Like Grains of Sand (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 1995)
vs.
Umi ga Kikoeru (The Ocean Waves) (Tomomi Mochizuki, 1993)
This bracket just gets better and better. I've had the fortune of
having found multiple matchups where I've really loved one of the films and am excited about championing it through the course of this bracket. And yet, this is probably the toughest and yet one of the best matchups I've had to do for this bracket yet.
Like Grains of Sand (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 1995) At first glance, this movie could appear like just another Japanese adolescent drama with a love triangle (or even some more complicated geometric figure) set in a high school with the usual tropes (rumors, humiliation and the like). What is rare is a film that deals with these issues and yet escapes the trappings of being clichéd and superficial.
Like Grains of Sand totally succeeds in that regard. Sure, it's moving and heartfelt but more importantly, it's respectful and nuanced and doesn't offer any easy answers to the questions it raises about sexuality, friendship and relationships in general. But the reason I really really loved this film is not even just that. That is because despite belonging to a genre that I already really love and therefore tend to watch a disproportionate number of films in, it managed to constantly surprise me. There were several occasions during the film where I found myself expecting things to go a certain way and then they wouldn't and yet, whatever actually happened would feel completely true and consistent with the characterizations and let the plot go to some unexpected places that really raise it above most films in this genre.
The movie essentially explores the relationship between a group of Japanese high school students over the course of a few months (or so). One other thing that I found enjoying about the movie is that it never seems to rely on "a-ha" moments to sustain our interest. I have nothing against plot twists and surprise endings but it's a pleasant change to see a movie that could withhold information so as to maintain more dramatic tension choose to instead keep the viewer on the same page as the characters in the film and allow us to discover things along with them. I don't think I'm articulating this too well unfortunately but for instance, the key relationships in the film are apparent very early on in the film. Likewise, there are characters with secrets in their past and these secrets are revealed ever so matter-of-factly. This really makes the film seem so much more real and consequently, so much more affecting.
The movie primarily deals with four central characters and like in the case of
Wild Reeds, they always feel like real flesh-and-blood characters. The casual banter between the boys always feels completely real and evocative, like for instance:
That totally made me smile because me and my best friend would hope for our school to blow up all the time! I also loved the way the three boys are quite different from one another and yet seem to be good enough friends to be able to just hang out and just *be* with each other. The movie also does a really nice job of showing us the lives of these boys outside of school, with their families at home and just enough of it to help us understand who these people are but without letting these complicate the plot too much.
There are some early scenes in the film where we just see Ito being silently in love, possibly for the first time ever, and the movie depicts his pain and longing so perfectly.
Even if none of these things worked (which they totally do), the movie would be worthy of recommending just for this one scene that comes at about the one-hour mark. This is probably the most touching moment in the entire film. It's a difficult and awkward scene that packs a ton of complex emotion and everything about the scene from the way it's set up to the performances and the reaction it evokes is perfect. It could've felt exploitative or daring and somehow it doesn't. It just feels poignant and it sorta reminded me of the awkwardness of high-school relationships and how first kisses are often accompanied by sweaty palms and raw nerves. It's a long drawn-out scene that feels even longer than it probably really is and is really quite brilliant. Just prior to this is another scene that depicts just how cruel high-school kids can be to anyone who stands out for any reason. Heartbreaking.
Likewise, the film really takes it's time developing the friendship between Aihara and Ito. I wasn't too sure I understood Aihara's characterization entirely but the scenes where she and Ito are just getting to know each other are just so great. Little details like the way Ito accepts Aihara with all her craziness and her inscrutable ways and the way he's quick to come to her defense when Shimizu makes an unkind remark about her - they're just full of authenticity.
And finally, the last act. Again, it's disturbing and unsettling and the last couple of scenes especially are really quite perfect.
So yeah, this movie is really great. There were still a few small things that bothered me. For one thing, some of the acting on the part of some minor characters is pretty terrible (especially the girls that keep collecting money under false pretexts). Talking about which, that whole side-plot didn't really seem necessary. The entire sequence about the kid being taken to the doctor to be cured of homosexuality seemed a tad heavy-handed but it's also possible that this was the prevailing norm in Japan at that point in time. Finally, while I found the last act pretty effective emotionally, some of it was really confusing to me and at some level, I felt like even the screenwriter(s) weren't sure of exactly what they were trying to convey here.
But most of this criticism wouldn't even have come up if the movie didn't remind me of
Wild Reeds - a movie that I found to be nearly perfect. This is a truly wonderful film and one that I think has a shot to be competing right till the very end of this bracket.
Umi ga Kikoeru (The Ocean Waves) (Tomomi Mochizuki, 1993) While my introduction to anime was via the magical, fantastic world of Hayao Miyazaki, I am also quite the fan of the super-realistic simple slice-of-life anime movies like
Whisper of the Heart and
Only Yesterday. This is definitely reminiscent of those two films, especially the latter film. Like those flms, this has a really simple plot. It's basically just a tender recollection of memories from a year in high school. It's surprisingly similar to
Like Grains of Sand in that here again we have a relationship triangle between three friends, albeit of a less complicated variety than the other film.
Another thing that's common to both films is that they are both, at their core, movies about friendship. Not teenage romance, not love triangles, not homosexuality (or otherwise) but just friendship - how it develops, how it can challenge us and how it can save us. And both movies do this really well. Here again, we start off by seeing two friends Taku and Matsuno and the story of how they meet and become friends is just really endearing. Then of course, a new girl joins the school and much drama ensues. So you know how this turns out, right? Maybe not.
While the plot itself may not be new, the way the story is told is totally fresh and inventive. The characters are developed really nicely and it's really just this sweet tale about being young and falling in love and not being able to understand yourself or others around you properly. It's about growing up and just beginning to understand that the world is more nuanced and complex than you had originally thought.
Another huge highlight is the animation which is detailed and beautiful to look at. The scenes of nature and the cityscape stand out especially. The soundtrack is pretty nice too and suits the mood of the movie.
I loved the ending school-reunion sequence. This is not your typical movie school-reunion. People are not still harboring old grievances and coming to extract revenge from those who tormented them in the past. Instead, like in real life, the characters here have grown and evolved and moved on. They are happy for each other's successes and eager to reach out and patch up old wounds. Plus, the drunk guy is really hilarious.
I think my only complaint with the film is that perhaps on account of it's short length, some of the plot remains underdeveloped. In particular, we don't really get to see much of Matsuno or get to know how he feels about everything that's going on between Taku and Rikako. At the start of the film, I got the impression that Matsuno is just really cool and I was pretty disappointed to not get to know him any better. Similarly, some of Rikako's actions were a little inexplicable to me from time to time. Given that the whole movie has a voiceover narration, we only get to see Rikako from Taku's PoV and this might be why I never felt like I got to objectively get to know Rikako and form an opinion about her.
Both these movies are significantly better than at least some of the movies I've helped move forward in this round of the bracket. I know that pix loves one of these films and I was tempted to be strategic and let the other movie win convinced that pix would resurrect the other. But that just doesn't seem fair.
So like I mentioned earlier, this was a tough matchup for me.
Umi ga kikoeru is a really splendid and beautiful film but
Like Grains of Sand just tackles something really complex and does this in a totally original way. They are both memorable experiences but I can't in good conscience dismiss
Like Grains of Sand from this bracket.
pixote, I am really relying on you here because I'm going to be heartbroken if
Umi ga kikoeru doesn't get resurrected!