Need movie/TV suggestion

[dr4b]

We have an extra English period this week with the 9th-graders (so they are around 14-15 years old or so) and want to show a movie or TV show.

Constraints:
1) must be 45-50 minutes in length or less
2) must be in English
3) must be popular enough that we can rent it here in Japan and have subtitles
4) must be appropriate for teenagers

I'm kind of at a loss because I don't really know what TV shows are popular for kids these days. I suggested Hannah Montana but it turns out they showed some of it last year; apparently the girls loved it but the boys were kind of bored by it? (Which doesn't make sense to me... I would think they would all be just talking about how hot Miley Cyrus is.) I think if we don't come up with anything they'll show it again. Another suggestion was High School Musical but I think it's too long?

I wondered if something like the Simpsons would be okay except I think in Japan it gets dubbed instead of subbed. But seriously, what is popular with teenage kids to watch on TV these days?

Comments

[rjmccall.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that, in many teenage American girl circles, openly obsessing over handsome actors/musicians/whatever — and especially divvying up the members of an ensemble cast — is totally acceptable and even encouraged behavior. Let me assure you that this is totally foreign to teenage boys, for whom being caught regularly watching a girl-oriented show just to see a particular actress would be some sort of cardinal social sin, deserving swift and total ostracization. In fact, admitting that you thought such-and-such girl was hot would be a dangerous action precisely because someone might ask you where you see so much of her, and god help you if you don't have a little sister.

My anime-fueled (*) impressions of Japanese culture suggest that it's still considered pretty weird and creepy for a teenage boy to do that sort of thing. A caveat — the wider culture is often much more tolerant of weird and creepy behavior from teenage boys. A riposte — the critical thing is what Japanese teenage girls think, and they're probably not in favor. So I can understand why your students wouldn't dig Hannah Montana.

(*) Getting my impressions from anime is actually not a totally unreasonable base for speculation in this case, given the role of pop culture in perpetuating social rules, especially to teenagers.

[dr4b]

Nah, it's totally acceptable for guys to obsess over cute girl singer/idols here. I mean, basically, when you ask a guy what his "type" is, meaning what kind of girl he likes, he's actually supposed to reply with the name of a singer or actress that he finds attractive, and that's his "type".

I am also basing this off the class where I did Alice in Wonderland, and we had picture cards of the story, and the boys in one of the classes basically spent the entire time yelling "Alice is pretty!" instead of anything that was actually USEFUL to the story -- and this was just a drawing of a blonde girl, not the real thing...