Back to 17, My Brother is the Cult Leader

The previous film, "Flying Colors," was released in 2015.

Adapted from a true story by Nobutaka Tsubota:

The story of a hot girl who was last in her grade and improved her deviation score by more than 40 points in one year and was admitted to Keio University.

The film tells the inspirational story of a high school girl whose knowledge level is only equivalent to that of a fourth-grade elementary school student, who makes a comeback and is admitted to Keio University, Japan's top private university, within a year and a half.

The story's protagonist, Kudo Sayaka, transferred to the private Meiran Girls' Middle School due to bullying incidents at school.

This school has an internal college admission system, so students can directly enter high school and university even without studying hard.

Sayaka's mother only wanted her daughter to do what she liked and be happy, and never interfered with her studies.

The father, on the other hand, favored sons over daughters, pouring all his energy and expectations into his younger brother, single-mindedly training him to become a professional baseball player, while barely paying attention to Sayaka and his sister.

In this environment, Sayaka spent her days eating, drinking, and having fun with her three best friends, dyeing her hair blonde, wearing heavy makeup, and wearing short skirts. She paid no attention to her studies, and her grades naturally became the worst in the entire grade.

In her second year of high school, she was caught by her teacher hiding cigarettes. Because she refused to expose her accomplices, she was given a life sentence of suspension from school and lost the opportunity to go directly to university.

Instead of scolding her, her mother encouraged her to try taking entrance exams for other universities and took her to the cram school "Seihō Juku" run by Nobutaka Tsubota.

When they first met, Mr. Tsubota was taken aback by Sayaka's super fashionable outfit, which included blonde curly hair, heavy makeup, earrings, a belly button ring, and a crop top and shorts. However, he quickly calmed down and praised her for her cool look, jokingly saying that he was too big to wear a crop top.

The two quickly became friends.

The test results surprised Tsubota greatly:

Sayaka, already a second-year high school student, has a knowledge level equivalent to that of a fourth-grade elementary school student.

She can't tell east from west.

I completely avoided all the correct answers on the test and got zero points.

However, Tsubota did not laugh at her; instead, he praised her idea as a "genius concept."

Although all the answers were wrong, all the answer columns were filled in, which shows a very positive attitude.

At Tsubota's suggestion, Sayaka set the almost impossible goal of "Keio University"—

This means she must surpass 70 out of approximately 67 test takers nationwide, jumping from the bottom 2% to the top 2%.

Sayaka filled out the form jokingly, but Mr. Tsubota was serious.

Tutoring sessions have begun.

Mr. Tsubota employed a unique teaching method:

He used comics to guide Sayaka in learning Japanese history, and used unflattering photos of himself from his youth as rewards for exams.

Use the phrase "Keio University has many handsome men" to motivate her.

Sayaka also demonstrated amazing willpower—

She was engrossed in doing her homework even when she went to karaoke with her friends, and she loudly recited English words on her way home by bicycle.

After studying all night until dawn, I went home as the sun rose.

To motivate herself, she even cut off her beloved long hair.

But the road to success is not always smooth.

At school, her homeroom teacher, Mr. Nishimura, mocked her in front of the whole class, calling her "scum" and saying that it was a pipe dream for her to get into Keio University.

Sayaka, not to be outdone, slammed her hand on the table, stood up, and said, "How can you just quit like that?"

Make a bet with the teacher:

If she gets accepted, the teacher will have to stand upside down naked and walk around the school.

The bigger blow came from the results themselves.

Despite her efforts over a period of time, Sayaka still failed to reach Keio University's admission score in the mock exams.

Looking at the unsatisfactory score on the test paper, she broke down—

The despair of "I've tried so hard, why is it still not working?" almost crushed her.

She ran to the cram school in the pouring rain to find Tsubota, crying and saying that she wanted to give up on her goal and switch to a university that was easier to get into.

Tsubota did not give up on her.

