Film Sort-a Review: Makoto Shinkai's Garden of Words

Makoto Shinkai’s Garden of Words

Evenings when I go to sleep, mornings in the moment I woke up, I realized I was praying for rain

Garden of Words is beautiful. Its just so very beautiful I can just stare at every frame and be mesmerized. Makoto Shinkai and the creative team of Comix Wave doesn’t let you watch, they hypnotize you until their message pierces whatever ice is there left in your heart. And you melt away with the piano, the sadness, the meek replies, the relevant undertones of immortal concepts that strips and tests and reaffirms your worth, of whether your courage is the courage that makes you a man and whether this courage is what makes your life as it is or what it still may become. Nothing pedestrian.

And these are beautiful as well, and if only I could grasp what it meant and how I would want it to change me.

1. When the leaves gracefully sway as the rain dances while the main picture freezes by intention.
2. The glorious greens that blurs the easily distinguishable reality and fantasy.
3. The take of modernity and how its grayness dampens our inner skeletons.
4. The contrast of things you thought contrasted but no.
5. The silent stares that speaks volumes.
6. Just when you would tip your hat off for a commendable detailed rendition of the everyday mundane, you’ll round the corner to tip another off for the thoughtful depth that emanates through the characters’ eyes, the frown, the smiles, and the quick retraction of deep-seated looks.
7.  The piano notes that coincide with their mysteries. So affecting, it literally captivates your heart and lets it feel. 
8. The dew on the knives. The slice of the vegetables. The pasta in simmering broth. And wait, bitter gourd on a ramen?!  The normalcy of middle class living.
9. The room, which you can hypothetically smell even across this virtual medium.
10. And the grandness of nature, which envelopes the central theme powerfully and spontaneously forces our deep seated bitterness into the open.

But deep in my heart, I could have wished Makoto Shinkai made a more courageous introspection of what his genius can still traverse.