PONY CANYON

INTERNATIONAL LICENSING

Check It Out, Yo!

Original Title

チェケラッチョ!!
Chekeraccho!!

INTRODUCTION

Rap and Love! Gigs and Peace!!
We are just ordinary high school students. But we want to be cool, popular with young girls, and to live out our school days to the full with good buddies!
Maybe we're not so cool right now, but we finally find out what we really wanna do for our last year in high school... It's rap music♪
But we're not native English speakers, and my grandma is plucking shamisen at home, and rap music packs so many words, and I cannot sputter all my rhymes in synch with our song, and I keep biting my tongue... What are we gonna do now?

WE ARE IN OKINAWA!
Okinawa Prefecture, an emerging music hub in Japan, is where this youth-pumping movie is born out. The story is refreshing, touching, and filled with energetic vibes.
Secret love, inferior complex against peers, heartbreaking goodbyes and departure upon graduation. High school students, who've spent their whole life so far in the prefecture, meet music and find nice buddies. They fumble for words that can best express their innocent feelings, and they start to let out these sentiments in their own way... The movie's title "Check it out, Yo!" comes from the rap music phrase.

Toru, Akira, and Tetsuo are ordinary high school students. Yui likes Toru, but she cannot confess. A sprawling blue sky and crystal sea are nothing new to them.
One day they go to a concert of the popular hip-hop band "Workaholic". The boys get moved and start their own band. They name the band "098," the area phone code for Okinawa Prefecture. The band gets a chance to perform an opening act in Workaholic's concert.
But they find out rap music is not so easy to master. They have hard times learning how to play instruments and coming up with their own rhymes. Adding to their never-ending list of troubles are some bittersweet romances.
Music kicks boredom off the boys' days and their life starts to get brighter little by little. Can the boys make their stage a big success? As they dash through their hectic school days, they begin to realize what means most to them...

Hayato Ichihara plays this movie's lead Toru. Ichihara made his screen debut in 2001 with "Riri Shushu No Subete" (also known as "All About Lily Chou-Chou"). In 2004, he won the Japan Academy award as the most promising actor for his role in "Guuzen Nimo Saiaku Na Shounen." He is a known good rapper. In this movie "Check It Out, Yo!", he unveils his skill for the first time on screen.
Mao Inoue plays Yui. She shot up to prominence by her role in "Hana Yori Dango" (TV series / 2005). Yuta Hiraoka plays Tetsuo. Hiraoka is known for his appearance in "Swing Girls" (2004). Tasuku Emoto plays Akira. He earned high praise for his role in "Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima" (2002).
"Check It Out, Yo!" shows how these four guys go through their last year in high school while nurturing friendship through music. The powerful lineup of side casts makes this brisk movie even more appealing. They include: Tetsuji Tamayama, KONISHIKI, Garage Sale, Shingo Yanagisawa, Mitsuru Hirata, and Takanori Jinnai.

"Check It Out, Yo!" is directed by Rieko Miyamoto. She is known as the director for a number of TV series such as "101-kai Me No Puropozu," "Fire Boys: Megumi No Daigo," and "Yasashii Jikan." "Check It Out, Yo!" is the first movie she directed.
Japan's top mixture band ORANGE RANGE, whose members are natives of Okinawa, offers its latest tune "Walk On" for this film's ending theme. Their other tunes "Ishin Denshin," "Иatural Pop," and "Hysteric Taxi" are also featured, adding the steam to this movie with their distinctive catchy beats.
"Check It Out, Yo!" is a movie that current high schoolers and the former young can feel so close to alike. So let's come out and enjoy this film, which is sure to make you smile, sing, and... cry

STORY

HERE IS THE MUSIC ONLY WE CAN PLAY, YO!

Toru, Yui, Akira, and Tetsuo are senior high school students in Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture. A sprawling blue sky and crystal sea are common sights in this prefecture known for its breathtaking scenery. The four have nothing to be passionate about, just spending days complaining about their boring school life.
One day at an aquarium, Toru meets a hot lady, Nagisa, and gets infatuated on the spot.

The guys go out to see a concert of Workaholic, an up-and-coming hip-hop band that's taking the prefecture by storm. At the concert, one of the band members, Ryota, shows a great MC, livening up and hyping the crowd with flowing rhymes and flashy performance. Toru sees Nagisa again there, but it's not a chance encounter Toru hoped for. He has no idea at this point that she is Ryota's girlfriend.
Toru and his buddies wake up to the thrill of rap music, and start their own band. They name the band "098," the area phone code for Okinawa Prefecture.
Things take an unexpected turn, and the band gets a chance to perform an opening act in Workaholic's concert. What's more for Toru, he is picked to do the MC.

But can they really pull it off? They are no good at instruments, let alone performing rap music. They secretly borrow instruments from the school. They even try Japan's traditional instrument shamisen to hone their music skills. The boys find their savior in the husband of Yui's elder sister. This mysterious man, called Andy, is a native English speaker. He teaches the guys how to ride on the grooving beat of rap music.
Even though they try their best in preparing for the show, their performance on the day ends up a complete flop.

Some time later, Toru hears about Nagisa and Ryota going out together. But Nagisa snaps, "we are over now... I will return to Tokyo."
Yui is holding tender feelings toward Toru. Knowing he has a crush on Nagisa, Yui's smile dims with the tinge of uneasiness. Tetsuo says he is thinking about going to a university in Tokyo.

The friendship that has been binding them tight together shows signs of fraying. That's when the boys decided to hit the stage just one more time, for Nagisa and... for themselves.

Can they put up a big and cool stage this time around? How does the romance between Toru and Yui turn out in the end?

Breathtaking scenery of Okinawa, smash-hit tunes by Japan's top mixture band ORANG