Photo/Illutration A scene from “Worlds Apart”

The film “Worlds Apart” opens with 15-year-old Asa meeting her aunt, Makio, at the hospital where the teen’s parents have been declared dead.

Asa (played by Ikoi Hayase) and Makio (Yui Aragaki) are almost complete strangers to each other since Maiko had fiercely hated her older sister--Asa’s mother.

When Makio asks her niece how she is feeling, the third-year junior high school student says she’s not even sure if she is sad.

But Makio assures her, “It’s not weird at all.”

Angered by other family members’ cold treatment of Asa, Makio decides to take Asa in herself. But she tells her niece she is not sure whether she will be able to love her.

The two make an odd pair. Makio is socially awkward and reclusive, while Asa is a traumatized child.

But over time, both through times of conflict and moments of openness, they become irreplaceable to each other.

This golden formula of “opposites attract” has been played out in many a movie and TV drama.

But “Worlds Apart” manages to steer clear of old cliches thanks to the thoughtful details and great delicacy invested in Asa and Makio’s relationship by Tomoko Yamashita, author of the original manga “Ikoku Nikki” (“Journal with Witch”), and Natsuki Seta, screenwriter and director.

While the story lacks explosive drama, it is full of small, intimate moments that ring true. Many audience members will have lived through the same awkward struggles, such as finding it difficult to apologize to a close friend after a quarrel or feeling slightly jealous for not being treated with greater care.

Although the film opens with the tragic deaths of Asa’s parents, it ends with a glimpse of happiness, which lands all the more powerfully for its lack of bombast.

“Worlds Apart” is currently showing nationwide.

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