本片榮獲藝學院賞最佳電影、最佳劇本、最佳男主角（西田敏行）最佳助演男配角（田中邦衛）最佳新人（萩原聖人、裕木奈江）暨最佳導演六項大獎！！
《學校》是山田洋次構思了15年的意念。影片的背景是一所夜間中學，負責教學的是已屆中年的黑井先生。
他本來可以有機會調職到另一家正規學校任教，但他卻拒絕了。又一個學期要過去，在畢業禮即將來臨之前，黑井叫每個學生都以過去一年的日子做題材，寫下一些值得回味的事情。班上的同學，有不同年齡的、不同國藉和背景的，不約而同都發現：歲月雖然匆匆，但箇中悲喜，尤其是黑井的關懷，卻教他們永誌難忘。
本片是山田洋次創作生涯上的另一高峰：七年間已拍了四集，是山田繼《男人之苦》後的第二個成功系列。
Directed by the creator of the Tora-san series, Yamada Yoji, "A Class to Remember" unfolds in a night junior high school on the lower east side of Tokyo. Students from their teens to their sixties are enrolled. One of the most beloved teachers, Kuroi, asks each student to write an essay recalling their experience in the night school. In the midst of the class, a piece of tragic news arrives: Inoda, one of Kuroi's students, has passed away, upon which the whole class starts talking about each other's memory of Inoda. Compassionate and extremely poignant, "A Class to Remember", marks the beginning of another film series for Yamada. So far four installments have been made and all are box office hits.