5 Centimeters Per Second DVD with Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi Hanamura (Unrated) +Movie Reviews

Profound anime!

M. Yang | Tokyo, Japan | 01/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I never thought that this anime would move me the way it did. I guess I watched it not really expecting much, but it really helped me reflect on my life and how my interactions with everyone has had an affect on who I am.

The title refers to the speed at which Sakura flower petals fall from the the tree. The petals are like us, falling from the tree of life. As we fall, we encounter all sorts of people. There will be people who we will fall in love with, however by the time the petals(us) reach the ground we don't know who will be beside us.

Its done rather well. I've never bought an expensive collectors version of any movie, but I went out right away and bought the collectors version. Hopefully, the dub is done well and the special features will also be included."

Falling Cherry Blossoms

Daitokuji31 | Black Glass | 05/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Once upon a time I used to watch Japanese animation fairly often, finding it an entertaining and easier method to improve my Japanese listening skills than watching live action films since a good portion of the medium is aimed at younger audiences. However, seven years or so ago, I grew tired of watching it, not so much because of the medium itself, but because of a number of the more obsessed, obnoxious fans with whom I did not want to associate or be associated with considering the fact I was beginning graduate work in Japanese studies.

Anyway, it has taken me over half a decade to watch some "older" shows such as Azumanga Daioh and more recent efforts as Kon Satoshi's Paprika. While I do not enjoy the medium as much as I did before, I found these works to be refreshing during high periods of stress, so, at a glacier's pace, I am checking out some random titles with the most recent being Shinkai Makoto's 5 Centimeters Per Second.

What initially drew me to the film were the screen captures on the back of the DVD box which challenged the artistic level of almost every other animated film that I have watched, also, I was attracted to the film because it is a simple love story between a boy and a girl who are separated because of matters beyond their control, meaning, there is no magic, giant robots, space cowboys, or what you.

5 Centimeters Per Second centers on the life of Tono Takaki, a melancholy, taciturn young man whose only friend in elementary school is a girl named Shinohara Akari, who, like Tono, is sickly, quiet and of a bookish nature. Quickly the two become glued together, and despite being teased by classmates, find in each other's presence what they lack in their own beings. However, because of their fathers' jobs, they have to move often and are soon separated from each other. They write each other often at first, but can their relationship remain as strong after Tono moves to Kagoshima?

5 Centimeters Per Second is not one cohesive film, but instead a collection of three short episodes depicting the life and growth of Tono from elementary school, to high school, to the workforce. Although he meets others, such as Sumita Kanae who falls deeply in love with him, Tono's love always belongs to Akari with the result that Tono is always a distant figure looking for the one to make him whole again; however, such quests are not always successful. A quiet, sad film meditating on relationships, time, space, distance, and nature, 5 Centimeters Per Second should appeal not only to anime fans but hopefully fans of romance films as well."

5cm per second...

Mitsuki Shiroi | 02/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""They say it's five centimeters per second."

"What do you mean?"

"The speed at which the sakura blossom petals fall... Five centimeters per second."

I've watched many anime movies, Hayao Miyazaki rating amongst my favorites, but Shinkai absolutely beat Miyazaki with this one, if you ask me.

5cm per second is the perfect portrayal of every day life. How many of us has had friends, even first loves, and thought they'd be together forever, only to have time pass by until we can barely remember their faces? How many times have we passed by someone and thought it might be someone we recognize?

The story is absolutely magnificent. Takaki and Akari, both children used to transfering, find each other after Akari transfers to the school that Takaki attends. Because they both prefer being inside, spending time in the library, they grow closer and closer, until even their classmates make fun of their supposed relationship.

But unfortunately, what could have been comes to an abrupt ending when life intervenes and Akari is forced to move all the way to Iwafune. And the story continues with Takaki's point of view, how time and distance rips him up from the inside. Because he'll always be looking towards some far distance place, having dreams about Akari.

She's the one for him and the fact that they're not together places him into a position where he's always troubled and where he doesn't even notice the other girls that do love him and are closeby.

It's breathtaking. The animation is magnificent and fantastically executed. The lighting and the backgrounds were just breathtaking, while the soft piano music that played in the background wasn't distracting and only added to the entire effect of the movie.

Trust me when I say that this is one worth to watch. And if you've downloaded it, it's definitely worth the 22 bucks to have the actual DVD.

Superb. And that's something I don't say often."

A Reply to Mr. Jonathan Lane's Review

Suzanne | Oklahoma City, OK United States | 07/16/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"*While I normally don't post a review by replying to another one I thought it would be most productive to respond to Jonathan's negative criticisms of this film since most of my praise for it acts as a counterpoint to his critiques.*

Wanting Shinkai to be "the next Miyazaki" is placing unnecessary preconceptions and restraints on a director who is a unique artist and not like Miyazaki at all. Miyazaki has succeeded because he's made Eastern fairy tales and fantasy palatable to a Western audience to which these things are often foreign. His style lies more in the narrative than in the aesthetics (though he doesn't exactly skimp in that area). Shinkai in terms of style, form, content, aesthetic, focus, etc. is nothing like Miyazaki.

