Makoto Shinkai is one of the stars of the animated film scene with his multi-award-winning anime “Your Name – Yesterday, Today and Forever” from 2016, which became a million-dollar success. The bittersweet coming-of-age film with its photorealistic appearance and truly profound characters has long since made its way onto lists of the best films of all time.
Before Shinkai made this impressive cinematic exclamation point, he had already produced similarly complex, complex animated films such as “Voices Of A Distant Star”, “5 Centimeters Per Second” and “Garden Of Words”. The latter can now be seen on television for the first time on ProSieben Maxx (November 17th, 8:15 p.m.).
The significantly shorter anime compared to “Your Name” tells the emotional story of two lonely hearts who meet by chance in a park in bad weather during the rainy season. Yukari Yukino is a 27-year-old teacher and Takao Akizuki is a 15-year-old student. Neither of them talk to each other at first, although they keep meeting at the same place in the idyllic greenery, a secluded pavilion. While Takao draws sketches and pursues his dream of becoming a shoemaker, Yukari just sits there quietly, drinking beer and eating chocolate.
At some point they both start talking, confide in each other about their loneliness and insecurities and find a way to be there for each other, despite the obvious differences that separate them. As the rain stops, they both hope that it will come again soon, just so they can see each other again.
About the difficulty of admitting your pain
“Garden Of Words” is not a love story, at least not a romantic one. It is a poetically decorated description, ultimately outlined with gentle hope, of the fate of two people suffering from their isolation who, by chance, are there for each other. A story that also depicts the fate of many Japanese, a society in which conformity plays a major role and people are hardly able to express their feelings, which leads to the (self-)knowledge of being depressed or taking their own life want, includes.
Makoto Shinkai’s “Garden Of Words” is a bittersweet short film that attempts to find a cinematic way out of wordless aloneness. Anyone who has seen the director’s other films knows that this one is also heading towards a melancholic finale.