The world is a diverse place full of myriad emotions, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Japanese drama Strawberry Film.

Old film footage, nostalgic glimpses into the past, and growing friendships full of hidden desires lay the framework for a beautiful coming-of-age story that explores love in all its forms while accepting that love isn’t bound by societal rules. Instead, it belongs solely to the heart, to the person who holds it—to the joy love brings them and to the pain love causes.

From the opening scenes, Strawberry Film captivates with its evocative cinematography, transporting viewers into a world where individual emotions take center stage. Led by a talented cast including Fukada Ryusei (Ryo), Yabana Rei (Hikaru), Yoshida Mizuki (Chika), and Tanabe Ririka (Minami), the series seamlessly weaves together past and present, inviting audiences on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

There are many feelings explored, from Ryo’s unrequited love for Hikaru to Chika’s longing for Ryo to Hikaru’s fascination with a mysterious girl from a film and later the girl who resembles her, Minami.

It’s no secret that I love the use of symbolism in films and stories, and Strawberry Film not only expresses a diverse range of feelings but also leans heavily on ‘strawberry’ symbolism. The strawberry is symbolically linked with love in many forms. However, I find the Victorian era meaning of latent and hidden desires to be the most obvious in Strawberry Film. I also see the innocence it represents—innocent feelings that feel impossible.

And that’s where the sadness comes in. Beneath the surface of Strawberry Film lies a poignant sadness that comes from grappling with society’s limitations on certain emotions.

Love consumes the heart, especially in youth, coloring our choices and the past we’ll later look back on. In Strawberry Film, the series takes Minami’s mother’s past and her love for her best friend Matsuoka (Kojima Hijiri) and intertwines it with Ryo, Hikaru, Chika, and Minami’s present. While they all share feelings for someone in the series, Minami’s mother’s sentiments are echoed most in Ryo’s feelings for Hikaru and Minami’s unexplored feelings for someone she mentions but we never meet.

What saddened me the most and left an indelible impression on my heart is how impossible Strawberry Film makes Minami’s mother, Ryo, and Minami’s love for the people they long for feel.

“It’s impossible.”

Those two words are soul-crushing. It rejects how one feels and says, “Never.” And love shouldn’t be thrown into a “never.” Same-sex love is as beautiful and possible as heterosexual love. My heart broke for everyone in Strawberry Film, but it broke the most over the word “impossible.”

And yet, Strawberry Film also paves the way for the possible, showcasing in a tender handheld moment between Ryo and Hikaru that the love Ryo has for Hikaru is accepted and understood, leaving room for him to continue to love. Whether that love is for Hikaru in hopes that Hikaru will feel the same someday or for someone else, it accepts his love and opens doors for him to accept himself. There are hints that Hikaru feels the same in his own way, which also offers hope for a possible future between them.

This leaves me with Minami, a girl whose search for her mother’s first love brings all of them together in an explosive turmoil of feelings that leaves the heart wanting more. I need Minami’s story as much as I need her mother’s. She mentions loving someone, hints at a sadness inside of her, and hints at the possibility that it’s a same-sex love. I want to see her love story on screen. She touched me with her sad but hopeful resolve, and I want to know how she grew into the young woman she is.

Strawberry Film is a balanced mix of sweet and bittersweet, happy and wistful, complete and incomplete.

It left an indelible impression on me, reminding me of my first love and the bittersweet memories of separation, of the girl I was torn away from because our love was “impossible.” But Strawberry Film also promised healing, soothing the wounds of a love that seemed impossible many years ago by making it more possible now.

And that’s powerful.

For a series that intertwines narratives spanning generations, drawing parallels between past and present and illuminating the enduring nature of human emotion, check out Strawberry Film now on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 4 out of 5