‘Weathering with You’ begins a young man named Hodaka Morishima who we discover early on is on the run from his old life, and to flee he takes a boat to Tokyo. In a dramatic moment of a downpour on the boat Hodaka is almost swept to see, but he’s rescued by Keisuke Suga, who offers him his card and any assistance when he arrives in Tokyo. Hodaka thinks nothing of his offer at first, as he tries to make it on his own, but as a high schooler he’s denied all jobs and routinely avoids officers trying to get him back into school. Hodaka finds little kindness in Tokyo until a young lady named Hina Amano offers him a burger from the fast food restaurant where he works. Hodaka’s life begins an upturn when he goes to meet Keisuke, who rescued him, and as he begins to work for him he learns about sunshine girls who can control the weather, and very quickly his world becomes inextricably linked to this phenomenon.

Makota Shinkai had to find the global success of his previous film ‘Your Name’ rather daunting, as it broke world records and landed itself in the top list of bestselling Japanese films ever. However if it did rattle him it doesn’t show in his work ‘Weather with You’, which is as assured and as Shinkai as ever. As always the art alone is masterfully beautiful, a trademark of Shinkai’s films, and as his concepts have grown larger the art has only matched stride for stride. ‘Weathering with You’ is certainly a busyier film than some of his earlier ones, and you don’t get as many broad landscape shots of the country partially due to the city setting; however, especially the portrayal of the weather in this film is so incredibly beautiful to look at and watch.

Hodaka Morishima in ‘Weathering with You’ (Source: GKIDS)

Shinkai also continues his beloved themes of young romance, love and loss – favorites of his throughout his films – while he also continues the fantasy motif from ‘Your Name’, as he introduces the concept of rain girls and sunshine girls who pray for weather and receive the answer to their prayers. Though I think Shinkai is working more broadly from Japanese myths and religion, and not borrowing from any one story, he still makes his fable feel familiar and especially in the world explained and understood.

Of course importantly centers much of the film on love, which centers nearly all – if not all – of Shinkai’s films. Per usual Shinkai doesn’t portray this as a simple, traditional romance fitting with millions of clichés. This is clear even from the start as the ‘meet cute’ of it all is interrupted not with a beautiful moment, or a grand gesture, but with violence, which is jarring for not just a romance but a Shinkai film in particular. Likewise as Shinkai really delves into bittersweet like no other, I think those of us familiar with his work are always wondering if there’s a catch, or a moment when the bottom will fall out. Even in this Shinkai subverts our expectations, as he’s using this romance – similar perhaps to how he did in The Place Promised in Our Early Days – to tell a larger story about humanity.

Amano Hina in ‘Weathering with You’ (Source: GKIDS)

That story, apparently subtle to some but jarringly obvious I thought, is about climate change and weather. Weather is in the title and its in the bones of the story, and the very concept of a sunshine girl suggests people have some control over the weather. Shinkai uses his version of a modern Aesop’s fable however to teach us that what control we have we might have already given up, and that to grow up young in a world dominated by climate change is to struggle with what young people can do, cannot do, and how to understand what’s most important in this world. Though I’m nearly middle age, nearer to Shinkai’s age than his protagonists, this struck me as quite powerful, and one of the reasons this film will stand apart.

Ultimately Shinkai was able to deliver on his tried and true story of bittersweet love, while using it to craft a compelling, and essential, message about our times. Love is fleeting, and so is the world, and we need to find what matters to us most of all. Shinkai as always is able to put on screen what we feel, and what young people feel even more. Yet again Shinkai has proved himself the master of the medium, as Weathering with You will resonate, long after the changing of the weather.