Like the other 40 somethings that have posted above, I too was deeply affected by this film. All these years, the film has stayed with me deep in the recesses of memories. I loved Sharri Lewis and Kukla Fran and Ollie. I would love to see the film again.
This was my first "foreign film" and it was quite exotic to see characters speaking Japanese on our little black and white TV. I remember being struck by how much I could relate to the boys (being of the same age at the time) and thinking it odd that someone so different could be the same. It brought tears to my eyes those boys were facing the same things I was as a boy in the schoolyard in Massachusetts.