The Garden of Words (2013)

...was the basic fascinating aspect of film, for me. the plot is the second. and, as teacher, the feel to see a too familiar story about vulnerability, need of the other and dreams. I am only insignificant viewer of Japanese animation and its importance is result of the meeting with it after the fall of Romanian Comunist regime. so, I am not in measure to define schools, directors art or techniques. but this film is real admirable. for the manner to define characters. for the small pieces of story. for the feeling as air. and for a form of profound , delicate honesty.

Tenderly crafted, sensibly narrated & carrying an emotional weight that bursts open in the final moments, Makoto Shinkai's fourth feature film is a small-scale, down-to-earth effort that just manages to quality as a feature-length narrative, and offers a fascinating take on loneliness.Set in Tokyo during the rainy season, The Garden of Words follows an aspiring 15-year old shoemaker who skips his morning classes to design shoes in a Japanese garden. The plot focuses on the relationship that blossoms between him & a mysterious but older woman whom he keeps meeting there every time it rains.Written & directed by Makoto Shinkai, the story is short, simple & emotionally rich, and is gorgeously animated from start to finish. Majority of its plot unfolds inside the Japanese garden, and the lush background, vivid use of colour palette & photorealistic rendering of the surrounding really makes that place stand out.Despite its 46 minutes runtime, the characters are given enough space to breathe and their bonding is allowed to bloom at a gradual pace. Loneliness is evident in their individual lives but romance in their companionship is illustrated in a more subtle fashion. The age difference between the two never becomes an issue, and is handled with care.On an overall scale, The Garden of Words is a sumptuously animated, exquisitely detailed & brilliantly voiced film that's visually appealing & emotionally touching for the most part, and is an interesting addition to Makoto Shinkai's filmography. Its melodramatic tone & overdose of sentimentality during the climactic moment may undo it for a few but for me, it's definitely one of Shinkai's better films.

When watching a movie, I always look for visual techniques first. I always love viewing camera pans and camera angles with messages hidden within the cinematography. People ask me why I watch anime, and my reason is the same as my friends and many others: it's so creative and just so beautiful. You appreciate the time and effort that took to draw every smile and every blink. If you even remotely like visuals, you will adore the visuals in this one. Holy moly! I have never seen a movie this visually stunning.Garden of Words is about two people, a fifteen year old student and a twenty seven year old woman that coincidentally meet up in the same park, on the same seats in the same positions, under the same shelter every time when it rains. The both form an unlikely friendship as the two though both varying in age are very similar. Now if this idea fell into the wrong hands it could have ended so badly, by making a creepy movie, more than this gorgeous one. This is because of the fantastic direction from Shinkai.The story is so simple, as it didn't need to be anything else. I have read other reviews and they say the story is very cheesy. But I didn't mind. I thought the way the story was told ever so slightly in a short forty six minute movie still worked and amazed me. The characters too are quite simple, and when they become more attached to each other open different aspects of themselves that I didn't expect. It made for an entertaining experience. I found it beautiful that there's messages in certain scenes and when these two characters are together. For example the movie even up to the last few minutes want to persuade us that they are together yet so apart. Even though these two are close, there is so much they don't know about each other and this line in many scenes represents the disconnect. For example at the edge of a door is in between them, on another scene a twig is placed, in this very scene he says while laughing a holding her foot, says in his head "...I don't even know her name."The visuals and soundtrack, are nothing less that phenomenal. The way the trees sway with the slight breeze, from the sunlight peeping over the clouds, to the hailing smoke of storm, to the aftermath of it all and watching the last raindrop fall from a leaf is simply spectacular. Even with the absence of music, whenever it comes on, it fits and sets the mood.I really loved the editing. It caught you off guard. There's a scene under the shelter where it looks like a storm will push the protagonists away as the sound grows louder but then the next scene it's silent. Or when a character sprints at the screen and the camera immediately switches to a car wheel. It may sound confusing when I try to explain it, but you will definitely pick up on it when you see it.I know I congratulated the film makers in making a well rounded and beautiful story in 46 minutes, but I think that the pacing was a bit of a hit and miss. There's times that the scene tends to drag on when nothing is happening and some scenes that fly by too quickly that could have grown on the characters. The Garden of Words is a movie you can watch at any time as it's short in length. Even through it's pacing is awkward it has a nice story with relatible characters. Spot on sound effects with a beautiful score. And also a movie that will fly far past your expectations of visual animation in cinema.Overall : A-Head here for move reviews like this one : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfNozbWd9SJYYwLK2zYn_AA

I wonder what would have happened if his 30 year old teacher didn't look like an 18 year old model but rather like a fat and ugly hag. Would've changed the story quite a bit I guess because basically this 15 year old sniveler is just physically attracted by that hot random girl. Overall this film is so flat, dumb and superficial, I really wonder what kind of people watch it and actually get emotionally involved. I'll rate it 2/10 because there were probably many talented animators involved who put a lot of effort into the really nice visuals. Apart from that it's a film solely made for teenagers in puberty who "can relate" to being so damn special.