Director: Makoto Shinkai
Year: 2016
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
When you hear Shinkai, you probably hear the film Weathering with You, Suzume, or Your Name.
I like this film. I think it's one of Shinkai's greatest films. The visuals, storyline, the music are some of the things I enjoy regarding the film. I've seen this film a good 4 to 5 times, and each time I watch it, I tend to pick up a thing or two from the film.
The film for people who don't know is about two characters, by the name of Mitsuha and Taki, who magically change bodies and experience each other's lives. You have Mitsuha who wants to experience the city life of Tokyo, and she lives in the countryside, and on the other side, you have Taki, who is a normal secondary school kid, who stays in Tokyo itself.
In terms of Shinkai's trilogy, this is a top 5 for me; however, not a top 3 for me.
There's one slight problem I have with this film - it's not a big problem but for me, it's one of the reasons why it's considered a good film but not an all-time great. It's regarding the story itself.
For me, it has a good foundation for the film, you have two characters who are perfect for the film, but for me, the story is dragged a little bit too much. I personally felt that if you've ended the film at a certain moment of the scene, especially when it reaches the hour mark, I felt like that would've been the perfect ending (I'm not spoiling it for people who have not watched it).
Some might say that The Garden of Words, whose runtime was 45 minutes, had an impact on Shinkai's implementation of more of his ideas in the film. I guess you can say that with the budget Shinkai had, he was able to be more creative and add more things to the film; however, I'm not saying it's a bad film, but it's just some things which could've been tweaked for it to be a better film.
Overall, it's a solid film for anyone who likes watching creativeness through an anime. Shinkai has that ability to tell a story, and there's a reason why Your Name is one of Shinkai's best films.
Overall: 8.5/10
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