On a rainy morning in Tokyo, 15-year-old Takao, an aspiring shoemaker, decides to skip class to sketch designs in a beautiful garden. This is where he meets Yukari, a beautiful yet mysteriou... Read allOn a rainy morning in Tokyo, 15-year-old Takao, an aspiring shoemaker, decides to skip class to sketch designs in a beautiful garden. This is where he meets Yukari, a beautiful yet mysterious woman. They strike an unlikely friendship.On a rainy morning in Tokyo, 15-year-old Takao, an aspiring shoemaker, decides to skip class to sketch designs in a beautiful garden. This is where he meets Yukari, a beautiful yet mysterious woman. They strike an unlikely friendship.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations
- Takao Akizuki
- (voice)
- Yukari Yukino
- (voice)
- Takao's Mother
- (voice)
- Takao no ani
- (voice)
- Takao's Brother
- (voice)
- Itou-sensei
- (voice)
- Matsumoto
- (voice)
- Satou
- (voice)
- Aizawa
- (voice)
- Moriyama
- (voice)
- (as Yuki Hayashi)
- Young Takao
- (voice)
- Takao's Brother
- (English version)
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Makoto Shinkai, the film's central theme is loneliness. This was inspired by the Man'yoshu, Japan's oldest collection of poems; in that volume, love was represented by the word "koi", or "lonely sadness"; more accurately, a longing for someone in solitude. Shinkai described the film as a love story towards people who feel lonely or incomplete in their social relations, but who don't feel that they need to fix this loneliness.
- GoofsDuring the last scene after the credits, especially 45:35, there are no footprints from outside towards the sunshade.
- Quotes
Takao Akizuki: A faint clap of thunder / Even if rain comes or not / I will stay here / Together with you.
- Crazy creditsThere is a final scene after the credits.
- ConnectionsFeatured in MsMojo: Top 10 Most Beautiful Animated Movies (2022)
- SoundtracksRain
Lyrics and Music by Senri Ôe
Performed by Motohiro Hata
Arrangement: Makoto Minagawa & Akifumi Tada
© 1988 by Sony Music Artists Inc.
We meet the boy Takao quickly through his narration. It's both beautiful to listen to and at the same time kind of funny, since he is only 15 and he makes it sound like an angsty diary entry. He like the rain, and shoes. He skips school to go to the park when it rains, where he meets a woman. They seem to have the same idea of going to the park on rainy days. He finds out eventually that he wants to design shoes for her.
The movie is unintentionally funny in its fixation in shoes and feet. In one way, it almost framed in a fetishized way, on the other hand, its very sweet and beautiful to watch.
The movie is very short, so there is not much time for character development or to let the story unravel in a slow pace. I don't know myself why Shinkai didn't make it longer (time or money or both probably), but if he could've made it longer, he should have. It has lots of promise, and would be way more interesting if it could tackle their relationship more, especially based on the massive taboo on age difference in Japan. It misses out on some really good opportunities for telling a deeper story.
There's a climax where there is a lot of feelings and crying going on and it is, unfortunately, bombarded with really loud emotional music. The dialogue is intense and almost violent, and at the same time kind of silly in a strange way. The music almost drowns out the dialogue and there is anger and sadness and love and it all happens so fast and in an intense way it's hard to know what to feel.
I really wanted to like this movie more than I did. It has a lot of potential, the animation, again, is gorgeous, the story is cute, but with not much substance (of course it has some, it tackles some issues of the woman, Yukari, for example, but not deeply enough. Everything is told so fast you'll almost miss it). I do want to see more of Shinkai (this is the first one I see), because I have no doubt he has made things better than this, and I look forward to see it.
- ashild-blovvig
- Oct 10, 2017
- How long is The Garden of Words?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Khu Vườn Ngôn Từ
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $820,165
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1