Mouth-Watering Animation

Good morning Consumers, This is Please Consume, The newsletter that loves movies as much as David Cross hated being in Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.

 Weathering with You (2019)

Written by Tyler Clark

To close out January, let's take a moment to appreciate the lifeblood of new year winter releases: anime exports. And what better way to do so than to talk about one of the biggest hits by one of the biggest filmmakers working in Japan? 

Today, we'll be discussing the work of the modern master, Makoto Shinkai, and his remarkable film, Weathering With You.

The Barrier to Entry

Let me get this out of the way – I don't really like anime that much. I have nothing against it; I don't think any genre classification of film is inherently bad. There are some that just connect with us more than others. For me, anime is not one of those. I love Ghibli, as I've talked about before, and I've gotten into Satoshi Kon and Cowboy Bebop, but that's about where it ends. Except for Makoto Shinkai. 

Going into Shinkai's work, I was incredibly dubious, but as you delve deeper, you'll start to realize that the barrier to entry is not anime; it's mellow dramas. If you're a fan of the work of Douglas Sirk, Todd Haynes, or the non-horror work of Luca Guadagnino, then I've got great news for you. This movie is far from grounded but, in many ways, feels more like Pedro Almadovar than Mamoru Oshii. Shinkai makes films about human beings having over-the-top responses to already over-the-top scenarios. The way he makes films is a swath of pent-up emotion being screamed at you in a cacophony of J-Pop, montage, and gorgeous landscapes that look so real you want to touch them.

Mouth-Watering Animation

As mentioned a second ago, the thing that you can't help but note is Shinkai's affinity for beautiful landscapes and wonderfully crafted backgrounds. I first got into his work after discussing the live action movie The Sun is Also a Star with my brother (possibly the smartest film fan I know) when he described it as an "American Shinkai." It utilizes cityscapes and lens flares to tell this story and help you really feel all the emotions, both in the loud moments and the quiet ones. 

The Sun is Also a Star is a wonderful movie. Director Ry Russo-Young creates stunning imagery and is doing wild and wonderful stuff in the editing bay, but there is that extra juice that comes from animation. The fact that they took the time to craft these moments of quiet doesn't push the story forward in a literal sense, and to cut it from the storyboards would save you a lot of time, but you would also lose the thing that makes Shinkai so special. 

A lot of people talk about the link between Shinkai and Miyazaki, a take Shinkai pushes back on, not because it isn’t true, he talks often about how Ghibli is a huge influence on his work, but because he feels the weight of such a comparison. 

One thing that Shinkai does get right that many people trying to imitate Miyazaki get wrong is his use of 'ma.' In an interview with Miyazaki, film critic Roger Ebert comments on how Miyazaki likes that "sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are." To which Miyazaki simply replies, "We have a word for that in Japanese. It's called Ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally." It's something all too rare in film, especially in animation since it's so much more expensive, but Shinkai gets it right.

Conclusion

As we close out today, I just want to remind you that world cinema is important. As we continue to spiral in Hollywood, we have to remember that there are many film markets to look to, and if we allow ourselves to be open to them, we may just find something we can really appreciate. 

Once again, I'm not an anime boy, but it's always good for me to remember that great filmmakers are everywhere, and if we allow ourselves to give in just a little bit, then we can find works we really connect to. I love this movie and the work of Shinkai so much that I didn't talk about the movie directly, and frankly, I don't know what I would say. This movie is nuts, and I highly encourage you to just watch and experience it. Also, check out Your Name, Garden of Words, and Suzume while you are at it.

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