Remembering the Cosmos Flower

A well-intentioned social drama about the prejudices and social pressures brought to bear on a teenage girl with AIDS, Remembering the Cosmos Flower follows the story of 15-year-old Japanese high school student Akiko (Akane Oda), who contracted the HIV virus by way of a blood transfusion when she and her now-deceased father were injured in an automobile during a 7-year stay in South America. When Akiko and her mother move +back to their small town in Japan, the townsfolk ostracize the young girl, until her once best friend Natsumi (Megumi Matsushita), in a painfully acted scene, rallies the towns to Akiko's plight, and instructs them in the error of their ignorant ways. In tone, look and execution, this is less a feature than a numbingly bad after school special that brings nothing new or worthwhile to the discussion of society's treatment of people with AIDS. Not recommended. (S. C. Sickles)