Shodô Girls!! (2010)

A high-school after-hours club for calligraphy (i.e., Shodo) art is suffering from missing inspiration and fun in lessons, when a new teacher arrives and adds ideas of Shodo performance as expression of vividness of the art (as much as the strict and ritually usual doing of Shodo should do). The story is set in a Japanese town which is a center of paper-making business, when this industry is deteriorating due to nation-wide recession. The Club members (girls and boys) are in the middle of this, as parents and friends suffer from losing business or jobs, and prepare to use the new ideas of Shodo performance instead of silent Shodo-ing for a inter-high-schools competition of this. - This film is beautiful to watch due to nicely developed characters, lots of humor, deep thoughts on friendship, tradition, bravery and loyalty, and is as well nicely photographed and introducing into 21st century Japan, not krass and technoidically, but solemn and touching. Despite the low moods the girls are first individually in, they grow together developing their each personal strength for real friendship and the overwhelming power that could come from this. Highly recommendable (and bring tissues!).