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starladyNo two ways about it: I hated this movie. And I struggle to find a way to describe it that isn't "evil."
I loved Kimi no na wa and I have really liked all of Shinkai Makoto's previous films. But the upshot of this one is basically climate fatalism, served straight up: the message of the ending is that we should embrace climate change because…it won't be that bad? Because not everyone in Japan will die? Because who cares as long as two teenage idiots are in love? Because the seas rose at previous points in Earth's history? I don't understand the why of it, but I do definitely grasp that Shinkai is cool with the oncoming disaster of the future. And here, now, in 2019, preaching that message is indefensible. And yeah, on a moral level, it fits my definition of "evil."
The music is good, and the animation is beautiful--the way that they animate atmosphere is really groundbreaking, and I was enjoying Tokyo getting the Shinkai treatment until the part when the young idiot protagonist willfully and knowingly consigned the city to a watery grave. The scenes before that, where the urban flooding gets worse and worse, were pretty chilling, ngl. Maybe Shinkai looked at 3/11 and embraced nihilism. Maybe he's just profoundly ignorant of the ways in which climate change is already threatening the lives of millions worldwide and will kill millions more unless massive mitigation efforts are made. I don't care. I may despair about climate change but that doesn't mean that meaningful actions to mitigate it aren't still possible, they are. If this is where the romantic monofocus of sekaikei leads, into a selfish decision to condemn the entire planet's future, then he can keep it.
I loved Kimi no na wa and I have really liked all of Shinkai Makoto's previous films. But the upshot of this one is basically climate fatalism, served straight up: the message of the ending is that we should embrace climate change because…it won't be that bad? Because not everyone in Japan will die? Because who cares as long as two teenage idiots are in love? Because the seas rose at previous points in Earth's history? I don't understand the why of it, but I do definitely grasp that Shinkai is cool with the oncoming disaster of the future. And here, now, in 2019, preaching that message is indefensible. And yeah, on a moral level, it fits my definition of "evil."
The music is good, and the animation is beautiful--the way that they animate atmosphere is really groundbreaking, and I was enjoying Tokyo getting the Shinkai treatment until the part when the young idiot protagonist willfully and knowingly consigned the city to a watery grave. The scenes before that, where the urban flooding gets worse and worse, were pretty chilling, ngl. Maybe Shinkai looked at 3/11 and embraced nihilism. Maybe he's just profoundly ignorant of the ways in which climate change is already threatening the lives of millions worldwide and will kill millions more unless massive mitigation efforts are made. I don't care. I may despair about climate change but that doesn't mean that meaningful actions to mitigate it aren't still possible, they are. If this is where the romantic monofocus of sekaikei leads, into a selfish decision to condemn the entire planet's future, then he can keep it.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-08-08 19:10 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-08-11 15:24 (UTC)Once the ending became clear, my finding the protagonist mostly unsympathetic made a lot more sense.