In 1990, shortly after I started reviewing for The Japan Times, I saw a film by a former porno director, Shun Nakahara, that made me think I was not wasting my time after all.
Called "Sakura no Sono," it was a drama about two hours in the life of a drama club at a girls' high school, just before it stages Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard."
Working from a script by Hiroaki Jinno, Nakahara filmed not just a slice of teenage life, but a complete world, populated by 22 girls who revealed not just their comic quirks, but their sexual longings, hidden fears and inner lives.