During
these lockdown time I have taken my time to re-watch 君の名は Your Name (Kimi No
Na Wa) and wanted to write something about Makoto Shinkai latest works
- 天気の子 Weathering
With You (Tenki No Ko) which
watched last year. Im no critics or rotten tomatoes sort, I just simply want to
write down what i think of these films plus if you are reading this i am
assumed that you have watch them both and know the plot. If somehow you have
not watch them both, please spoilers alert, although not going to discuss a lot
of plot details, but still.. spoiler alert.
君の名は Your
Name is the number one grossing animation film in the world which
it came out on 2016, best works of Makoto Shinkai and Your Name has brought a
lot of attention to him, and when his new film comes out - Weathering with
You a lot of people is comparing his latest works with Your Name,
like he has created a best film how can he topped it off. while some people is
actually disappointed that din't meet the level of Your Name, but
for me i think its kind of unfair, both are definitely great films, its just
like comparing your who is your favorite child, of course you might have one,
but you definitely love them both.
Stories
climax on Weathering With You is indeed slower than Your Name,
where it happen almost at the end of the film where Hina(female protagonist)
disappear and Hodaka(male protagonist) is looking for her through the
shrine on top the building. Your Name climax point on other hand is at
the middle of the film. Perhaps this is why some people dislike it because it
has a slower development compare to Your Name. While it has the slower pace but
for me, to see the Hodaka's character development that trying to find his place
or himself in an unfamiliar city while develop his relationship with Hina and
others is indeed a good sight to see. But overall, comparing to Your Name,
Weathering with you have a much straight forward storyline, unlike Your Name
where it has tons of "cipher" moment where you have to think why it
happens, like the explanation of "誰そ彼" (Tasokare) the twilight time where you might see
something you usually don't or the "結び" where it describe as how time is entangle, twisted all
together. While Weathering with You has the very similar theme set, like
shrine, god, blessing of god. Although it has a plainer story line but the
character development is really great, especially it heavily indicate how much
you can fight for love, like how Hodaka do all the things necessary to bring
back Hina, of course Your Name has all these element as well, but its
not as heavily shows than in Weathering with You, you would definitely
know what i am talking about especially at the ending of the film.
To
sacrifice one to save millions, but what if the sacrifice is your loved one?
Just like how Hodaka statement he made to Hina while they falling from the sky
"Who cares if we don't see the sunshine again? i want you more than any
blue sky, the weather can stay crazy" simply saying fuck the rest of the
world, i only want you. See how a 16 years old is so much braver than a lot of
adults when fight for their love, i know its fiction but still...
Visual
Don't
doubt it, its Makoto Shinkai's works, the visual is STUNNING just like his
previous works. He really likes to animate rain, like in most his previous
works sure that is a rain screen like, The Garden of Words, Your Name
etc, and of course Weathering with You whole plot is about rain. All
these details from rain drops, bubbles, the reflection of the puddle, food
details, ray of lights, fireworks, and more have been animated to best details
as possible, sharp and almost perfectly real.
Music
Again,
all of the music including the 5 vocal songs is all composed by Radwimps like
previously in Your Name, but this time they are featuring a lady singer Toko
Miura, singing 2 of the 5 vocal song.
For me
personally, songs for Weathering with You has more feel and fuse better
with the movie with the lyrics almost like an explanation to the movie
itself, but don't get me wrong, i really really like the songs in Your Name.
Like
the song "We'll be alright" playing in the end for their reunion, the
lyrics the melody, fit right in, or at where they are falling from the sky and
"Grand Escape" is playing, my god it gave me chills.
For the
ending song Radwimps composed this after reading the scripts and present Makoto
Shinkai this song "is that anything that love can do", in Weathering
with You, this will be my favorite song, but in both of the films, my
favorite still is "Nandemonaiya" ending song from Your Name.
I read
a comment previously which fitly describe both Your Name and Weathering with
you.
He said
"Your
Name is finding love in fate
And Weathering
with You is fighting fate for love"
While this post only saying these 2 films, but i do recommend you watch his
other works, the very first Makoto Shinkai's works i watch was "The
place promised in our early days" and second will be "5
centimetre per second", and for "5 centimetre per second"
if you have a soft heart dont watch it, it just have too much heart piercing
moment and ending. its a definitely an awesomely good film but i hate it,
because its too real and sad. From all his works exclude the Your Name and
Weathering with You, the one i like the most will be "星を追う子ども" literal
translation will be the "children who chase stars" but in English
films title has changed to "Children Who Chase Lost Voices" not sure why
they did that, well if you have time you definitely should check this films, it
interpret death, and good music especially the ending song "Hello goodbye
and Hello" might make you shed tears. Good storyline. But for this into
details maybe another time
PS:
I did
not proof read or re-read the whole post, so any mistake please forgive me
