Makoto Shinkai's
Your Name took the world by storm and it looks like the famous animated film writer/director is bringing his next film to the big screens in the very near future.
GKIDS has announced it will be theatrically releasing Shinkai's latest project,
Weathering With You come January. Which leads to the question - what is it? Luckily for us, Shinkai is willing to go into detail.
In 2016, the moment my last film Your Name opened, I wanted to make a new film. A strong feeling I had inside of me was, “I want to try something again.” That was the foundation of Weathering With You.
Shinkai opens up a bit about his process and why he chose the theme of weather to be such a dominant one when telling this particular story.
When creating an animated film, various pillars are necessary: the pillar of the story, the pillar of the visual aesthetics, the pillar of the staff and crew. Among them, the pillar of film’s theme is the weather. Weather is such an animation-oriented motif, and I’ve always thought that it would make for catchy imagery if I took it on in a serious way. Also, anyone can relate to the weather. Most people would think about and mention the weather at least once a day. Weather is not only a vast, global cyclical phenomenon but also a personal event for humans. The weather of the day could change your mood and actions. I thought it would be interesting as a theme for an animated film.
He also makes it clear that the characters in the story are being driven, but not by trauma.
There is also one thing that I had decided when I started production on this film, and that is not to write a story about trauma driving the characters. The male protagonist, Hodaka, runs away from home to come to Tokyo, and the female protagonist Hina is also in a difficult familial situation. But they both don’t stop and reflect on it. They keep moving forward as if they are rolling down a hill. There may be pros and cons in that way of living, but I wanted to depict a boy and a girl who started running.
What do you think of these comments? Check out the trailer for
Weathering With You below!
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…
Weathering With You will see a theatrical release on January 17, 2020.