Nagisa no Shindobaddo

I just watched this film, and I have to say it surprised me. It was very well done, with good acting and a deep look at high school students from Japan, in adolescent love.

The look and feel is a lot different from many movies, and you can easily get into the film. Much of the emphasis seems to be in the story itself, which is extremely subtle. The main theme and relations with other characters are a bit complex. But the the overall sense of realism and dimensions still pulls you in.

A main draw back is of course, those who like something simple. Which is not here. You have to be open to many things, including a new culture, to get more into the film.

I did enjoy this film though. It is worth watching.

This is a skillfully crafted piece of cinema that deals with a teenage boys confused sexuality.The cut scenes within can be lengthy but the cinematography is beautiful.This film would not appeal to many people, especially those who are queasy about gay teenage relationships, but the more open minded can sympathize with the puzzled protagonist.

I think this movie is underrated. To me it felt like a gulp of fresh air. Some people complain about the implausibility of the plot, overlong sequences and lack of sex (the latter being, I believe, the main reason for "implausibility"; and how come there are no drunken teenagers talking dirty?!); but it's just not their thing, and good for them if they can't relate to the story. The performances are great; I'd really like to see more of the actors in other movies. The emotions are genuine. The whole unrequited love thing is presented with uncanny subtlety. And it does give you the tingly feeling you expect to get from a good movie.

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.

Writing about something so wonderful is completely hard. Actually, it's almost impossible to describe the peculiarities of this movie. This is a marvelous story about sex and gender, and it's almost unbelievable that we have not to deal with obscene scenes of sex. Feeling, this film was made for people that like to feel, and just to feel, life in all its complexity in a gorgeous simple way. We look at it, and something starts growing inside our minds, even our hearts: it a pure poem. I've watched some "gay" movies, and I almost always got really unsatisfied with unnecessary scenes of sex, not because I don't like scenes of sex, but generally they are so pornographic that I'm forced to think that the director or the producers or the writer of the script thinks that homosexuality means perversion. Nagisa no Shindobaddo is totally different from that ones. Three are the main characters. We have Ito, Yoshida and Aihara, two boys and a girl in a peculiar love triangle. Ito likes his best friend Yoshida, Yoshida likes Aihara and Aihara likes Ito. Imagine what this could turn in unprepared hands? But in the contrary, Hashiguchi makes a magnificent story which goes profoundly in the philosophy of life, adding a question in our mind that made me think, astonished, in the end of the movie: Why? And that why expanded in multiple questions inside of my brain and inside of my heart. The scenes, actually, sometimes tending to be boring, are moments of the most delightful poem which we are able to feel, but totally unable to write down in words. And maybe because of that, we are unable to understand the question in the end of the movie. I'm sure this movie was not made for us to discuss every piece of it… Some people want to understand a film almost dissecting it. Others are so used to common "American gay" movies that can't appreciate the real value of this master-piece. Watch it, close your eyes in the credits and feel, everything, feel yourself, feel the wonderful song. For all this and much, much more, I give a nine. And I just don't give ten, because ten of ten is perfection. But I confess I almost did it.