Review: “Weathering With You” Serves A Legendary Love Story
Makoto Shinkai can be categorised as an auteur on his own lane. The director delivers another lovely romance animated movie called “Weathering With You” this year. After having been successful with his attempt on “Your Name (Kimi No Nawa)”, we thought that he would take a little break before giving us another delightful story to follow. However, that is not the case for this creative individual as “Weathering With You” hits the theater on August 2019. The film began with a girl named Hina Amano who was accompanying her dying mother in the hospital. Rain was pouring hard upon Tokyo that day, and she prayed so hard that the rain would stop for one day so she’d be able to enjoy a day out with her mother for the last time. Then, she saw a glimpse of sunlight on a shabby building’s rooftop. She followed the sun light right into that building’s rooftop and found a small Japanese temple there. She entered the temple and prayed, when miraculously she was transported into another realm. A world between skies and earth, where sky fishes live.
On another story, there was runaway teenage boy named Hodaka who was determined to make a living in Tokyo, Japan. He left all his troubled past and promised that he would not go back to his hometown. There, they stumbled upon each other and found out that Hina had received a special gift from the sky that she could control the weather. Using her ability to make a living, both teenagers slowly but surely fell in love with each other before learning that Hina’s strength made her weaker at the same time. “Weathering With You” is a classic Makoto Shinkai’s romance story that was teemed with more messages than we could decipher. First of all, Shinkai’s take on Japanese folklore was beautifully captured by the main narration on this film. The audience could learn more about the urban myths from Japanese culture from the dialogs and the characters’ fates. Second of all, with the constant rain that was shown throughout the film, we got a message that Makoto Shinkai wanted us to acknowledge that climate change is happening and it is pretty much real.
With a dash of imagination, fantasy, and a heap of teenage romance, “Weathering With You” is the right step towards the whole Makoto Shinkai’s filmography. It might not be as good as his previous projects, but it is touching enough to make us shed a tear on several scenes on this film.
Reviewer: Novita Widia