He took out an egg and said in front of Sayaka:

Can an egg stand upright? Common sense tells us no, but if we look at it from a different angle…

He stood the egg upright on the table and told Sayaka:

Don't be bound by preconceived notions; anything is possible.

He also suggested that Sayaka visit Keio University in person.

When Sayaka stood on the Keio University campus and saw those confident and composed university students, her fighting spirit was rekindled.

Sayaka has her mother's unconditional support behind her.

To pay for her daughter's tutoring fees, the mother didn't hesitate to withdraw her daughter's insurance and savings, and she also had to work odd jobs at night.

She told Sayaka:

"It's okay even if you don't pass the exam. You've already tried your best. Seeing your smile makes me happy."

Seeing how hard Sayaka was working, her three best friends offered to postpone their get-together until she finished her exams.

They said:

"We'll stop studying, but we'll wait for you. You can't lower your goals because of our relationship."

On the day of the exam, Mr. Tsubota gave Sayaka a can of "Pass Coffee" to encourage her.

Unexpectedly, this can of coffee caused Sayaka to have an upset stomach during the exam.

This caused her to underperform in the literature exam, which was her strongest subject, and she failed to get into her first-choice university.

But the next day, she calmly and collectedly took the policy studies exam, which was not her forte, and ultimately performed exceptionally well.

I was admitted to the Faculty of Policy Studies at Keio University.

Upon learning the results, Sayaka ran all the way from the cram school to Mr. Tsubota, and the two embraced tightly.

In a later letter to her, Professor Tsubota wrote:

You once said that I changed your life.

But in fact, it is precisely your hard work that has changed many people's lives.

At the end of the film, Sayaka, dressed in a suit, steps into the Keio University campus, the former "delinquent" transformed into a confident college student.

This story is true.

In real life, Sayaka Kobayashi did indeed achieve this amazing comeback under the guidance of Mr. Tsubota.

It makes people believe that no matter how low the starting point is, it's never too late to start working hard.

Fang Yuan had a deep impression of this film in his past life, and he could recall it effortlessly.

All that needs to be done is make modifications.

The protagonist has been changed to Chen Xia.

The background has been changed to Qingdao No.1 Middle School.

Other plot points were modified to better suit the national context.

He wrote that Chen Xia's score on her first mock exam was terrible, even worse than before.

When Chen Xia received her report card, her hands were trembling and her eyes were red, but she didn't cry.

Chen Xia's mother got up in the middle of the night and saw that the light in her daughter's room was still on. She pushed the door open and found Chen Xia asleep on the table with a math test paper on her face.

When Chen Xia's best friends said, "We're not going to study anymore, but we'll wait for you," Chen Xia cried.

After failing his third mock exam, he ran to the beach and shouted at the sea, "Am I really no good?"

Mr. Tsubota—

When he changed it to "Teacher Lin" and stood the egg upright on the table, Chen Xia laughed, but then she started crying.

When Chen Xia finally received her acceptance letter, the first phone call she made was to Teacher Lin.

I attend classes during the day and write in the evenings and on weekends.

The entire novel is about 100,000 words long, and I can write more than 8,000 words a day.

By the end of May, Fang Yuan had completed the adaptation.

Looking at the printed manuscript, Fang Yuan felt a great sense of accomplishment.

As for the original work, who cares? It's from overseas anyway, and who knows if it will ever appear in the future.

Fang Yuan scored 480 points in the exam at the end of the month.

not bad.

Fang Yuan was very satisfied.

These past few days, Chen Xia has noticed that Fang Yuan keeps looking at her and smiling.

The hair is creepy.

June is here, and final exams are at the end of the month.

There's only one month left in my second year of high school.

Huang Xiaoming has only one month left.

The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao)!!!

Fang Yuan felt that Huang Xiaoming was about to go insane.

He recites texts while walking and eating.

Aunt Zhang became his nanny and cook, preparing a variety of meals to increase his nutrition.

Fang Yuan benefited greatly from this.