Japan's 'Weathering With You' to hit Chinese theaters in November
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 30, 2019
The Japanese animated blockbuster "Weathering With You," which is contending for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, will be released in China on Nov. 1.
The Japanese animated romantic fantasy film by Makoto Shinkai, is currently the top-grossing film of the year in Japan, raking in 13.74 billion yen (US$126 million) so far.
Set in Japan during a spell of exceptionally rainy weather, the film tells of a high school teenager who runs away to Tokyo and befriends an orphan girl who appears to be able to manipulate the weather.
Shinkai is best known for directing "Your Name," the highest-grossing Japanese anime film of all time at the time of its release. It earned US$365 million worldwide, including 575 million yuan (US$83.67 million) from China.
The director said at the premiere of "Weathering With You," which was held in Beijing on Sunday, that the making of the film was "painstaking." The animated movie, he said, has more than 1,700 shots, but the crew had only one year to do the actual production, after spending two years in careful preparation.
Shinkai didn't want to lower his standards, so he still demanded that every frame of the film be discussed and analyzed tirelessly by him and his team, which exhausted them. But because of their perseverance, the film proved to be a delicate and richly aesthetic masterpiece.
"You will laugh with joy, and you will cry wholeheartedly," the director said, "It is a film for lovers."
Japanese rock music icon, RADWIMPS, performed the theme song in the film "Is There Still Anything That Love Can Do?" and its lead singer, Yojiro Noda, commented that the animated movie is much like "a secret of successful love confessions." At its Chinese premiere, the band also performed the theme song "Sparkle" from the director's previous film "Your Name" for the eager audience.
"Weathering With You" was also submitted to the Academy Awards to contend for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, as did the Chinese animated feature "Ne Zha."
Shinkai said he was hoping to watch "Ne Zha," the phenomenal Chinese animated film that grossed more than 4.97 billion yuan (US$703.55 million). "I hope China and Japan's animation industries can learn from each other, and advance forward together."
"Weathering With You" will be the third animated blockbuster brought to Chinese audiences by the ambitious Chinese animation studio, Coloroom Pictures under Beijing Enlight Media. The previous two are "Ne Zha" and the re-release of Hayao Miyazaki's classic "Spirited Away," which grossed 486 million yuan (US$68.77 million) in China this year.
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