Japanese animation has been part of my life since I was 7 years old and Sailor Moon appeared on my television screen. Like any other '90s anime fan, I grew to love the classics like Dragon Ball Z, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop and so many more.
My grandparents teased that I'd grow out of this stuff eventually, but after taking my wife, Meghan, to see Weathering With You at the Malco Razorback Cinema Grill & IMAX last week, I don't think the taste for fantastic animation and storytelling has worn off yet.
The film was directed by Makoto Shinkai who really hit international prominence for directing the critically acclaimed Your Name. It went on to surpass Spirited Away (which actually did win an Oscar) as the highest-grossing anime film worldwide. Though I won't pretend that's his first movie ever. He also directed movies like, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and The Garden of Words, though I confess I've not seen either.
After watching Weathering With You, I definitely have his other films on my list to watch. Though the biggest problem with being an American fan of anime is waiting for licensing to get sorted out. Avengers: Endgame was out in Japan a mere four days after its American premiere.
But Weathering With You came out in Japan on July 19 and I had to wait until this month to see it. I know it takes time to find an English voice cast and dub the movie, but I think the film could have been brought over to America with English subtitles in theaters much sooner than it was.
I probably wouldn't be as upset about the long wait if this movie wasn't so good, but for such a record-breaking film, the licensing process should have been sped up for international consumers.
ART THE BIGGEST PART
When writing about an animated film, I always feel like I should start with the biggest part of the movie, which, of course, is the art. And boy did the animators at CoMix Wave Films bring everything they had to the table. Weathering With You was gorgeous.
For a movie that's at least 70% rain, they knew the water had to be mind-blowing. Those hard-working artists brought their A-game. Whether water was falling from the sky, rushing into storm drains, dripping off rain jackets or running down panes of glass, it captured my attention.
I know I praised Pixar for its rain in Toy Story 4, and it's still impressive, but CoMix Wave Films blew right past the Emeryville-based studio.
And then there's Tokyo. I've never been, but it's on my bucket list. The way Tokyo is portrayed in this film is equally cold and limitless. It almost seems like the American equivalent of people who grow up in a rural town and long to get to New York City or Los Angeles for a chance to "make it."
If you show up in either of those places with a little money and no real plan or friends, they can feel so cold and inhospitable. But if you've got the moxie and manage to get a lucky connection, then maybe you can get to the first run of a stepladder you'll have to bust your butt to climb up.
In Weathering With You, Tokyo is drawn with an alluring light and a truly harsh reality for unemployed high school runaways. On the one hand, there's this romantic picture of a giant city filled with millions of people, some of whom never seem to sleep. There's a unique energy to the air, even when it's filled with falling water. And when the sun does appear, it lifts the hearts of all who see it.
WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT
Truly one of the most spectacular things about Weathering With You is when the sun comes out. It's this beautiful light that bathes small patches of Tokyo for an hour or two, and for the few hundred people who happen to be in just the right spot at just the right time, it's like catching a glimpse of the heavens.
In terms of animation, Makoto Shinkai ran a tight ship. And it paid off because Weathering With You looks stunning, even more impressive than Promare did.
The story of Weathering With You is all about young love, with a dash of magic thrown in. A small-town boy named Morishima Hodaka runs away from his home and arrives in Tokyo with a little bit of money and no real plan. He can't get a job without a school ID card (which he doesn't have because he's a runaway), and he can't stay anywhere because he's only 16.
And then ... things start to work out for him because of a man he bought lunch for on the boat ride into Tokyo. The man runs a sketchy publishing company that writes about supernatural phenomena around the city, real National Enquirer-type stuff. Conveniently, the man pays Hodaka to write, offers him meals and a place to stay and otherwise solves all his problems.
Eventually, Hodaka meets the other main character of the film, Amano Hina, who can make the rain go away by praying.
The story is a rollercoaster of emotions. I felt for Hodaka stubbornly refusing to go back to the home he hated, no matter how bad things got. I admired his spunk for toughing it out. When times were good, I was beaming. When times were hard, I was sunk. And when the police relentlessly worked to arrest Hodaka after a number of misunderstandings, I found myself ready to jump into the screen and fight them off so he could escape. That's good cinema, y'all.
DECISIONS, CIRCUMSTANCES
Hodaka's life is hard because of his own decisions, and Hina's life is hard because of her life's circumstances. They're definitely not the same, but the puppy love they build throughout the story is reminiscent of every first high school crush you think will last forever.
While few high school sweethearts last in the long run, some do. And what really gets me on my feet for Hodaka and Hina's love is how hard they work to maintain it and keep it alive in the worst of circumstances as Tokyo floods, as police chase them down, as all the forces of life work to drive them apart, they grit their teeth and fight to stay together. It's pure, if unrealistic. But again, that's cinema.
The flow of the narrative in Weathering With You is smooth, and I love how matter-of-fact the fantastical elements are given to the audience. We're told that a young girl can pray and make the rain stop. And we take that at face value. We're told there are entire worlds above the clouds. And we also take that at face value. There's no deep explanation of why the magic works the way it does, and at the quick pace the story runs, I don't really feel the need for any.
I have a few nitpicks with the plot. Hodaka constantly refuses to return home and at one point says he felt suffocated on his rural island. But we're never once shown his parents or his life. This is the one instance of telling instead of showing in the movie, and it really could have been solved with a little flashback. Why is he so desperate to avoid returning home? Was he abused? Was he threatened? Or is he just out for an adventure?
The other nitpick I had with the story was just how many times the police came after Hodaka. Tokyo is a huge city with more than 9 million people living there. He is one runaway kid. Why are they so desperately working to take him into custody as the city sinks into a flooding crisis?
AN IMPORTANT PIECE
At one point, Hodaka finds a gun in a trash can, and they hint it might be an important piece of evidence for another crime, but that's never resolved. And heck if they actually try to explain that to him instead of slapping a pair of handcuffs on him.
Again, those are minor details, but they are enough for me to admit the story isn't 100% perfection.
On a positive note, I want to give praise to Japanese rock band Radwimps, which provided the soundtrack for the movie. I'm still listening to it as I write this review. It's always my prerogative that if a movie's soundtrack stands out in a movie, it's either really bad or really good. Most of the time, I don't think audiences notice the soundtrack in a film. But if it stands out, there's a reason.
And for Weathering With You, that reason is an extra layer of magic Radwimps add to the film, particularly with the song "Grand Escape." The soundtrack is available on Spotify, and it's definitely worth a listen.
Oddly enough, some of the film score for Weathering With You reminded me of the background music for the "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" video game, particularly when it's mostly soft solo piano. That's a good thing in my book as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie in theaters, and I plan on buying the DVD when it comes out in May. Definitely watch it whenever it is picked up by a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Hopefully, if these international anime releases pick up enough steam, we'll get more of them. I've already got my tickets ordered for Ride Your Wave in February. But I really would have liked American theaters to pick up Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire last year. I'd have happily gone to theaters to see it.
MovieStyle on 01/24/2020