Weathering With You
Directed by: Makoto Shinkai
Run-time: 111 minutes
Back in 2016, filmmaker Makoto Shinkai released what would be one of the most critically acclaimed anime films of all time, Your Name. Your Name very quickly became a phenomenon around the world, making over three-hundred million dollars at the box office and bringing anime back into the spotlight of the western world. Akin to what Spirited Away achieved back in 2001, Your Name very quickly cemented itself as modern day classic. Now, Shinkai has the mammoth task to follow it up with his next project—the eagerly anticipated, Weathering with You.
Weathering with You tells the story of Hodaka, a teenager who’s run away to Tokyo from his tiny island home. He quickly meets a small cast of odd and humorous characters, eventually crossing paths with Hina, a girl who has the power to stop the rain and bring out the sunlight. This starts to come in handy, as Tokyo is going through an endless, torrential rainfall that starts to cause severe flooding around the city. Hina and Hodaka join forces to help alleviate this crisis, soon realising that there are greater forces at play, and that the clouds hold many more hidden secrets.
For anyone familiar with Your Name, this all probably sounds very familiar. The two films do share a similar set-up to one another. A teenage boy and girl meet, they start an endearing friendship that blossoms into a romance, all the while magic decides to be an arsehole and get in the way of their young love. Puberty’s hard enough… magic—screw you! When the two films share the same broad strokes, it is hard to not to feel cynical about the whole project; it is as if Shinkai is just phoning in on Your Name’s huge success, trying to make lightning strike once more.
Regardless of this, I still came away very impressed with Weathering with You. The animation is gorgeous and top-notch, as to be expected. However, I was more surprised with the film’s overall aesthetic. Your Name was beautiful, bright and colourful, while Weathering with You goes for a mostly muted colour palate while juxtaposing it with small pieces of lush colours and vibrant sunrays; the beige, rusted structures of Tokyo’s forgotten urban jungle are splashed with rich colourful overgrowth, and strong pillars of radiant light shine through the dark brooding clouds surrounding the city. These contrasting elements highlight the smaller details and visual beauty of this world. It matches the narrative incredibly well, enhancing the film’s overall visual storytelling. It feels purposeful, not just aesthetically pleasing for the sake of beauty. Admittedly, Your Name felt like this at times.
The score for this film was also a wonderful surprise. A pensive piano carries you through the film, amplifying the film’s more poignant and delicate scenes, while also giving you small breaths of fresh air when needed and lightening the load of its more sombre moments and making you feel like there’s always a light shining through the darkest of passages. This piano score also gets mixed in with some light distortion effects during some of the magical, ethereal sequences. It works excellently well and brings some much needed depth to the score.
A common question I’ve heard after seeing this film is “Is it better than Your Name?” I don’t really like the fact that people have to immediately compare the two, but it’s understandable. Weathering with You would not be getting this much early attention if it wasn’t for Your Name’s successes, so comparison is inevitable.
For me, both films are on par with one another. I think Your Name has the stronger leading couple, but Weathering with You has a better supporting cast. Your Name looks pretty, but Weathering with You looks purposeful. Both have an excellent score, great voice acting and a unique and intriguing fantasy. Weathering with You proves to be a worthy addition to Shinkai’s works, and a great follow-up to Your Name. However, there is a small karaoke montage… and I really hate karaoke—so it loses points on that front.
Whether you’re a fan of anime or not, Makoto Shinkai does an excellent job of crafting beautiful and well-realised stories that can make you see the magic that’s hiding in our world, giving you a chance to run away for a short while—especially when the world gets too heavy, and the rain won’t stop falling.
Leave a Reply