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Film Data
Weathering With You  2019
Tenki No Ko
Director:  Makoto Shinkai, supervising animator Atsushi Tamura
Producer:
  Yoshihiro Furusawa, Kôichirô Itô, Genki Kawamura and Wakana Okamura
Art Director:
  Hiroshi Takiguchi
Editor:
  Makoto Shinkai
Music:
  RADWIMPS
Screenplay:
  Makoto Shinkai
Director of Photography:
  Ryosuke Tsuda
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Cast:
spacer1 (Original Japanese version - voices of -)
spacer1 Kotaro Daigo
Voice
spacer1 Nana Mori
Voice
spacer1 Shun Oguri
Voice
spacer1 Chieko Baishô
Voice
spacer1 Tsubasa Honda
Voice
spacer1 Yûki Kaji
Voice
spacer1 (English language version)
spacer1 Alison Brie
Voice
spacer1 Lee Pace
Voice
spacer1 Riz Ahmed
Voice
spacer1 Brandon Engman
Voice
spacer1 Ashley Boettcher
Voice
spacer1 Barbara Goodson
Voice
spacer1
spacer1
spacer1 (Original Japanese version - voices of -) spacer1 Kotaro Daigo spacer1 Nana Mori
spacer1 Shun Oguri spacer1 Chieko Baishô spacer1 Tsubasa Honda
spacer1 Yûki Kaji spacer1 (English language version) spacer1 Alison Brie
spacer1 Lee Pace spacer1 Riz Ahmed spacer1 Brandon Engman
spacer1 Ashley Boettcher spacer1 Barbara Goodson spacer1
spacer1 (Original Japanese version - voices of -) spacer1 Kotaro Daigo
spacer1 Nana Mori spacer1 Shun Oguri
spacer1 Chieko Baishô spacer1 Tsubasa Honda
spacer1 Yûki Kaji spacer1 (English language version)
spacer1 Alison Brie spacer1 Lee Pace
spacer1 Riz Ahmed spacer1 Brandon Engman
spacer1 Ashley Boettcher spacer1 Barbara Goodson

Synopsis:

Weathering With You is Makoto Shinkai’s eagerly anticipated anime follow-up to his smash hit 2016 debut Your Name, his remarkable debut which took an amazing $358.92m (@£290.72m) worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing anime film of all time. Shinkai’s second film didn’t hit the highs of the previous pic but still took an impressive $183.89m (@£148.95m) globally, including a very strong $125.76m (@£101.86m) domestically, topping Disney’s live-action Aladdin to become Japan’s biggest theatrical release of 2019.

In many ways this second film is extremely similar to Your Name, reuniting Shinkai with producers Noritaka Kawaguchi and Genki Kawamura, supervising animator Atsushi Tamura, a rapid editing pace, Shinkai acting as his own editor, and having the Japanese rock band Radwimps providing the score. And the narrative also has some definite similarities, with a young couple, one of them having a secret power, falling for each other, before being propelled into an unexpectedly dark and serious natural catastrophe, in Your Name a harrowing depiction of a tsunami and here a flooded Tokyo. Again the story touches on the subject of having an amazing super power, and the consequences of actually using it, here young Hodaka (voiced in the original by Kotaro Daigo - The Battle: Roar To Victory) and Hina (Nana Mori - Tokyo Ghoul ’S’) using Hina’s power of being about to ‘pray away’ bad weather to start a business, promising good weather for weddings, gathering, outdoor events etc, and largely ignoring the warning of the legend of the ‘Weather Maiden’. Shinkai is very much aiming once more for the teenage market, which made up a good proportion of Your Name’s domestic take, mixing teen romance with a magical / fantasy element, and again turning the film into some much darker in the final section.

And the film is generally darker all round, with Hodaka carrying a gun he finds, Hina is threatened with being separated from her young brother, Nagi, by the faceless authorities, the pair find themselves on the the run from the Police more than once, a motorbike chase through the city being one of the animation highlights, and Hina is harassed by the recruiters from what appears to be a Tokyo sex club, but the real twist come when one character, instead of saving the city, takes the other option, leading to an unexpectedly melancholic ‘Three years later…’ ending.

But as with Your Name, there is also some spectacular animation, art directed by Hiroshi Takiguchi (The Garden Of Words / Sword Of The Stranger), with remarkable depictions of the weather over an almost photorealistic Tokyo, rain and sun competing for dominance, with remarkable forensic details in the falling of raindrops or the piercing of sun rays through the gloom, the tumultuous storms being truly dark and devastating. Some noticed that Weathering With You (not the most mellifluous title) takes some of the earlier film’s elements and reverses them, the young lovers being willing to fight back violently against the dangers that threaten them, being far less innocent and näive about the powers they have, and being willing to make devastating decisions in their own interests rather than that of others.

The various elements certainly captivated Western critics, The Wrap finding it ‘As irresistibly romantic as it is awe-inspiringly gorgeous, Weathering With You on the whole satisfies the craving for more of what Your Name ignited in viewers, yet with slightly less impact’, and The Telegraph saying it ‘ … tells a story of a makeshift family enduring uncertain times, its dominant emotion is amazement – at the power and persistence of first love, and the everyday wonders of the world in which it flourishes against the odds’. Empire called it ‘An absolute must-see for anyone who loved 2016’s Your Name. Even if it isn’t as surprising and narratively powerful as that film, Weathering With You once again exemplifies Makoto Shinkai’s visionary prowess as an animator’. IndieWire thought ‘For a movie about the sky, [film] is ironically one of Shinkai’s most grounded films - immediately more warm and engaging than Your Name, if not at all capable of delivering the same emotional payoff. Even those less taken found something to praise, Screen Daily saying ‘… while the story of the film lacks some of the sinuous inventiveness of its predecessor, it shares the striking animation style, romantic sensibility and a similar poppy score’, while Variety believed ‘Shinkai hasn’t gone far enough into fantasy to excuse the enormous holes in his script, though he does a nice job of distracting us with detail’.

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