and is hospitalized due to a major illness. * Hajime Okayama as Kiyomi's father. He runs a calligraphy supply shop in the town's shopping arcade that later closed down due to poor business.Production
Development
On 27 August 2009, Nippon Television's "Zoom-in!!Super" program featured a segment regarding Shikokuchuo High School's ''Shodo Performance Koshien'' competition. The performance calligraphy competition consists of six-people groups who draw calligraphy while dancing to the background music. This segment received a respectable viewership rating of 10%, despite the segment being only 9 minutes long. In an announcement made on 24 December 2009, it was revealed that a film will be produced based on the story of this competition. It was revealed that the director Ryuichi Inomata will be in charge of the film. He previously directed the 2007 film '' A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies''. Riko Narumi, who also starred in the 2010 film '' Bushido Sixteen'', was also revealed as the main cast member of the yet-unnamed film. The film is fully supported by Shikokuchuo city. The film title, ''Shodo Girls'', was later announced in the New Year's Day 2010 "Zoom-in" special program. Supporting cast members were subsequently announced on 23 January 2010. Nanami Sakuraba, who voiced the female lead of the film '' Summer Wars'', stars as the vice-president of the calligraphy club. Actress Rio Yamashita, the lead actress of the film '' Mahōtsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto'', plays the role of the main character's rival whose mother had been hospitalized. Mitsuki Takahata and Fujiko Kojima, who starred in the stage play ''Kiseki no Hito'' and theFilming
The filming for ''Shodo Girls'' began on 18 January 2010 in Shikokuchuo, the town that this film is set in. Filming was then moved to an indoor stadium located in Menumaundo Park in Kumagaya, Saitama on 26 March 2010. Riko Narumi had trouble with the large calligraphy brush, which weighs 20 kg. She revealed that she had been practicing performance calligraphy for over the past year, and she added that she was "impressed" when she saw a recording of an actual calligraphy performance. Another challenge the cast faced was the chilly weather during the filming. Nanami Sakuraba said that the cast members simply had to "overcome the cold eather. Overall, Riko described the filming as a "success", despite the cast's "lack of practice for this particular scene".Release
''Shodo Girls'' was released in the Japanese box office on 15 May 2010. On its debut weekend, Shodo Girls grossed US$332,788, making it the 10th highest-grossing film in the Japanese box office that weekend. Overall, the film grossed a total of US$1,394,221 over three weeks in the Japanese box office.Reception
Critical reception
''References
External links
* * {{IMDb title, 1571242 2010 films Japanese drama films Warner Bros. films Japanese calligraphy Films scored by Taro Iwashiro