{"id":45426,"date":"2020-01-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=45426"},"modified":"2020-01-15T10:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T14:25:57","slug":"jq-magazine-film-review-weathering-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/15\/jq-magazine-film-review-weathering-with-you\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: Film Review \u2014 \u2018Weathering with You\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
“With beautiful visuals and compelling characters, Weathering with You<\/em> is a charming world you want to believe.” (GKIDS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By\nA.A. Sanborn (<\/em><\/strong>Shimane-ken<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 2009-11) for <\/em><\/strong>JQ magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sun Amid the Clouds<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Warning: This review contains spoilers<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t interfere with the weather too much,\u201d warns a fortune\nteller early on: \u201cMessing with nature always has a cost.\u201d As the title\nsuggests, weather is the focus for writer\/director Makoto\nShinkai<\/a>\u2019s newest feature film Weathering\nwith You<\/a>. <\/em>It\u2019s a tough act to follow after 2016\u2019s Your\nName<\/a><\/em>, Shinkai\u2019s previous work and the most commercially successful\nanime film of the last decade. Nevertheless, despite similarities in plot\n(adolescent romance, natural phenomena, and a sci-fi twist) the film offers a\nrefreshing story which transports and delights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We follow the friendship of Hodaka, a runaway from a remote\nisland, and Hina, a girl with mysterious powers that temporarily conjure sunny\nskies. Hodaka is intent to find freedom in the big city, while Hina is just\ntrying to get by. The number of scenes alone where characters resort to eating\ncheap instant ramen is an indicator that life is not going quite as planned.\nStill, adventure can be found just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after meeting, Hina and Hodaka start a business using Hina\u2019s sun-producing powers. Their services are marketed to Tokyoites for weddings and outdoor events otherwise ruined by a rainy day. The sunny vignettes are one of the most charming aspects of the film, connecting it to a broader sense of space and community. Tokyo is no longer an anonymous megalopolis, but a city formed of friendships and relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While their business venture started innocently enough, with each\nsunny sky Hina beckons, the proceeding weather becomes more intense. Rain is no\nlonger charmingly in the background of a typical wet season in June, but moves\nto the foreground battling for control. We see rain in many forms now, and with\neach new storm a sense of foreboding rises. Shinkai\u2019s deft use of the rain as a\ncharacter is a unique tool that he artfully displays. The film reaches its\ntorrential climax when the past catches up with the duo and their time together\nis cut short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is crafted in painstaking detail for which Shinkai is\nknown. He applies techniques he pioneered in his 2013 short film The\nGarden of Words<\/a> <\/em>to visualize realistic rain, clouds, and light.\nWeathering <\/em>puts all of Tokyo on display in its misty, dewy, best. His\nportrayal also captures the excitement of the megalopolis, both lovingly\nidealized and realistic. Weathering <\/em>invites viewers into a\ncompelling world of magical realism, making the flights of fancy all the more\ncharming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constantly present in the background are nuanced issues in\nJapanese society: from the sex-trafficking industry and the working poor, to\nanxieties surrounding family law and child welfare. Shinkai doesn\u2019t deal with\nthese issues head-on, but alludes gently to their presence throughout. Perhaps\nthis lack of confrontation is a loss for the film, as it could have achieved\nsomething deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Shinkai\u2019s previous films, the storytelling rises above a\nsimple adolescent romance. Shinkai moves to greater issues he has been hinting\nat all along: a looming natural disaster. Your Name <\/em>was created\npartially as an emotional response to the tragic tsunami on March 11, 2011; this\nfilm, like the rain which constantly falls, is about something in our lives\nwhich won\u2019t go away. By the end, Tokyo is returning to the marsh it once was\nand change is irreversible. Amid constant rain, Tokyoites now picnic indoors\nand take ferries around the city. While Your Name <\/em>was\nultimately a story of recovery in the face of disaster, Weathering<\/em> is\none of assimilation to a new reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With beautiful visuals and\ncompelling characters, Weathering with You<\/em> is a charming world\nyou want to believe. At the same time, you realize that every seemingly\ninconsequential human desire will lead us to a place we no longer know. Perhaps\nShinkai suggests we are already living this reality. With each passing year the\nanswer is slowly appearing through the clouds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathering with You is now playing nationwide. For showtimes, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For<\/em><\/strong> more <\/em><\/strong>JQ<\/strong> film reviews, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By A.A. Sanborn (Shimane-ken, 2009-11) for JQ magazine. Sun Amid the Clouds *Warning: This review contains spoilers \u201cDon\u2019t interfere with the weather too much,\u201d warns a fortune teller early on: \u201cMessing with nature always has a cost.\u201d As the title suggests, weather is the focus for writer\/director Makoto Shinkai\u2019s newest feature film Weathering with You. It\u2019s a tough act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,4,263,291,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-articlejournalism","category-film","category-jq-magazine","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-bOG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45430,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426\/revisions\/45430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}