It is a rather intriguing experience watching any films directed by Makoto Shinkai, and Weathering with You does not still come short of that. The narrative focuses on a teenage Hodaka who is introduced to a flood-ridden Tokyo, where he ran off to and then becomes enamored with a ‘sunshine girl’ named Hina, who is able to summon the sun for brief periods of time.
It is difficult to say anything much about Weathering with You without bringing its very recent predecessor into the picture, that is a related to the struggle of couples in love – the story of a city boy and a village girl carefully alternating their bodies. With such background I hoped to tear and break my heart as did with Your Name, but it was quite the contrary, since the tears pigments never came out of the body. I found Weathering with You much more cheerful: instead of changing the mood from light-hearted to dramatic, I kept laughing more often than waiting for what I predicted was the turning point of the plot.
What was also very distinct about this film when compared to Your Name was the fact that the characters and their locations were set in the more unforgiving aspects of Tokyo such as crime, sickness, unemployment and even sex work and clubs. This grittiness, is what adds to the whole notion of climate change because the people are able to hop from one extreme weather condition to another.
All importantly, the cast is extremely well mapped out: the exorkteen Ryosuke who takes care of a runaway Hodaka and employs him on crazy conspiracy stories, the tempestuous Natsumi, and Hina’s younger brother Nagi, the jocular womaniser. Everybody plays an important role on those two main characters that share a bond with each other wherein it is so innocent and there are no other thoughts than love. On the screen, it is all so sweet the way the relationship is shown.
What this shows, considering that both Hodaka and Hina are running away from something – In Hodaka’s case, it is his parents and the rural island environment whereas in Hina’s case the law – it is rather suspenseful as their destiny is not clear and they are on a time clock. The perspective of the story is that of Hodaka, and I quite frankly woud have wanted to know more of Hina’s story since I at least believe that hers was more interesting than Ole Hada’s, well since, hers is a tragic story.
The visuals of the movie were breathtakingly brilliant, and it is clear that a lot of effort and attention was invested in it. However, at a point where Hina, as though a goddess, brings about the separation of clouds while the beautiful colors of the setting suntanned the place that should have been screaming thunder storm and with flashing lights. By far the biggest impression was produced by the artistic direction and composition of the scene: it was a really vison of the genius of all the studio’s artists.
One aspect of the movie that I was a bit disappointed about was the ending. One particularly hero moment was when Hodoka thwarted the police and jumped across a shrine so he could be with Hina. Then all of a sudden, it’s over just like that, I felt like I got a whiplash. Wait. All of a sudden, it’s his high school graduation, there is water on half the city and he is meeting Hina… boom, roll credits. I still had Your Name quite recent in memory and so I expected there to be a plot twist, and yes, there was one, but not at the ending credits. Still, there was a fun surprise for Your Name fans as the main characters of Your Name made small cameos.
Nevertheless, I really praise him as well for trying something new because this time he focused on the story in a whole different way. He made it go on a more comical side in order to critique the bigger problem, which is climate change.
Weathering with You is definitely worth the watch if you generally enjoy Japanese animated films, but I would recommend stamping down any kind of expectations in general beforehand in order to appreciate the film for what it is: an enchanting tale about young teenagers dealing with the grimmest fate.
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