Makoto Shinkai's follow-up to 2016's phenom-hit Your Name continued the director's gorgeous visual and animation aesthetics, and blatant - but excellent - emotional manipulation with a killer piano score, as the story integrated Japan's hyper-modernity with its ancient shinto religion and manga-esque fantasy genre.
However, unlike Your Name, the film's central story (and romance) lacked emotional depth, thematic complexity and was narratively simple. Although the characters were very likable and very easy to root for, their relationship just felt too basic and thinly sketched, lacking the necessary emotional baggage to strengthen their emotional arc.
The resulting film ran just under 2 hours, but at times felt draggy. The prologue and epilogue were excellent bookends for the story, the former effectively setting up the intrigue and the latter closing the chapter.
The first act was fun and well-paced, getting to the premise and establishing characters efficiently, but the second act was unnecessarily complicated with multiple subplots existing for comedic reliefs at the expense of deepening the central premise and mythos. The third act then ultimately felt rushed and hence the climatic weight felt lost.
Although the introduction of the main characters from Your Name into the storyline was a nice touch, and seemed to suggest Shinkai may be starting a whole new in-universe franchise.
Nonetheless, despite its flaws - which were just more obvious because of the looming spectre of Your Name - Weathering with You was an enjoyable film. It was stunning to look at with breathtaking landscapes and stunning rain-animations, and had a killer piano score and charismatic, likable characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment