Writer/director Makoto Shinkai follows up the wonderful Your Name with a beautiful and endearing animated story that was Japan’s highest grossing movie of 2019.
Teenage runaway Hodaka arrives in Tokyo during the city’s wettest ever rainy season. It’s there he crosses paths with Hina, who is a ‘sun girl’ who can stop the rain with a prayer. Together they start a business – after all, she can bring sunshine on demand which would be a pretty lucrative proposition almost anywhere in the world – but their enterprise could come at a cost to Hina.
It’s another young adult drama for Shinkai, and it is one filled with emotion and stunning animation. As you’d expect from the plot, it touches on the climate crisis as well as the supernatural, and while it is not always successful – some of the story is a little head-scratching – it is lovely to look at, heartfelt and definitely worth seeking out.
There is a subtitled version and also a dubbed one featuring the English-language voice cast of Alison Imrie, Lee Pace and Riz Ahmed.
Is Weathering With You suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This movie is aimed at older children and teens and does have some serious themes, including some violence against children.
There are also some scenes later in the movie about Hina’s fate that may upset younger and sensitive viewers.
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