[Review XN] Film 25: WEATHERING WITH YOU (TENKI NO KO)

"So what if we can't see the sun anymore? I want you more than blue sky. "

The case makes baper protracted through the spectacle of animation, nothing is better than Makoto Shinkai. Since stealing my attention for the first time through 5 Centimeters per Second (2007), which has made millions of people devastated, Shinkai has consistently presented above-average quality food. He is good at creating a love story that swept the heart set in a mystical Japanese folklore, he is also good at presenting an amazing animated display of the eye with a photorealistic approach. It was only a matter of time for him to gain wider recognition - at the same time being seen as the father of modern Japanese animation with Hayao Miyazaki - who arrived quickly. Through Your Name (2016) which was recorded as one of the highest-income big-screen anime in the world, the opportunity for Shinkai to get the world's attention finally arrived. In the film that unites the genre of romance with body swap comedy, disaster film, science fiction, and fantasy, he makes the audience stunned, fell in love, until then attacked by a prolonged baper. For some viewers, Your Name is a masterpiece from Shinkai ... and I reviewed it. It's hard not to fall in love with him, it's also hard to imagine, what kind of breakthrough will the director give after this? The stakes are clearly high, the burden is clearly large. When Weathering with You was announced as the latest work, no doubt various feelings burst into one. Between excited, excited, curious, to worry can be felt to cling to yourself.

So, what does Shinkai offer in Weathering with You? Well, the film itself applies a winning formula that has proven effective when applied to Your Name. The two protagonist characters are teenagers who are bound by romance, then there are natural phenomena, and not least, fantasy elements that are closely related to Japanese mythology. This time, the filmmaker takes the audience to a different Tokyo. Not in appearance, but the natural conditions that shelter it. Tokyo, which is constantly in the endless rain so much that its citizens yearn for sunshine and blue sky. As a result, the nuances of the city were gray. But this unfriendly situation did not deter a teenager from a remote island named Hodaka (voiced by Kotara Daigo) to try his luck in Tokyo. Without adequate capabilities, plus Hodaka is still not old enough, certainly not an easy matter for him to get a job here. He wandered around for several days until he met Keisuke Suga (Shun Oguri), who was willing to give him a job as an article writer. Hodaka's task is to find unique topics related to occult, one of which is to find someone nicknamed "sun girl" whose strength is more or less like a rain handler in Indonesia. In his search, he becomes acquainted with Hina (Nana Mori) who qualifies as a sun girl and slowly but surely, sparks of romance begin to grow between them.

Faced with the looming expectations of the public who longed for a fairy tale cradle after Your Amazing Name, in fact did not make Shinkai tremble. Indeed, Weathering with You sometimes feels too ambitious with the boisterous story branches here and there. Whether discussing about the Keisuke family, the discovery of firearms by Hodaka, Hina's involvement with the world of nightclubs, bringing the character from Your Name as a cameo, to comments related to climate change manifested in extreme weather depictions in Tokyo. This series of subplots did not all go well, especially with regard to firearms that did not have much impact except to provide an easy solution to the protagonist's problem. But aside from the minor issues, Weathering with You brings a satisfaction when telling stories that makes me not mind to call Makoto Shinkai as the successor to the greatness of Hayao Miyazaki in the world of Japanese animation. Fantasy tales about the "rain handler" gave rise to interesting mythologies to be listened to such as how Hina gained her strength, utilized her strength and the impact of that power on her body. By the filmmaker, this mythology is then manifested into three kinds of flavors: amazed, excited, and sad at the same time. Amazement can be tasted through the world building formed by Shinkai who also serves as a script writer where the audience can receive the situation of Tokyo and the sun girl, joy arises through interactions between characters filled with situations tickling the nerves of laughter, and sadness comes when we aware of the consequences that must be borne by Hina.

Yes, watching Weathering with You is like riding a roller coaster ride that ruffles emotions in such a way along its journey. If anyone calls Shinkai a "baper god", then the nickname is very understandable. Romantic and dramatic moments that decorate it will still haunt you long until after stepping out of the cinema. Either when Hodaka spent time with Hina where both of them felt together had made a big change to the world, or when these two characters that are very easy for us to love realize that they need sacrifice if they want to make a change. From here, scattered a series of other taste sensations such as sweet sweets, laughing, and crying out. Shinkai's comments on climate change also provide enough of this to highlight yourself with a contemplative question: are you willing to sacrifice for the good of the earth in the future, or do you choose to be stupid for the sake of happiness today? A contemplative material that is clearly evocative, as arousing as the accompaniment of songs from the Radwimps music group that has thickened the feelings in some of the core scenes so as to make sadgirls sadgirls miserable and scrapes with photorealistic approach that once looked more amazing than previous Shinkai's works. Countless times I was stunned to see the makeup of the picture is so detailed in representing Tokyo, so beautiful in visualizing the filmmaker's imagination of natural wonders, and so charming in combining all of them into one whole story. In the end, if there are two words I can borrow to describe Weathering with You, then that is sweet and magical.

Outstanding ( 4 / 5 )