Director: Makoto Shinkai
Year: 2019
Genre: Fantasy/Drama/Romance
Watching Weathering with You in terms of its visuals is one of the best anime films in this department. The details, cinematography, and visuals make the film visually pleasing. However, did Shinkai focus more on the visuals instead of polishing the story?
Well, you have two characters, Hodaka, who moves to Tokyo looking for a better life, followed by Hina, an orphan, who meets Hodaka, and the pair of them start a business together through Hina's power to manipulate rain.
We hear that Hodaka ran away because of his parents; however, there was no background story explained in a detailed manner. Even with Hina - there was no indication of why she wanted to do this dodgy job in the first place.
Firstly, we all know Shinkai is a type who's known for his romance. No doubt about that, but some questions which came up to me would be is the romance genre is overused a bit too much? Or perhaps if he were to do a romance film, keep it simple and don't combine other things. Such as a good example with Your Name, it is a solid film; however, if he didn't add in some elements such as the added element of some scenes such as the comet exploding, I think on its own, if you were to have the two characters in Your Name film trying to find ways on how to combine, it would have been a top film for me.
Secondly, regarding the visuals - I'd give it a sold 9/10 for this film - Shinkai's the type of guy who makes sure visuals are top-notch. Especially with films such as Your Name, The Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters per Second and A Place Promised In Our Early Days, despite the two films released in the early 2000s, it was ahead of their time, especially with the shots and the detailing of the visuals. Is safe to say Shinkai is one of the best with visuals for film. I think he focused a bit too much on this film in terms of the visuals. There are several shots which I like in this film, and its colouring and cinematography are my favourite elements of this film.
Thirdly, Weathering with You is not a bad film. It has its pros and cons, but the only problem for me is, it could've been a good film. But this film had too many elements combined. You have Hina having a special ability to change the weather, and the romance element combined. I would've liked it if it was focused on one thing at a time. Despite Your Name having problems, I still consider this a good film due to how the story was shaped despite its storyline having some 'unnecessary' bits in the film.
On your right is one of my favourite shots of the film. You can see a young boy who is just having deep thoughts on what life installed for him. The colouring and the view make it a nice scene to begin the film with.
Overall, Weathering with You has the nicest visuals and should be one of the reasons to watch the film; however, if the story was tweaked a bit, I enjoyed this film a lot more. Perhaps taking a more direct storyline, this film would've been a favourite of mine.
Rating: 7/10
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