In 1999, a Live-Action Film of GTO written as a sequel to the 1998 live-action TV series was released. It stars Takashi Sorimachi as Onizuka, but none of the other cast are in it. Masayuki Suzuki was the director and the screenplay was by Mitsuru Tanabe.
Synopsis
Tohru Fujisawa's popular manga about a wildly irreverent high school teacher comes to the screen in this live-action comedy drama. Eikichi Onizuka (Takashi Sorimachi), who barely earned his teaching degree at a second-rate college, rolls into Horobonai, a small rural town in Northern Japan on his motorcycle to take a job as a substitute instructor. Ever since the closing of the local theme park, Horobonai has fallen into an economic tailspin, and many of the town's teenagers have sunk into a deep depression. Onizuka, however, isn't the sort of person who respects the town's newly somber personality; willing to mouth off to both his students and his superiors, Onizuka isn't much of a teacher, but he knows how to get people interested, and soon his brash style (and willingness to kick a few butts) brings new life to Horobonai.
Plot
The story is framed as an article written by a reporter, Kaoru Kitajima, who pursues a criminal to Hokkaido after finding Onizuka's wallet at the scene of the crime. With her photographer, Ishiyama, she searches for Onizuka to get her big scoop.
Onizuka arrives in Horobinai on his motorcycle, and sees a teenage boy, Raku Ichikawa, lying down on the train tracks as a train comes by. He jumps up and gets off the tracks as he sees Onizuka staring at him, and a few minutes later is accosted by two other boys. Onizuka shows up, his motorcycle having just run out of gas, and tells them they're doing a terrible job at shaking Raku down for money. Onizuka physically shakes him upside down, then forces the two bullies to push his motorcycle the rest of the way to the school, following Raku.
The four of them arrive just as another student is also attempting suicide. Ayano Katsuragi, the daughter of the school chairman, is standing on the edge of the roof as the gym teacher helps carry a mattress below her and the other teachers stand behind her, begging her not to do it. Onizuka shows up with Raku and demands that Ayano let him go first, since he was already trying to kill himself. She decides not to jump, but Onizuka and Raku lose their balance and both fall onto the mattress.
Onizuka is assigned as a substitute teacher for class 2C, which both Raku and Ayano are in. Ayano pretends to be stabbed to get class canceled, and Onizuka carries her to the nurse's office, where he reveals he knew the whole time it was tomato juice. She puts a stethoscope on him and runs out into the hall claiming he was "playing doctor" with her, but when the gym teacher comes in to check for the rapist, he only finds Raku wearing doctor's gear. Onizuka goes home with Raku and stays at his family's farm, much to Raku's annoyance. Raku has a habit of talking to one of their cows, Patricia, about things that are troubling him, like his crush on Ayano. Onizuka finds a love letter Raku wrote for Ayano and pushes him to confess him feelings.
The next day, Onizuka is riding on the back of Raku's bicycle when they nearly crash into a car driven by Kaoru and Ishiyama. Both vehicles are driven off the road into ditches, and Kaoru recognizes Onizuka as the suspected criminal. He doesn't know she thinks he's a criminal, and happily takes back his wallet. He and Raku arrive at school where they meet Ayano's father, the richest man in town and the founder of the now-defunct Canada Village theme park. He is also the school chairman. In a private meeting with the principal and vice principal, he reveals his intention to demolish the theme park and old school building to sell the land to be turned into a waste treatment facility. He also plans to send Kaoru to finishing school in London that weekend.
After noticing Raku getting bullied by another student named Chusonji, Onizuka takes action. Instead of stopping the fight, he gathers the whole class around them and encourages them to bet on the fight. Ayano bets 100,000 yen on Raku, and Onizuka bets an unknown amount on Chusonji. As Kaoru and Ishiyama watch, Raku and Chusonji fight. Raku gets badly beaten, but keeps getting back up. Eventually, Onizuka steps in and declares Chusonji the winner, to little applause. Even though he lost, Raku's determination made him more popular with his classmates. Onizuka calls this out, questioning whether they'll switch allegiance to whoever can fight the best.
