Plot Summary for
Like Grains of Sand (1995) More at IMDbPro »Nagisa no Shindobaddo (original title)

Fortunately this film isn't just another repetition of the Japanese highschool drama genre - even though all characters are students and a reference to bullying is not missing. Instead, we witness the very complex relationships between Yoshida, leaving Shimizu for Aihara (or at least he tries to), and his friend Ito, whose love for Yoshida seems to have little chance for success. In the end we have a coalition of Ito and Aihara - who may or may not be in love with Ito (or with Yoshida, who knows) - teaching Yoshida a lesson. This is not a film about homosexuality either, indeed one message of the film may be that it doesn't matter if a boy loves a boy or a girl. Anyway, the complexity (even incomprehensibility) of the motivations of the characters is a most realistic and just reflection of the motivations of modern Japanese teenagers. Or in other words: the film captures exactly the same thing which Banana Yoshimoto describes in her novels; what it is however, is very difficult to say. Written by Hartmut G. Ziche

A realistic movie about the struggles of a few teenagers (about 18) of a school in Japan. One of the boys has fallen in love with his best friend and can not hide this any longer. The movie tries to create understanding for his homosexual feelings by showing a parallel development of a relation between a boy and a girl. Written by Carlo Wood <carlo@runaway.xs4all.nl>

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