5 Centimeters Per SecondThis anime is the third big work of Makoto Shinkai. And it is one hell of a film in terms of story and motifs, rather filled with metaphors and hidden meanings. When I try to review such a film, I’m always confused as from where to begin; the things I wish to write kinda all messed up and mixed together in my head.
So, let’s see… Shinkai is pretty much a legend, at least to me. Granted, his usual theme - being mainly love, or actually, about connections and relationships between two people in love – is, to say the least, not my field of interest. And were “5 cm per second” live-action instead of animated, I wouldn’t have even seen it. I was first introduced to Shinkai some two and a half years ago by a friend who lent me “
Voices of a Distant Star”, his first “real” animation (the first actually being) – a 25-minute short mixing a love story with sci-fi all wrapped up in a mantle of surreal. What mostly stuck with me was the beautiful animation. And when I say beautiful, I mean B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The most incredibly detailed drawings I’ve ever seen (up until then).Now that award goes to "5 cm per second". I’ll go all emotional, as far as saying I did not know real beauty (of animation) until I saw this. Really, I’m not exaggerating. It was simply breathtaking and I can only imagine how it must look like in HD on a HDTV. The few screenshots I took don’t do it justice, believe me.
Now, the story. Basically, “5 cm per second” is, as its sub-title suggests, a collection of three short 20-minute vignettes about the distance of things. Tokyo, the mid 90’s. In the first story, we learn of elementary school friends Takaki and Akari. From the first day, they connected and became inseparable, or at least they thought so. Akari’s parents moved due to their jobs and the separation fell hard on both of them. Some years later, Takaki’s parents also move, and the distance to Akari will grow even longer. It is on 4th of March that he decides to see her. A snowstorm engulfs Japan and that one night at the train station is the first and only kiss and the only night the two shared together (not sexually, since they were both 13-year olds). From that point on, they go on different paths.
Unlike in “Voice of a Distant Star” where the protagonists tried to keep their bond/contact/relationship, the main theme of “5 cm per second” is trying to break one, to stop clinging to and living in the past, and start living in the present. Well, that’s all nice and well and I’m sure some more emotional individuals will even shed a tear or two for the characters… but the question arises –
is it really that good, or is it some over-emotional, overly pathetic attempt at a tear-jerker? I’m kinda pulled towards (or torn between, if you will) both explanations.
For one, the story does not have a cliché
hollywoodish ending and it does not indulge the general audiences. The very end - a montage with the juxtaposed memories/flashbacks, kind of a fast-forward through the lives of Takaki and Akari and what they had, accompanied by the song “One more time, one more chance” which serves not only as BGM but has meaning in its lyrics directly connected to what you’re seeing – is indeed a powerful one, without a definite conclusion and open to interpretation which I absolutely loved.
On the other hand, we have this: Takaki, the central character, is in reality a little prick that whines all the time like a pussy. In the aforementioned faithful snowy night, after the kiss he suddenly realizes, and I quote (brace yourself, it’s a long one):
[quote]In that moment, the dwelling place of eternity, hearts and souls… became clear to me. It was as if I understood everything that had happened in my life these last thirteen years, and… the time which was to come. I became unbearably… sad. Akari’s warmth, her spirit, how should I treat them? Where can I bring them? That was something I did not know. That we could not be together forever after this… was a fact I clearly grasped. The vast lives we had ahead of us, the boundless amount of time which lay unavoidably stretched out in front of us. But… the anxieties which I had caught sight of soon melted away. And after that, only Akari’s tender lips remained.[/quote] Ta-da-da-da-daaaaaam! Talk about over-dramatization, coming from a 13-year old, no less! Yeah, right. Later, as he grows up he adopts that typical slump-stance, cool mystery boy persona - you know, always keeping in the shadows and looking in the distance and daydreaming. Of course, he’s a loner, but somehow manages to attract chicks nevertheless, by doing absolutely nothing. In short, he’s like that Edward Cullen sparkling fairy from “Twilight”, and that’s what mostly pissed me off. He even grows up into a depressed, but very successful (of course) adult, his heart still belonging to Akari.
I mean for fuck’s sake, dude! If you really, I mean really loved someone that much you’d find a way to be together, wouldn’t you? Maybe not at 13 years of age when you still depend on your parents, but when you grow older and take life into your own hands… what’s stopping you? But no, instead I’ll cry and whine like a goddamn choir boy!
The story as a whole is indeed a good one. Inspiring, even, despite it may not look like it at first. The ultimate message is to not live in the past and cling to things that have come to pass, but instead to live in the present and build a future you’ll like. The experience comes full circle with the mesmerizing piano musical score composed by Tenmon, Shinkai’s old associate. However, the whole over-dramatization wasn’t really needed in my opinion, and no matter how much I liked it, this casts a stain on what would otherwise be a masterpiece. That is precisely why it'll be the first flick I won’t rate. Because, despite all the flaws, “5 cm per second” is a very memorable film and Makoto Shinkai a person who I believe will achieve great things in the field of animation.
He has been hailed as the successor to
Hayao Miyazaki, although Shinkai himself, being an honorable Japanese, dismisses the comparison as overrated, feeling he had not yet attained the heights of the Master. Now, everybody's heard of Miyazaki, right? Wait, no-- my bad. Everybody DOESN'T know of Miyazaki, they just know about "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away", two of his most mainstream works.
If people would pull their heads out of their asses for a moment, they’d take notice and see that Sofia Coppola and Woody Allen Gus Van Sant aren’t the only ones who can make dramas. And don’t let the fact that “5 cm per second” is an anime throw you off. Maybe after you finish reading this review, you’ll think: “Wow, cool! I’ll check this out!” But you never will. You’ll instead pick some other mainstream film because it stars a famous actress/actor and is recommended by some famous critic. If the review interested you, track this film down. But DO IT!
Rating: N/A- review by Ventilation Shaft
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Last updated: 2010-04-14 05:58:12 by CoolAwesomeDuo
