Watched Grains of Sand tonight. It has been on my too watch list for an insanely long time but I kept putting it off. Currently I have a lot of free time and a lot of motivation to distract myself as much as possible so I have been catching up on said too watch list. Tonight I decided to watch this movie.  I wasn’t sure what to expect of it but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The film dragged on at first but once it got going it was engrossing and moving. It was very minimal, barely an OST and very much slice of life.  The depiction of Japanese teenagers is true to life in an almost painful way- there’s no glamorous angst or ridiculous plot lines. Just teenagers on the brisk of becoming adults struggling to deal with themselves in real circumstance. I will admit it was difficult to really grasp what was going on at points and I almost hated the end. Much like eternal summer there is no set beginning, middle, end. You’re sort of stuck into the middle of the story, left to figure it on your own and there is no set resolution. Thankfullly due to Eternal Summer I am no longer as frustrated with open endings anymore. Also it’s got to be said Hamasaki Ayumi in this film is so young and a surprisingly good actress. I wonder why she did not go into acting.

Lastly- this film was surprisingly like Eternal Summer. The triangly between 2 girls and a boy, the scene on the motorbike, the ending scene at the beach. Ok so I can only name three things. Still. The difference I think is in how less sexual grains of sand is and how much more real it feels, Eternal Summer felt somewhat detached from reality compared to grains of sand which is firmly rooted in the real world, and the real world plays a crucial part in how things played out.

So yeah. Grains of Sand became an instant favourite. I will be watching it again some time to see what else I can pick up that I may have missed before. :D