The Garden of Words
Director: Makoto
Shinkai
Year: 2013
Rating: 5.5
I
find watching rain and trains in animation to be very soothing. The rain
hitting surfaces and springing off into different directions or hitting water
and submerging making small splashes - soft rain or a torrent - the sound
and feel of it. And nothing is more beautiful than a moving train making
its way. It is the rainy season in Kanto and rain has never looked as inviting
as it does in this Makoto Shinkai 46-minute animation. All of it does. Absolutely
gorgeous throughout. It knocks you out. Your Name and Weathering with You
have made his name quite famous in the world of animation as he was able
to join his stunning animation to a story that sucks you in. Not so much
in some of his earlier films that I have seen. This one yearns for more depth
than I think it achieves - Makoto says it is about the traditional word of
love in Japanese and "lonely sadness". I guess but it didn't hit me that
way. There is no resolution in this leaving it open ended - but should it
be? Not to put my moral judgment on it - but this odd friendship between
a fifteen-year-old boy and a twenty-seven-year-old woman just didn't feel
right on a few levels.
Takao wants to be a shoe designer and so
when it rains, instead of going to school, he goes to sit in a covered bench
in the park. Only when it rains. He comes across Miss Yukino who is always
there as well as she doesn't want to go to work. She drinks beer and eats
chocolate and is clearly depressed and miserable. They slowly bond over various
rainy days - though she tells him nothing about herself. But he brings her
better food to eat - she stops drinking the beer - and he tells her about
the shoes he wants to make. Then the rainy season comes to an end. He has
no excuses to go there but discovers what is behind her sadness. None of
this stuck to me. Don't worry, there is no sexual relationship - not yet
anyway. 10 for the animation - 4 for the story.
