The seishun eiga (youth film) has long been an important genre in Japan, but films based on the works of real teenagers are rare.
One such film is Hideo Jojo’s 2020 “On the Edge of Their Seats,” inspired by an award-winning play by a high school theater company in Hyogo Prefecture. Now Nobuhiro Yamashita has adapted another award-winning play, this time from a high school drama club in Tokushima Prefecture, entitled “Swimming in a Sand Pool.”
Coincidentally, both films unfold within earshot of boys playing baseball. In the first case, children watch a match from the stands; in the latter, four girls gather at an empty swimming pool covered in sand blown from a nearby baseball field. Both are also superior examples of the genre, although Yamashita’s film focuses on gender issues, making it even rarer.
