Yell for the blue sky (also known as Aozora Yell) is a 2016 Japanese youth drama film directed by Takahiro Miki, written by Yukiko Mochiji and based on the manga series of the same name by Kazune Kawahara.

The story is basically about 2 high schoolers, Tsubasa Ono (Tao Tsuchiya) and Daisuke Yamada (Ryoma Takeuchi) who supported and motivated each other on their way to fulfilling their dreams.

Ono wishes to join the school's brass band while Yamada wishes to join the school's baseball team and becomes a great baseball player. His ultimate wish is to enter into Koshien baseball tournament.

The duo then made an agreement that Uno will work towards becoming an official band player that would cheer the baseball team on in the matches and Yamada will work to be selected to as official player to play on the school baseball team.

I don't know why, it could be because I am over the age for sweet high school romance or just that the couple have little chemistry between them, I find myself unable to feel much for some of their little sweet moments together in the first half of the film.

While the cinematography and plot is not fantastic, they're pretty okay to watch but I guess some of the cast kind of spoil it. Ryoma Takeuchi performance is inconsistent and sometimes a little exaggerating. When he lost a match, though he did get teary and stuff, I don't feel the emotions from the scene, it just feels like he is acting and not genuinely sad. However, he did a reasonably good job for the rest of the scenes.

Fortunately, Tao Tsuchiya and some other supporting roles (mainly from the brass band side) are there to save the movie. Tsuchiya did a good job as a shy, timid but determined girl.

I would actually like to highlight two of the band seniors, Yuka Mori (Shifa Mirai) and Hitomi Kasuga (Kojima Fujiko) who did very well as supporting roles, they shine even with their little screen times.

I also love that they cast Ueno Juri as the band teacher/conductor. She has been in a few music related films like "Swing Girls" and "Nodame Cantabile" which made her role as the somewhat strict but actually caring band conductor very convincing. I actually can't think of anyone else more suitable for this role.

The music and scores played by the band are also very well picked. They are upbeat and rise the spirit when needed (like during the match) and light and sometimes playful at other times. The brass band performance and practices are actually my favorite parts of the movie because they're just so great and at times magnificent.

The 2nd half of the story jumped to 3 years later, showing the characters becoming seniors themselves. We see the characters matured slightly and so did the performance of the casts. Both Tsuchiya and Takeuchi start to develop some chemistry and I see improvements in their acting as well. However, the story also moved towards a move typical Japanese youth drama kind of plot and that is often pretty predictable.

However, I like how Ono urges the band to come and encourage Yamada with their music and eventually this incident helped the band become more united too when they realized that their music can make a difference if it can go into the hearts of the audiences. I think the scene is very well done, especially the music. The cast did well too but nothing beats the music in creating the atmosphere and mood.

The baseball match at the end of the movie is very engaging too even though I’ve already predicted the end result right from the start. It’ll be a happy ending, however, that did not make it boring. Instead, I enjoyed the match and especially with the band playing motivating and upbeat pieces to support the team. The atmosphere in the stadium is well managed and cleverly crafted that for a moment, I felt myself secretly screaming “Yamada!” too in my heart along with the spectators.
Yes, this movie is your typical youth romance drama genre and is pretty predictable. However it is still quite enjoyable. The music and scores are splendid and everything else is pretty well done too. It is lighthearted, sweet and somewhat motivating too.

If you’re a fan of Japanese youth romance drama, then you probably won’t mind watching this but if you’re not someone who is into such a genre, you probably should give this a miss.