10/2/2023 0 Comments Weathering with you and your nameThere’s a current of violence which is always threatening to arc a sense of squalor and exploitation under the gorgeously realised baubles of Shinjuku. The dark sensibility extends beyond the look of the picture. He also finds beauty in decay – in a derelict building full of rust blisters and blown plaster, we catch sight of the sky through a hole in the roof which is reflected in a puddle on the floor. The rain soaked tarmac is a broken mirror which turns each neon sign into a shower of reflected sparks he takes us into the heart of a firework display. But Shinkai finds other light to play with. Given how much of the distinctive look of Your Name depended on the play of sunlight and of expanses of blue sky dotted with a froth of clouds, it’s a bold decision to excise the sun so thoroughly from much of this picture. The onset of Hina’s gift, the ability to bring brief spells of sunshine into the continual rain which lashes the city, coincided with her mother’s death. Meanwhile, Hokada strikes up a friendship with Hina, who lives alone with her younger brother following the death of their mother a year before. He takes a job with Mr Suga, who runs a kind of cottage industry news agency, hawking tall tales to supermarket magazines. Hodaka resolves not to use it, but soon finds that life in the city is tough for an under-aged kid with no permit to work. He is saved by a slightly disreputable man, Mr Suga, who gives him a business card, should he need any help in Tokyo. We meet Hodaka just as one of the rain deluges which regularly hit Japan is about to wipe him out from the deck of a ferry. And it will also be the main stumbling block: Weathering With You employs a similar formula but fails to weave quite the same sense of enchantment. Ultimately, its association with Your Name will be the picture’s biggest marketing asset overseas. Already released in Japan, the film currently stands at the ninth most successful release of all time. And while the story of the film lacks some of the sinuous inventiveness of its predecessor, it shares the striking animation style, romantic sensibility and a similar poppy score by Radwimps. Weathering With You is Shinkai’s follow up to the phenomenally successful Your Name, which, to date, is the fourth highest-earning film of all time in Japan. Which is all very well, but does seem a little out of kilter with current environmental concerns – something which the teen target audience age group for the film is taking pretty seriously right now.įails to weave quite the same sense of enchantment ![]() Instead, the film weaves a combination of folklore, fantasy and Shinto philosophy which claims that the weather is controlled by gifted teenagers, human sacrifices and cloud fishes. This is a charming teen romance, but one which uses climate change as a plot device while studiously ignoring the actual science of the climate crisis. Hodaka is struggling to survive on the perpetually sodden streets of Tokyo Hina shows him the city in sunlight – she has the ability to change the weather through prayer. 111minsĪ 16-year-old runaway schoolboy meets a girl with an unusual gift in this visually stunning anime from Makoto Shinkai ( Your Name). Source: Toronto International Film Festivalĭir/scr: Makoto Shinkai.
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