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Utatama

2008 film by Makoto Tanaka

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ6150719
Source-derived summary

Utatama (うた魂♪), also known as Sing, Salmon, Sing!, is a 2008 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Makoto Tanaka. The film stars Kaho and Gori in a story about a school choir competition and features music from Kōsaku Yamada, Yutaka Ozaki, Mongol800, and Gospellers. Nikkatsu released the film on April 5, 2008, in Japan.

Premise

Kasumi loves singing until she is given a photo of herself mid-song by a boy she likes. Embarrassed, she quits, but is later encouraged to rejoin by Hiroshi, the leader of a rival all-male choir.

Cast

Critical reception

Reviewing Utatama for The Japan Times, Mark Schilling gave the film three out of five stars, describing it as "closer to a straight-ahead seishun eiga (youth film)" compared to Swing Girls and highlighted its "big chorus competition" scene as "soul-stirring".

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Utatama” is 2008 film by Makoto Tanaka. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Utatama, film and Makoto, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2008-01-01. For this dossier, Utatama, film and Makoto is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2008 film by Makoto Tanaka” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6150719. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Utatama”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Utatama primary sources, Utatama archive and Utatama research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Utatama”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Utatama” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.