Weathering with You

GKIDS | Release Date: January 15, 2020

8.4	USER SCORE Universal acclaim based on 155 Ratings

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hnestlyontheslyMar 2, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Weathering With You makes about as much sense grammatically as its plot. The movie hinges on an actually cool metaphor for the tragic relationship between the youth and climate change, which works with the storyline but the follow through is stupid to harmful. The film is full of pseudo-intellectual nods to global warming and the "Anthropocene" era, but in order to exculpate the decision of the main character, it almost verges on climate denial, offering all sorts of cooky, New Age theories about coastal cities returning to the sea, being reclaimed by nature. It is devoid of commentary on the connection between consumer capitalism and climate change, despite its visual attention to verisimilitude. For all the accurately drawn Big Macs and ChocoPies, the movie has no **** to give about its apparent central metaphor. It is heavy with metatheatric jokes about art and anime at the beginning (for instance, one of the characters describes the fate of "sunshine girls" to be that they are eventually "spirited away" get it hahaha ok), but as the movie proceeds its weighed down with the stupid choices and incuriosity of its protagonist. It is Japan's entry for Best Picture for 2019, by the same director (Makoto Shinkai) as last year's disappointing Your Name, the (spoilers) overwrought gender-bending time travel film that hinges on the idea that two horny teenagers who are inhabiting each other's bodies would never bother to check the calendar or look for their own address in the age of cell phones and the Internet. Your Name was able to make Wife weep at its climax, so she had marked down this film as a must-see several weeks ago. I had major misgivings because of the enthusiasm gap I experienced from last time. I find Shinkai's films feel emotionally stunted. Everyone feels all of their emotions cranked up to 11. They lean heavily on a fantastical element that feels manufactured more for its visuals than anything that flows from necessity of plot and never let common sense get in the way of a cool scene. My least favorite things about this movie is the loose ends that are so lazily not tied up: the way that the dead mother of Suga's child, who died "in an accident" years earlier, is obviously another "sunshine girl" sacrifice that Suga could not help either, because why else would Suga be the one to save Hodaka on the ferry during the freak weather occurrence in the first scene? Wife says that the inability to square the circle on Suga's backstory is in line with his central character trait, the way that he's constantly undermining himself. Because why else would he stare at a wall of water gathering above his study and think, I should open the window to let all this water completely wreck my office. Or as friend put it, "If I let the water in through this window it will cause literally thousands of dollars of damage to clean up. F* it." Probably the most irritating thing about Weathering With You is how manufactured Hina's crisis feels. There are no external forces of evil, a hallmark of some of the **** anime in my estimation. Rather, Shinkai has developed this quirky character, given her powers beyond her wildest imagination, then built in that character's tragic end for the greatest emotional impact, and then tried to make everyone feel bad that her ability to change the weather should come with stakes and consequences. Consequences that Shinkai himself has mandated. No one but Shinkai has demanded that Hina should have to suffer for her relatively small-minded but mostly innocent acts of weather control. Hina at no point questions Why me? or How can I explain this phenomenon (without taking on faith the ravings of a old man whose own grandson doesn't trust when interviewed)? Because that is not the point of Hina. Weathering With You advances the idea that you can only be female in a story if you are a busty sex object that good-naturedly laughs off the pervy advances of a 15 year old coworker or a flat-chested human sacrifice "not cut out" for underage sex work.

Hina spends most of her time in various states of distress, whether its covered in a horde of water fish or inexplicably falling through the sky and breaking only her necklace or losing her ring that her friend of one month gives her on the advice of her purposefully androgynous little brother. Hina's secret about her age is the dumbest possible plot twist for that character. Her blank expression of non-threatening helpfulness is played and replayed (every scene in which she and Hodaka interact is flashbacked) for maximal emotional impact at the climax. Natsumi, Suga's suspected mistress, by contrast is pure fan service in low-cut tops, proffering alcohol to minors at key moments of celebration. She is available and boy crazy and not at all creeped out by Hodaka's attention. About a page more of review back at the site, but this gives you a taste.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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SeriousGameFanJan 3, 2021

If you watched 'Your Name', you probably want to see more similar movies, and you'll come to this one. Don't waste your time. This one is more drawn out; unnecessarily, and more contrived. You'll know what should happen next, but they drawIf you watched 'Your Name', you probably want to see more similar movies, and you'll come to this one. Don't waste your time. This one is more drawn out; unnecessarily, and more contrived. You'll know what should happen next, but they draw the scene to extend runtime. Also, some of the characters suddenly "turn" temporarily antagonist, just to provide some barrier between the main character and his goal. It's very obviously done, and if you've seen something more masterfully done like 'Your Name', you'll have little stomach for anything less.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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Hachiko_sksJan 19, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A whiny boy saves his girlfriend from prostitution to become her pimp and decides to destroy the ecosystem because of a teenage romance.

IMHO the story was totally weak. Lame main character, major plotholes and all the interesting parts of this universe where cut short for a (at best) mediocre love story. Plus points for the side characters though, they where really funny, and the gorgeous animations. But that's just not enough.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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