"Nagisa no Shindobaddo" or "Like Grains of Sand" is an amazingly beautiful story about teenage boys and girls dealing with the state of becoming one with who they are. This movie isn't about homosexuality, but it IS about sexuality.

Aihara, an aloof girl, will definitely make the viewers ponder who IS behind the aloof girl. Does she love Yoshida? Or does she love Ito? Or did she somehow turn into a lesbian because of the "incident"? (I doubt it).

And what about Yoshida? Does he realize that he loves Ito in the end? Well, we all know he loves him as a friend. But you'll never know once you see this movie... haha :) In the end, Aihara (along with Ito) delivers an exceptional message to the audience: which is that it does NOT matter if you love a boy or a girl. And I have to tell you, I'm SO dense that I didn't get it at first. ^^;; It's because of the whole no talking scenes... You have to try to understand what the characters are thinking and saying through their actions and NOT by what they say (especially the final part... whew, boy, that was confusing!) It's a confusing story, but it IS beautiful nonetheless. :) This movie is certainly one of the best Japanese movies I have ever seen (and trust me, I've seen plenty).

Got a very serious even fatal problem since the manga and the animation cartoons created by lot of people who refused to grow up or grow out of their teenage syndrome, the Japanese movies have been staying in a juvenile bubble that habitually churned out pubic hairs grown ages. So many movies' stories have focused on the puppy love of the young people who wore white socks, back satchels, white shirts, black skirt school uniforms and the scenarios are all about young peoples' romance usually intertwined in I-love-him/her but he/she loves somebody else triangle, or the boy/girl fell for someone with terminal cancer or something else.

The Japanese movies have been going downhill for so long, great productions from 1940 to 1970 never appeared after 2000. All childish kids stuff. It has become so difficult to find a mature enough movie after 2000, nothing but junior high school or high school stories or Japanese style animations that usually also concentrated in teenage love stories. Movies from Taiwan have been heavily influenced by the Japanese formula, lot of them are about teenage romances. The Korean movies, on the contrary, have liberated them from such "refuse to grow up or grow out of it" syndrome, these kind of puppet love crap have become less and less and that's also the reason why Korean movies are the leading sheep in Asian movie industries and even surpassed Hollywood's same-old, same-old standstill status-quo formula. The Japanese movies simply failed to progress but degenerated into a 6 ft. deep hole in the ground.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film, and the complexity of the main female character. her behaviour appears strange to others, and she does have some complexities. But overall she is deeply empathetic, and finds the shortcomings of others disappointing.

The scene where they hug and first kiss is very adorable, and I do wish the writer had given the gay one more of a story line where his very innocent affections were reciprocated, as I have been in a similar position of hopeless teenage heartache in the past, and probably many others have.

The aesthetic of the film is pretty 90s but still very tasteful I would say, overall - for example at the orange orchard, and after the counselling session next to the stairs with the light reflecting off the water. It can seem slow at times, but is ultimately quite a sweet look into high school life and it's confusions.