The seishun eiga (youth film) has long been a major genre in Japan, but films based on works by actual teenagers are rare.
One such film is Hideo Jojo’s 2020 “On the Edge of Their Seats,” which took inspiration from a prize-winning play by a high school theater troupe in Hyogo Prefecture. Now, Nobuhiro Yamashita has adapted another award-winning play, this time by a Tokushima Prefecture high school drama club, titled “Swimming in a Sand Pool.”
Coincidentally, both films unfold within earshot of boys playing baseball. In the former, kids watch a game from the stands; in the latter, four girls congregate at an empty swimming pool covered with sand blown from a nearby baseball field. Both are also superior examples of the genre, though Yamashita’s film focuses on gender issues, which makes it rarer still.