O Jardim das Palavras

With it's short length of only 45 minutes, it's hard to call this a full movie - although don't let that deter you, as it's still better than most that I have seen, anime or otherwise.

When you hear about this movie one of the things that get repeated mention is it's visuals, and I concur. It's probably the most well made anime from a visuals standpoint.

The story isn't bad either, for only 45 minutes it sets up and tell a surprisingly deep and moving story. It is simplistic storytelling, but still very powerful. It is somewhat reminiscent of one of the director's previous films, 5 Centimetres Per Second, in that it uses a similarly "simple" story but one that relates strongly to emotions and situations felt by normal human beings. I also think this is a great movie to show people who normally don't like anime, as anime very often have different storytelling than I think many are used to. This one is more grounded without many of the "fantasy" elements that most anime's have.

The plot summary on IMDb do just fine setting up the story so I wont bother explaining it, it would just be redundant.

Just remember the technical brilliance of '5 Centimeters Per Second', the same director who curved this movie as well. So the expectation usually will be high for anyone who watched this filmmakers earlier movies. The movie was too short, not even it crosses an hour mark, but only a just below the 50 minutes.

Not only the filmmaker, but title as well impressed me. You know 'The Secret Garden' was one of my favourite so thought it would go similar fashion. Yeah, that's right the movie deals a story of a high school boy Takao who is passionate about shoe making. He goes to a nearby garden to the school to sketch shoes. One day during the rainy season he meets a stranger with beer in one hand and chocolates in another. Days passed by, they become very close and shares things to each others. How far this unanticipated relation takes them together and what are all changes make in their lives is follows in heartbreaking way.

''A faint clap of thunder. Clouded skies. Perhaps rain comes. And if so, stay with me.''

I can't say it was an unexpected surprise, it gave me what I was looking for, fulfills my desire. You know during the transition between two scenes some director will take an alternate route by showing skies, rain, clouds, insects et cetera for the few seconds. Those were very impressive and realistic. Technically it was spectacular, every minute details were incredibly good. It was a perfect meld between characters, story and the backgrounds.

The visuals were very charming in every frames of the movies just like '5 Centimeters Per Second'. Fine story as well, pure drama with more realistic mode covered with sentiments at the end. Could not ask better than this. The only worry was this movie is unbearably small. I was thirst to have extra more minutes, but I could not get. Ended seeing it with a disappointment but more than satisfied with the complete movie. For anime movie fans, it is a must see. Hope y'all get same excitement and pleasure like I had.

this movie has such a nice mellow story to it very true to life, it does motivate you and shows you how real life is , it is truly a beautiful film that i would love to see more of similar to 5 cm per second.

i think this shows that a story can be told in the right ways no matter how long it takes, this shows determination to reach a goal that we need to gain in this tough world.

I recommend this movie because the art is so beautiful and the soundtracks also, it truly is wonderful. This movie is a work of art. and this needs some awards.

This movie is technically brilliant.

It's colour pallet suits it's mood. It is animated immaculately. It is a marvel to watch. It has this natural element to its shorts and it has inserts of random elements of nature that just looks insanely good. It is so impressive.

It also has a very pretty score that works well with its subdued mood.

The story is where I start to find issue with the movie. It is such a short film and I think there is so much packed into it that it gets lost somewhat.

I don't love the romance of the story I honestly think it would have been better being about friendship and two lonely people finding a friend in each other. I think that would have been much more poignant. The romance added this uncomfortableness to it which sort of flattened the story.

The other issue is that the story is very unclear in areas. I think if the film was stretched out a little and had its run time at an hour rather than 45mins, it would have benefited tremendously. It would have had a little more time to flesh out the storylines. They all seemed crammed in and I got a bit lost.

I think this is an incredible movie and with tiny changes it would have been amazing.

Promoted as a feature-length film, Shinkai Makoto's Garden of Words surprisingly only lasts 46 minutes. However, it was enough for the director to portray human emotions as well as understand the purpose of relationships.

The word "love" in modern Japanese is "ai", but in the ancient language, it was actually written as "koi", which is a compound of two other Kanji means "solitude" and "sad". Though Garden of Words is set in modern times, "love" in this film will be portrayed in its original meaning, which leads to a story about longing and loneliness, as well as suggesting an unhappy ending for love.

At the center, there is Takao, a 15-year-old student who wants to become a shoe-maker. On rainy days, he often plays truant in a Japanese-style garden and learns to make shoes there. By chance he meets Yukino, a mysterious woman much older than him, and whenever it rains, the two of them meet each other in the garden. Over time, their relationship deepens and the mystery surrounding Yukino finally reveals itself on a dry day.

Similar to Shnkai's previous films The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, the most impressive thing about Garden of Words are the vibrant & unique visual elements. In this latest film, he continues to develop his own unique style. Clean and cute, a little bit cheesy even, Shinkai uses excessive glare and light pink tones, and the result is a bombastic impressive 46- minute picture.

The park's natural setting, with green trees drooping into the water, the wind stirring the small rocks, creates a space ripe with romance and poetry, which helps ease anxiety. Although the scenes in the school, Yukino's house, train station etc were beautifully drawn, the brightest points in the painting of Garden of Words are the natural moments when two people sit in the park together and enjoy the stillness of emotion.

Garden of Words delivers a simple, soft love story, though many would argue that it is taboo. The director knows how to manipulate love, make it as natural as rain, by arranging the meeting at a far away location from where they work/study, only meeting on rainy days to make their feelings vibrate. Eventually, when the truth of their fate is revealed, the audience completely accepts it, because their love for each other is full of sincerity and cultivated diligently through the rainy days.

Garden of Words is a triumph of visual style over substance. It can be very predictable, can be very cheesy when two people are hugging and crying at the end. But the movie creates honest and fresh emotions, accompanied by an impressive visual expression. Garden of Words is not simply the binding of the last two people through some lines of Japanese poetry that they read to each other, It is also the shining of unique storytelling style with images.

And with the blink of an eye, a small gesture is enough to say everything about human emotion, words probably are not needed anymore. Garden of Words gives you a unique experience, exploring the visual and aesthetic language of love.

Trung Rwo