Hodaka runs away from his island home to Tokyo, where it has rained for months. He meets Hina, a girl who can clear the sky by praying, and they start a business selling sunny days. Watch how Shinkai makes rain and light carry the feelings.
Weathering with You is a 2019 animation, fantasy and romance film directed by Makoto Shinkai. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 cinematography, 1 narrative and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Pride & Prejudice uses several of the same techniques.
Bringing live-action camera thinking and fine detail to animation, with realistic landscapes, lenses and varied frame rates. The images feel more physical than a drawing usually does.
How this film uses it
Shinkai used both computer graphics and hand-drawn animation to make the rain. Tokyo is drawn with enough detail that you recognize its skies and its streets.
Where to see it
The rain over Tokyo. Rain falls through the city on nearly every day Hodaka lives there, so the weather is part of every scene.
Letting rain, storms, sunshine or changing scenery reflect what characters feel, often breaking at the story's peak. The environment says what the characters cannot.
How this film uses it
The weather follows what the characters feel and choose. When Hina clears the sky, the city is bright. When Hodaka chooses her over the weather, Tokyo is flooded for years after.
Where to see it
The rooftop. Hodaka leaps through the torii gate into the sky and brings Hina back, and the rain returns.
Filming in recognizable real places so the setting acts like part of the cast. Streets, buildings and landscapes shape the mood of the story.
How this film uses it
The film uses real places in Tokyo. The abandoned Yoyogi Kaikan building inspired the rooftop shrine, and the Docomo Tower is the kind of landmark that shows up across Shinkai's films. The building was torn down in January 2020, so the film also keeps a place that is gone.
Where to see it
The abandoned rooftop shrine. Hina takes Hodaka to a building where she shows him that she can clear the sky by praying.
Giving a character a gift whose cost grows every time they use it. The price comes out late, and they must choose between the gift and the people they love.
How this film uses it
Hina's power makes her popular, and it makes her body grow more transparent each time. Hodaka learns the cost when she shows him her fading body, and by the next morning she is gone. The sunny days they sell are paid for with her.
Where to see it
The hotel. Hina tells Hodaka that her body becomes more transparent every time she uses her power, and the next morning she is gone.
Placing a child in the middle of adult moral failures and making them face a choice they can't fully understand. You understand what the child doesn't, which is where the horror comes from.
How this film uses it
Hina is a teenager who is asked to carry the weather's burden for a whole city. Nobody around her makes the choice easy or even says it out loud. You understand what she is giving up before she does, which makes every sunny day feel uneasy.
Where to see it
The Weather Maidens. A priest explains the legend of the maidens who control rain and pay a heavy price, and Hina ends up in that role.
Questions
Weathering with You: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Weathering with You use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Weathering with You (2019): Animated Realism Craft, Weather as Emotional Mirror, Real Locations as Character, Power With a Price and Child's Forced Moral Burden.
Who directed Weathering with You?
Makoto Shinkai directed Weathering with You, released in 2019. CineCode also covers Your Name (2016).
What films are similar to Weathering with You?
Films that share techniques with Weathering with You include Pride & Prejudice (2005), WALL-E (2008), Your Name (2016), Bicycle Thieves (1948).
