Les Enfants du temps

Rain, clouds, sky and the sun. these contrast is so beautiful. And scenery in Tokyo is great. I think these are the best points of this movie. If you've been to there, you notice where there is.

I don't know why this movie gets constantly compared to Your Name, if not for its creator, because these movies are nothing alike. Just wanted to get this out right away.

Also it is often said that the peculiar weather phenomena depicted in this movie were some insinuation to climate change. Though some characters seem to confirm that with their remarks, it doesn't quite fit the narrative in which the weather can be fixed at will by a single person. If it is an insinuation, it isn't a particularly good one.

These phenomena are never really explained. They are merely a weak plot device. And since the show focuses entirely upon Tokyo, the viewer is left wondering what the state of the rest of the world is (for example the home town of Hodoka).

The protagonist Hodoka runs away from home. This is never explained in detail, making it very difficult to identify with the protagonist or at least feel sympathy for him. It's awfully contrived, and Hodoka acts mostly without any forethought. Bad start.

Still, with the help of irresponsible strangers and by avoiding the police, he makes his way in Tokyo; and by a series of extraordinary coincidences, he meets Hina. Her background is just as bland as his and their relationship doesn't go very deep.

On that note: There are no interesting characters in this movie. They are all one dimensional with one line of history. That's just wasted potential.

In Your Name, fate was the enemy; here it is the police, apparently. The chase scenes, violence against police officers, and resistance are completely inadequate. But they needed that to create drama; in opposite to Your Name where drama comes natural. The solution of what stands between them (Hodoka and Hina), the clearing of the final obstacle, is way to simple and unsatisfying. Obviously I wouldn't like to spoiler, but I was left with: "What? It's that simple? That's all he had to do? Why then even bother going through all this trouble?"

Like I said: this movie is nothing like Your Name, but I wished it were.

Weathering With You. From Makoto Shinkai, director of the smashing hit Your Name comes a story following a young runaway who flees to Tokyo to start a new life. He befriends a girl with a tokubetsu gift of Weather manipulation and the story progresses from there.

First of all the soundtrack was top notch. Radwimps who also composed and wrote music for Your Name were pretty much just as good. The way the music was used makes the scenes more engaging.

The animation was also what should be expected from a Makoto Shinkai film. It was beautiful. Ohhh my, that's intro scene was kirei.

The plot however felt a little bit messy. The first two acts were very satisfying, and the chemistry between the characters were what made the story really interesting. Hina and Hodaka were really cool together. All the other characters were really interesting and engaging characters. The direction of the third act really felt all over the place. It's hard to explain. Your name's ending was a bit similar, but was felt more complete. The film also had no major twists. There was lots of tension though.

The voice acting was really good. The actors are all unknowns but really sounded good as their characters.

This film was original. With many bad Disney CGI remakes out there, I'd rather watch this a hundred times more. It brings us a new story with engaging characters.

End of review.. 7.5/10 PS: there were some amazing cameos :) Sorry for my bad review. Enjoy.

I can't help but suspect that writer/director Makoto Shinkai did make this movie because he thought he had an interesting story but simply because he wanted to play with rain animations.

I'm okay with that. The animation is stunning, and no one is quite so good as taking something as simple as drops in a puddle and creating a gorgeous symphony as Shinkai.

All the same, a story would have been nice and there really isn't much of one here, nor does what exists make any particular sense. But the characters are charming, the movie is funny and touching, and while it's no "Your Name" it is Shinkai's third best film (Garden of Words is 2nd).

Well worth watching.

One of the best experiences I ever had! So glad I got to see in the theater today. The soundtrack is incredible, the sounds are ambient, story is spectacularly immersive and beautiful! A truly heartwarming film about unorthodox weather, romance and a bit of suspense. I love everything about Weathering with you, I was captivated throughout although I barely watch anime now I wanna see more. I wanna own the movie when available; well worth the 17 dollars. Also my 750th review!