Rating: ***** (out of five)

If you had two choices: sacrificing your beloved and saving the city or sacrificing the city and saving your beloved, which one would you choose?

High schooler Hodaka Morishima runs away from his home and goes to Tokyo. Unfortunately, his ferry is hit by a fierce storm. He is saved by Keisuke Suga, who gives Hodaka a business card. He encounters Hina who works in a fast-food restaurant. She thinks that Hodaka is poor because he has come to Tokyo alone. After that, Hodaka works for Suga to make a living. He meets Suga’s niece Natsumi. He works with her at a small publishing company. They have to investigate urban legends related to the unusually rainy weather in Tokyo.

He discovers that Hina can change the weather. They start running a business. Some people will send some offers to her to change the bad weather because they want to have some important activities such as weddings on particular days.

Suddenly, Hodaka is caught on a security camera. Hodaka’s family has called the police, and they want Hodaka to return home. The officers also find that Hina and her brother Nagi have no legal guardians. They want to arrest them and make them live in custody. They take shelter in a hotel. Hina reveals that she is slowly turning into water. She explains that she is the cause of the abnormal weather and intends to be a human sacrifice. Thanks to working with Hina for some time, Hodaka has fallen in love with her. If you were Hodaka, what would you choose: sacrificing your loved one and fix the abnormal weather or ignoring the abnormal weather and saving your love? If you want to know what Hodaka’s decision is, why don’t you read this novel or watch the whole movie?

Comments:

Weathering With You is both a fantastic novel and an animation. It conveys the message that it is challenging for people to make choices in some particular moments. The theme songs and animations are great. Also, it is an inspiring story!

More about Makoto Shinkai:

Makoto Shinkai is a renowned Japanese animator, filmmaker and manga artist best known for directing Your Name, the highest-grossing anime of all time at the time of release and 2019’s Weathering With You among other works such as The Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters per Second. He was listed by Variety as one of 10 animators to watch in 2016.

Ways to read Weathering With You (novel):

Chinese version (Hyread): https://hkpl.ebook.hyread.com.tw/bookDetail.jsp?id=188625

English version (Amazon)*: https://www.amazon.com/Weathering-You-Makoto-Shinkai/dp/1975399366

Ways to watch Weathering With You (animation):

Chinese version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q04eo2dI3mM

English version (Amazon)*: https://www.amazon.com/-/zh_TW/Weathering-You-Blu-ray-Lee-Pace/dp/B089266XKG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Weathering+With+You&qid=1592214117&s=movies-tv&sr=1-1

*You have to pay to read the novel and watch the film. Blue-ray CD (English version) can be bought in the Amazon.

 

Cover photo credit: https://images6.alphacoders.com/102/1021972.jpg