distant.

This post is dedicated to movies. Particularly, movies by a director that started incredibly small, but that I know will one day be gigantic.

I have a separate taste of movies. Sure, my inner guy always loves to go see something with epic explosions, nail-biting mysteries, "that one really dirty but extremely hilarious" movie, or the occasional fantasy orgy of visual effects. There will always be, however, one genre that will stay dear to my heart. And that is the concept of young love.



Put simply, I think my love for these movies is that "I wished it happened to me". A simple dream. Several movies that I adore that fit this category would include Whisper of the Heart, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Summer Wars, and many anime series such as Chobits, ToraDora and Ouran High School Host Club. What do all these stories have in common? In the end, the guy gets the girl. Every time. Aw, cuuuute... (with the exception of Castle in the Sky, since the two were never really together. So don't think about correcting me, Stephen.)

Yes. I am a sucker for these kinds of stories.

But what if that didn't happen in the end? No matter how hard you fight to stay with someone, the universe pulls you apart anyway?

Director Makoto Shinkai was once a small game animator for the company Falcom. He worked at home from his small Mac. His art style was inspired by the manga he used to read in middle school, and his still-burning love for anime. On his spare time, Makoto created a small film titled She and Her Cat, a 5-minute long animated short about a women and a cat seen entirely through the cat's eyes. He won many awards. After that, he went on to animate a 30-minute long short called Voices of a Distant Star. The boy and the girl in the film were acted out by Makoto and his wife, and was later redubbed by professionals. Invited into a partnership, Makoto left Falcom and created a feature-length film, one that went into Japanese movie theaters called Beyond the Clouds: The Place Promised In Our Early Days. This, too, went on to win many awards. He then created a second movie titled 5 Centimeters per Second. Makoto went to London for a "break period" after 5Cm/S and began working on a new movie, which has yet to be released.

Makoto likes to use the concept of young love in his stories. However, he takes young stories and creates a scenario where the loves must part and move on.

The first movie of his that I saw was5 Centimeters per Second. In it, a boy and a girl move away from each other. The movie chronicles their attempts to be together, as well as their thoughts about each other as they grow older. The title is the rate at which a cherry blossom falls towards the ground, or in the case of the movie, how fast people take to drift apart.

The second movie I saw wasVoices of a Distant Star. This short tells the story of a teenage girl working in the army. She pilots a mech a and fights in space. She has a boyfriend back on Earth that she sends texts to. Mission after mission leads her further and further away from Earth. Texts take longer to send. 3 days. A month. 6 months. A year. 2 years. Eventually, as she reaches the base of the aliens she is fighting, it takes 7 years for her texts to reach Earth.

I plan to watch The Place Promised In Our Early Days tonight.

*UPDATE* I watched it. Not sure what to say about it...just... go watch it. Please. It will not disappoint.

These stories are certainly an emotional change for me. It makes me feel helpless. I want to help the two people be together, but... Nothing can change. I'm not aure how to put my feelings about it into words...

I guess I would like people to watch different movies more. Not ones with a happy ending. Not ones with a tragic ending. Just ones with a different ending.