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The Garden of Words
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Someone here told me to watch it, so here I am many many many months later watching it.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Final Verdict: [Weak]
The Garden of Words
Romantic Drama / Japan / 2013
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Someone here told me to watch it, so here I am many many many months later watching it.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
I hate conventional romance movies, the stereotypical hollywood romance movie with all of it's cliches is arguably less tolerable than the stereotypical hollywood horror movie. At least horror movies play the same game with varying premises, but conventional romances are the peak of stupidity and boredom.
So it's refreshing to see a less than conventional romance such is the case here; where a 15-year-old boy with a hobby of designing shoes and a 27-year-old literature teacher with a drinking habit, finding themselves under the same park gazebo on rainy days. There's no talk of dating or marriage, it's just two people sharing each others' time and coming to appreciate each others' company.
Plenty of emphasis is put on their growing detachment on sunny days and after the halfway point we come to understand that she's been forced to quit her job after some punk students started sexual rumors about her, which makes her less enigmatic and more sympathetic.
By the time she's giving measurements in the park so that he can create a pair of heels for her, it's beginning to seem like a classy big-budget foot fetishist's romance, and I'm hoping they end up together.
Unfortunately, the movie can't simply deliver on that concept, by the time he's spending time at her place and they're both monologuing about how happy they are, he confesses he's fallen in love with her and she replies saying that she's moving. "I decided it a long time ago".
Well ISN'T THAT JUST GREAT. ****ty romance movies with stupid characters are one thing, but decent romance movies that circlejerk the audience is a whole 'nother thing. But have no fear, stupidity is never far away, as as soon as he leaves she regrets it and has her dramatic run after him only for him to turn around and pull the "I hate you" bit, suddenly he loathes her drinking habit, suddenly she's a terrible example of an adult, suddenly she's just entertaining his fantasies out of pity, and I'm like "YOU *******, STOP!"
She suddenly hugs him all teary-eyed, confessing that he helped keep her stable and we zoom out into credits.
Uh... okay. That's it?
MID-credits we get a scene establishing that she really moved away and started a teaching job elsewhere. ...are you kidding me? After all that you just throw this entire relationship out the window on a decision you haven't provided us any reason couldn't have simply been reversed?
AFTER-credits we get a scene in which Main Guy says it's his destiny to end up with her some day, or some ****.
Man, it's like you spend the entire movie setting up Chekov's Gun only to tell us you're going to fire it offscreen after everyone stops watching. In what way am I supposed to be satisfied with that ending? Apparently it satisfied a lot of people because this got all kinds of rewards and stuff, but if you take out the excellent production quality, and I admit it is excellent, what are you left with? A romance with no resolution. A climbing action to a climax with no ending.
You know, Shinkai, I watch movies to escape, to become immersed in a world that isn't mine, not to be dully reminded of crushing depression as a means to educate me. Perhaps this movie is wasted on me, because I'm not naive to these ideas, and yet I'm certain the vast majority of movie reviewers who rated this movie aren't naive to these ideas either, so I'm intensely skeptical of what they're rating; is it the story or the graphics?
So it's refreshing to see a less than conventional romance such is the case here; where a 15-year-old boy with a hobby of designing shoes and a 27-year-old literature teacher with a drinking habit, finding themselves under the same park gazebo on rainy days. There's no talk of dating or marriage, it's just two people sharing each others' time and coming to appreciate each others' company.
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The age difference between the two main characters and their character traits demonstrate how awkwardly and disjointedly people mature, where even adults sometimes feel no more mature than teenagers, according to Shinkai.
By the time she's giving measurements in the park so that he can create a pair of heels for her, it's beginning to seem like a classy big-budget foot fetishist's romance, and I'm hoping they end up together.
Unfortunately, the movie can't simply deliver on that concept, by the time he's spending time at her place and they're both monologuing about how happy they are, he confesses he's fallen in love with her and she replies saying that she's moving. "I decided it a long time ago".
Well ISN'T THAT JUST GREAT. ****ty romance movies with stupid characters are one thing, but decent romance movies that circlejerk the audience is a whole 'nother thing. But have no fear, stupidity is never far away, as as soon as he leaves she regrets it and has her dramatic run after him only for him to turn around and pull the "I hate you" bit, suddenly he loathes her drinking habit, suddenly she's a terrible example of an adult, suddenly she's just entertaining his fantasies out of pity, and I'm like "YOU *******, STOP!"
She suddenly hugs him all teary-eyed, confessing that he helped keep her stable and we zoom out into credits.
Uh... okay. That's it?
MID-credits we get a scene establishing that she really moved away and started a teaching job elsewhere. ...are you kidding me? After all that you just throw this entire relationship out the window on a decision you haven't provided us any reason couldn't have simply been reversed?
AFTER-credits we get a scene in which Main Guy says it's his destiny to end up with her some day, or some ****.
Man, it's like you spend the entire movie setting up Chekov's Gun only to tell us you're going to fire it offscreen after everyone stops watching. In what way am I supposed to be satisfied with that ending? Apparently it satisfied a lot of people because this got all kinds of rewards and stuff, but if you take out the excellent production quality, and I admit it is excellent, what are you left with? A romance with no resolution. A climbing action to a climax with no ending.
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
In many of Shinkai's films, sad endings resulting from misunderstandings and unrequited feelings are common. According to Shinkai, his stories are intended to encourage teenagers as they learn to cope with these commonplace experiences.