WEATHERING WITH YOU

High school freshman Hodaka Morishima leaves his home on an isolated island and moves to Tokyo, but he quickly finds himself in financial trouble. Living his days in isolation, he eventually lands a job as a writer for a shady occult magazine.

Then one day in an alley, Hodaka meets a young girl named Hina Amano, bright and strong-­willed, who possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.

The second movie in Makoto Shinkai’s Disaster Trilogy, alongside Your Name and Suzume, Weathering With You is a romantic fantasy that laments the effect that global warming has had on Japanese weather.

The film follows a young man named Hodaka, who runs away to Tokyo during a period of unnatural rainfall. After nearly drowning on the ferry over, he struggles to find work until he meets the orphan girl Hina. Hina is able to control the weather, and the two go into business together offering a service that ensures clear sunny skies for parties and special occasions. But Hodaka’s past is catching up with him, and Hina’s powers come with a price…

Following up the incredible success of Your Name was never going to be an easy task for Shinkai, and while Weathering With You never quite reached the same dazzling heights, it’s still a beautiful movie in its own right. The weather effects are stunning, especially when laid over the richly detailed Tokyo cityscape that Shinkai perfected in his previous film. Hodaka and Hina are beautifully written, and the music (once again provided by Japanese rock band Radwimps) is as catchy as ever.

Weathering With You was the best selling Japanese film of 2019, and was Japan’s official submission for the International Feature Film award at the Oscars that year. Critics and audiences alike adored it on release, and it remains a touching fable with an increasingly relevant and important message about our shared responsibility to take care of the planet.