How interesting do you think a story about four dental students would be? How about if they form a band? Kiseki: Sobito of That Day, aka Kiseki Ano Hi no Sobito, is the true story of four dental students who sing. And became one of the most popular musical groups in Japan, Greeeen.

Not the dental students:

We begin our story with Jin, a singer in a hard rock band. This is confusing because the Viki synopsis has already told us that our band members are Hide, Navi, Kuni, and Soh. However, Jin turns out to be Hide’s older brother, so we see Hide’s background here.

Hide and Jin’s father is a traditional,autocratic kind of man who seems to have a split personality. He is a doctor, and at the hospital, with his patients, he is kind and encouraging, and well respected. But at home, since he wants his sons to follow him and become doctors, he loses his temper easily. Angst goes off the scale when he reaches for his katana! No kidding. A sword.

Rika is a clerk at a music store where Hide is a frequent customer. They compare notes on their favorite groups, and she encourages him to make his own music. We see them start to become friends, and she is there for his first live concert.

The dental students:

Hide wants to please his father, but his grades aren’t good enough for med school. His friend, Navi, is somewhat in the same boat and decides to go to dental school as a kind of compromise. They end up going together, where they meet Kuni and Soh.

At a karaoke place where they go with other classmates to celebrate their first day of dental school, they discover that they all have made music before. They meet again later at an isolated spot under an overpass for a jam session and have a lot of fun. They start creating their own song and Hide asks Jin to help them with an arrangement.

Getting a chance to play in a live show along with several other groups, they hand out fliers all around campus. They call themselves The Green Boys and we get to hear the song; it’s upbeat and catchy. I like it! Everyone likes it. Jin is there, listening and recording their song.

And the rest as they say…

Jin encourages Hide to continue with music, but Hide doesn’t want to antagonize his father any further. In the end, Jin signs them up with a manager who agrees to keep their identities a secret, at least until they are out of dental school. Their name is changed to Greeeen and only their logo, not their picture, is used for promotions. It is a grinning mouth with letter e’s for teeth – one for each band member. Because they are dentists, get it?

Hide is torn between all the time the band takes up and the commitment he made about dental school. Jin is torn between pride in his brother and disappointment at his own lack of success. (But watch his face when he gets his little brother a deal with a manager!) Their dad is torn between tradition and…you will have to watch the show. It was his patients, really. I was so anxious about whether they managed to finish dental school that I actually paused the movie and looked it up.

…is history

I really enjoyed this show, and I think it’s a great introduction to Greeeen. The characters all mature and change through the story, and the progression is very good. The director said he talked to the actual members of the band and put as much of their experiences into the movie as he could. I had never heard of Greeeen before, and I like their music, so I’m glad I watched this. Kiseki, by the way, is the title of one of their most famous songs. It means miracle and refers to a line in the song, “For us to meet was surely a miracle.”

I have no idea what sobito is though, so if you know please tell us in the comments. And also let us know if this movie got you to listen to more of Greeeen‘s music!

Telzeytalks

Dramas With a Side of Kimchi