Makoto Shinkai's “GARDEN OF WORDS”
Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
It would be possible to focus only on the beautiful artwork, sound, and animation in this film but that would be a mistake.
A shy high school student is obsessed both with shoemaking and with an “older” (she’s 27) woman whom he meets in a peaceful garden adjacent to the busy Shinkuju Station in Tokyo. During the rainy season he skips first period and heads to a shelter adjacent to a picturesque pond. He meets the woman who also comes here regularly.
We sense she is nursing a secret of some sort. Only gradually are we introduced to what is going on in her life. The main focus is on the young man and his obsession with learning how to make shoes. Eventually he makes her some shoes and in that time we learn more about what is really going on.
The storyline is peaceful, wistful, and handled with great reserve and taste. Both of these people are struggling with inner demons. They both seek the respite of their time in the park.
The images in this film are stunning, sometimes achingly so. It’s not just that they are beautifully rendered; the director has chosen to illustrate moments of beauty that we oftentimes only glimpse in a fleeting way — a bird chirping and flying away, the moment the sun pierces the gloom from a cloudy sky, raindrops plopping into a pool.
In a way it’s all very dreamlike but the rendering and behavior of the main characters is realistic and restrained. Recommended.
More films by Makoto Shinkai:
The Place Promised in our Early Days
Review copyright (c) 2020 by Dennis D. McDonald
