Just something I want to express whilst I'm on in the dead of the night, after going through two bittersweet movies. One of them is "Garden of Words", the other being "Wolf Children". I want to get it out of the way that "Wolf Children" is the second best film in Hosoda's career (first being The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and third being Summer Wars or Our War Games... since they are nearly identical).
But I felt that Makoto Shinkai have gotten worse over the years. He's still a great director, but nothing that reaches the highs of "Voice of a Distant Star" and "The Place We Promised In Our Early Days". 5cm Per Second had an excellent start, but there was little impact in how the couple drifted from each other and by the end, I didn't feel invested enough when they finally decided to move on. Children Who Chases Lost Voices was the first film that Makoto Shinkai made that was out of his comfort zone. It clearly shows he was channelling more of a Miyazaki's whimsical fairy tale, but it came across as a mere imitation rather than shining. And... Garden of Words was back to basics, but... it seem to have become heavy-handed in his symbolism and forgot to develop the main characters towards the end (when he jumped from being in love to being angry).
I don't know. Maybe if I rewatched his first two films, I may find problems with it, hence why I don't want to rewatch them. I have such good memories of the first two films and it made me a huge fan of his work. I feel that Makoto Shinkai seems to work better by himself (Voice of a Distant Star) or in small teams where he was in charge of mostly everything (The Place We Promised. Except 5cm).
I'm probably all over the place and my thoughts aren't compiled properly. But I feel that Makoto Shinkai, whilst he still have talent and make great movies, never seem to surpass his previous work.
But I felt that Makoto Shinkai have gotten worse over the years. He's still a great director, but nothing that reaches the highs of "Voice of a Distant Star" and "The Place We Promised In Our Early Days". 5cm Per Second had an excellent start, but there was little impact in how the couple drifted from each other and by the end, I didn't feel invested enough when they finally decided to move on. Children Who Chases Lost Voices was the first film that Makoto Shinkai made that was out of his comfort zone. It clearly shows he was channelling more of a Miyazaki's whimsical fairy tale, but it came across as a mere imitation rather than shining. And... Garden of Words was back to basics, but... it seem to have become heavy-handed in his symbolism and forgot to develop the main characters towards the end (when he jumped from being in love to being angry).
I don't know. Maybe if I rewatched his first two films, I may find problems with it, hence why I don't want to rewatch them. I have such good memories of the first two films and it made me a huge fan of his work. I feel that Makoto Shinkai seems to work better by himself (Voice of a Distant Star) or in small teams where he was in charge of mostly everything (The Place We Promised. Except 5cm).
I'm probably all over the place and my thoughts aren't compiled properly. But I feel that Makoto Shinkai, whilst he still have talent and make great movies, never seem to surpass his previous work.
