Japanuary Challenge 2025 - Masaki Kobayashi 21/43

Being a fan of Kobayashi's more significant works ("Seppuku", "Kwaidan", "The Inheritance") so, I was glad to use Japanuary to check his sophomore feature, "Sincere Heart" and was surprised to find a tender coming-of-age first love melodrama with Christian symbolics. Kinoshita's screenplay is beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved how Kobayashi built the dynamic between all the characters (like the chasing scene around the house between Hiroshi and his sisters) and used the neighboring windows. The whole cast also did a fantastic job.
My biggest issue with "Sincere Heart" was the choice of classic music (the non-diegetic parts) felt too "loud".