'Naoko'

Ekiden — marathon relay races — may not be unique to Japan, but the sport has become uniquely popular here, with the biggest races, such as the Hakone Ekiden for university teams, garnering Olympic-like media attention and TV ratings.

So it's no surprise that "Naoko," the latest in a long line of Japanese battle-to-glory sports movies, should be about a high-school Ekiden team, from a fictional island in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Remember "Hoosiers," the 1986 David Anspaugh film about a team from Nowheresville, Indiana gutting their way to the state finals with Gene Hackman as the rough-edged coach? It's the same idea. Only this time the coach is Tsurube Shofukutei, the jolly, earthy, massively out-of-shape comedian, and the team's star runner is played by Haruma Miura, who looks like a manga artist's impossibly beautiful dream of an athlete even though he can run like the real, blazing-fast deal.