Coming of Age

The loneliness of the first half was difficult for me but the ending made up for it.

Coming of age done a bit differently.

Japanese (slightly older) coming of age, unhurried slice of life, low angst, and LGBT+ affirmative. It's fantastic.

Another focused on creativity, a visual art and finding your own voice. High school students work together, with the help of a uni film student and a history teacher, pushing themselves, their skills and ingenuity to make a short science fiction film with meaning. It left me with a big smile.

The lines of this film shift from delicate to joyful to bold to struggle to fulfilling, embodying the ethos of its story of finding your own lines in art and traditional forms, the ones rooted in your own emotions and the life in them.

I don't think I've ever seen a moody teenage boy used so effectively, and certainly not to carry an entire film on his complicated, thin shoulders.

It took 17 months, 16 lakorns and some 60 Thai movies (plus the deeply flawed SK original) between 1st and 2nd time seeing this for my brain to know what to do with the utter immensity of the emotions in this. But this 2nd time, those emotions fit into their intended places. It is a magnificent, if heart-wrenchingly difficult, film.
One of my measures of good CoA Is how long the kids stay in my mind. More than any other, this is the one which will not let me go.

Gentle, sensitive film about a kind boy who befriends a ghost.

Devastatingly good. Often ambiguous, often understated, so full of emotion.

Excellent coming of age interwoven with a family drama after their sister/daughter goes missing.

Goofy, clever, funny, warm and kind. Super-charged teenage emotions rendered as literal electricity and manga that's integral to the story.

Some 2 hour Thai movies take their time meandering around their world; this one careens chaotically from one bit of nonsense to another, creating a mad story of friendship, music and first love.

Slow, quiet coming of age focused on high school girls trying to find their way into adulthood. The visual story-telling is so strong I'm struggling to find adequate words. Patience required but highly recommend.

The sweetest coming of age movie with teenage girls figuring out themselves and their love.

One of two series I'm including here as CoA, both are rough around the edges and both left me hoping that the kids are doing alright, like they were real and not just characters.

In this one, the wonky editing etc match the unpolished awkwardness of teenage boys as they veer chaotically from bravado to vulnerability to just being awkward teenage boys. I didn't expect to care about them so very much.

CoA/youth series with a raw vibrancy which really drew me in by the end. Another where the characters felt so real.