Japan's film and TV industries are populated by hundreds of comedy writers, but few find politics funny, at least in public. One exception is filmmaker Akira Nagai, whose power struggles unfold not in the Diet, but at an elite boys' high school in "Teiichi: Battle of the Supreme High."
Based on a manga by Usamaru Furuya that ran from 2010 to 2016, the film smartly satirizes the Japanese political world in particular, as well as political animals everywhere.
The budding politicos contending for the student council presidency and their fervent supporters are kids from the top rungs of the social ladder who burn to advance even higher. And that fire burns brightest in the title hero, Teiichi Akaba (Masaki Suda).