The next day, Onizuka meets Kaoru again on the way to school. This time he sends Raku on ahead, and he and Kaoru walk in the abandoned theme park. She offers to have sex with him in exchange for the story, but he turns her down, saying that the condom in his wallet is for his "second time with a very special woman". Meanwhile, an old man has asked Ayano to take one last ride in his hot air balloon before she leaves Horobinai. As she's getting in, Onizuka comes along, fleeing from Kaoru. He jumps into the balloon's basket to get away from her, and once they're high enough, cuts the rope. This leads to the wind blowing the balloon towards the school, where it crashes in the middle of the assembly where Mr. Katsuragi is telling the students about his plans to revitalize the town.
Mr. Katsuragi decides to send Ayano away the next day. That evening, Onizuka is visited by his old friend Seiji, the real serial criminal wanted for a series of robberies. He tells Onizuka that he doesn't care if the police catch him, he just wants to get fame for his crimes and be captured in a big spectacle. Meanwhile, Kaoru and Ishiyama's editor is angry with them for crashing the car and wasting their newspaper's money of what he sees as a nonexistent scoop. He demotes Kaoru, but she sneaks back to Horobinai to follow up, with Ishiyama's help.
A police inspector comes to head the investigation into the criminal hiding in Horobinai, which they believe to be Onizuka. Onizuka finds out that Ayano is already at the train station, and for years has felt that she has no friends because they all ostracized her for her father's actions. He tells them to follow him and give Ayano a proper goodbye, but the teachers, principals, and chairman stop them. Mr. Katsuragi makes the mistake of calling class 2C "trash" not good enough for his daughter, for which Onizuka suplexes him. Onizuka drives to the train tracks, followed by Kaoru and Ishiyama, and stands in front of the train to get it to stop. He boards the train and pulls Ayano off, driving her back to the school. The conductor calls the police about the kidnapping, who immediately mobilize and set up a roadblock and car chase. Kaoru and Ishiyama attempt to follow Onizuka, but once again they crash into a ditch. Onizuka drives through a field and over a roadblock to escape the police cars, and ends up at the old school building where he meets the rest of the class. Raku has just stopped a construction machine operator from destroying the old clock tower, which has been broken for years; the impact makes it start again.
As dozens of police assemble with guns and riot gear around the old school building, Onizuka begins his class inside. He prompts Raku to give Ayano the letter, but Raku realizes he dropped it outside. Onizuka goes out and gets it. Realizing the students are the only ones inside, the cops try to arrest him, but Kaoru runs in between them and says he's a genuine schoolteacher. All the students also run out. Raku confesses his feelings to Ayano and begs her not to leave town, just as the clock tower starts ringing again. She agrees to stay, to the applause of the townsfolk, led by the Ichikawas. When the police inspector says that Onizuka is still under suspicion, Seiji, who has been watching the whole thing, reveals himself as the real criminal. He is arrested in a big spectacle, just as he wanted.
After three weeks, Onizuka leaves Horobinai, seeing Kaoru and Ishiyama on his way out. She gives him back his condom, but tells Ishiyama that she poked a hole in it, which he yells at Onizuka as he drives away. Thanks to her article on Onizuka, Kaoru is promoted to the news desk. It's revealed in a headline that the planned waste treatment plant in Horobinai was canceled as well.
Cast
- Eikichi Onizuka - Takashi Sorimachi
- Kaoru Kitajima - Norika Fujiwara
- Raku Ichikawa - Hideyuki Kasahara
- Ayano Katsuragi - Rena Tanaka
- Mr. Katsuragi
- Mr. Ichikawa
- Mrs. Ichikawa
- Principal
- Vice Principal
- Kenji Ishiyama - Masahiro Komoto
- Seiji (possibly Saejima) - Minoru Matsumoto
- Police Inspector
