| Release date: 19 July 2019 (Japan) Genre: Action, drama, thriller IMDb rating: 7.5 Director: Makoto Shinkai Cast: Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Sakura Kiryu, Tsubasa Honda, Shun Oguri |
2016’s superhit animated film ‘Your Name’ is one of my all-time favorites. And in the same vein director, Makoto Shinkai presents to us ‘Weathering With You’. Before I go forward I’d like to highly recommend ‘Your Name’ because it’s fantastic and can’t talk about it enough. Having said that let’s move ahead.
‘Weathering With You’ tells the story of Hodaka, who runs away to Tokyo and meets Hina. Hina reveals to Hodaka that she has a special skill – that she can control the weather. I believe a big reason for the success of ‘Your Name’ was how it incorporated a love story into a fantasy tale. ‘Weathering With You’ also follows the same pattern but that also gives way to the film’s drawbacks.
Let me start off with the positives first. As expected the film is simply gorgeous to look at. Anime films are always a feast to your eyes and this one is no different.
Each frame bursts with vivid colors and makes you wish that you could also live in the fictional ever raining Tokyo. I’m sure Tokyo in itself is beautiful but the film just makes it seem otherworldly and I absolutely loved that.
The beautiful animation is the biggest strength of the film and that’s an undisputed fact!
I loved how they incorporated a magical concept into a normal story but then again they never really explain it well enough and play hard and fast with their own rules. There are certain questions you are left with after the film ends, something that ‘Your Name’ didn’t do for me. Just like ‘Your Name’ the second half took a left into serious territory, which gave us a shock factor coupled with the plot thickening. But the same wasn’t the case with ‘Weathering With You’ as the serious turn kinda makes the pace wonky.
Essentially the film is a love story and that part was beautifully handled. The way they introduced Hina and Hodaka’s chance meeting and the resulting friendship that blossomed into a romance was lovely to see. The idea of using weather as a plot device was really great but I do wish they explored the concept more for it’s fantastic and. Like any good romance film, they used some fun montages and peppy music numbers to hit home the growing romance. There were also some incredibly moving scenes that just brought chills. And adding fun characters like Nagi and Natsumi helped maintain the levity even in serious moments.
I know this will seem like me shouting over and over that ‘Weathering With You’ is not as great as ‘Your Name’. Well kinda. I do consider ‘Your Name’ superior and love it immensely but that’s not discrediting ‘Weathering With You’ and its merits. Having seen ‘Your Name’ first I couldn’t help but draw comparisons and think about how certain aspects were done better.
Hence, ‘Weathering With You’ inspite of having a straightforward story didn’t have the same impact as ‘Your Name’, both story-wise and emotion-wise.
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But then again ‘Weathering With You’ has its own fantasy and beauty. It just happens to be following up the incredible ‘Your Name’ so there’s no winning. So go into the film without comparisons and expectations and that’ll definitely benefit you. It’s got its own charm.
My verdict: 8/10