As for the so-called "pacing problem" I agreed wholly that Promised was badly paced. But Shinkai's problem is that he couldn't decide what to focus on and how to weave the narrative together. There are two solutions to this; you either maintain a tight control over the flow of the narrative and the characters within it, or you sacrifice narrative pacing for aesthetic pacing. That's what he's chosen to do with 5cm. So the claim that 5cm has bad pacing is completely incorrect. Shinkai is not going for narrative pacing here, but aesthetic pacing. This is a classic technique of Asian art. You can see it in classic Asian film such as Ozu, Mizoguchi, Hsiao-hsien, and Ming-liang. Shinkai achieves this through his minimal focus on narrative, ellipses, pillow shots, musical montages, etc.

As for the music, I also disagree and think this film is another leap forward for Shinkai. There are several views when it comes to the best application of music for film, but one I like is Kurosawa's view that music and film go best together when both pieces are missing something; when a piece of music is missing something or a scene is missing something. That way putting music and film together 'completes' the other. I agree in Shinkai's previous films the music was more individual, more distinguished. But I think his application of more 'passive' music in 5cm is much better. And I rather liked how the ending theme compliments the film that came before. It might not be as superficially pretty as other music Shinkai has used (I think it's quite beautiful, but tastes will differ), but I think it fits much better in the context of the film.

The complaint that this is just a gooey romance rehashed from Promised isn't really fair from someone who's not attempting to conjure up an original and "surprising" narrative. If anything, the film is attempting to get to the emotions associated with the story more than presenting the story itself. Or, put another way, the minimal narrative opens a window into a river of complex emotions associated with such a simplistic and common idea as a youthful romance. Yes, this film is just a variation on his last two, but to criticize Shinkai for that is unfair. Yasujiro Ozu, one of the greatest directors ever, often repeated simplistic storylines using the same actors with even the same character names but just in slightly different circumstances. He did this so as to illuminate a different emotion, aesthetic, or theme each time. And by slightly shifting the content around, his oeuvre forms a kind of Cubist art where you get to see the same thing from different angles.

Shinkai is doing the same thing by using the same basic idea and slightly manipulating it with each effort to get something different out of it. You can't really do this switching to a completely different story, because then the pattern is broken. You can not like this approach and claim that it's just the same thing over and over, but to do so is to miss the point badly. Shinkai has finally honed his style enough that he seems to be aware of this. When he began, I thought he would end up going the more Miyazaki route of making sci-fi, fantasy, romances that fit more into a Western mold. But I'm rather glad that he's gone the opposite route and taken his films in a direction that's much closer to classic Eastern art. Because afterall, we have a Miyazaki, why do we need another one? Especially when there aren't enough artists like Shinkai in anime.

But even more than his Asian predecessors, Shinkai's films have come to resemble those of the reclusive, enigmatic, American director/poet Terrence Malick. After watching 5cm I was actually reminded vividly of Malick's Days of Heaven, which also features a minimalistic narrative that's used as simply a means for momentum on which the breathtaking visual aesthetics take over. This results in film that's the visual equivalent of poetry, and 5cm does indeed play more like a visual tone poem than a narrative driven film.

With 5cm I humbly think that Shinkai has crafted his most complete film to date. A stunningly gorgeous film filled with a rich melancholic tone. The kind of film to watch on a rainy day in a relaxed mood. It's a quiet and graceful film, a humble chamber piece set to a minor key; the anime equivalent of a Schubert Lieder. The 4 star rating is only because as much as I like 5cm, I still think Shinkai is capable of even better.

"

"Shinkai Makoto's third animated film is just PERFECT!"

Dennis A. Amith (kndy) | California | 08/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shinkai Makoto has been someone of a hero for me. Back in 2002, when he won the award as "Most Valuable Newcomer" at the Tokyo Anime Fair 21 for "Voices of a Distant Star", I was blown away by his work for creating a short animated film by himself using only a Power Mac 7600/120 computer and various consumer and professional design and animation software.

In 2005, he returned with another award winning film titled "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" and his third film "5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND" which hit theaters back in March 2007 was another award winner for "Best Animated Film" at the Asian Pacific Film Awards.

But what makes this film different from his previous work is simply amazing. The previous films were very good but "5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND" is just perfect!

From the screenplay, the animation, the music - everything in this film is just perfectly done, well-planned and there is no doubt about it, Shinkai Makoto is one of the most brilliant animators in the world. There is something about his way of thinking, his way of animation that people just fall in love with.

With this particular film, "5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND" is a film divided into three parts.

The first part titled "EXTRACT" features two friends, Toono Takaki and Shinohara Akari, both attend a new school (fourth grade) with each other. They have the same class and they enjoy the same things. As they grow older, both are very fond of each other but in many ways, have difficulty expressing their true feelings for each other. During junior high, Akari moved away and transferred to a new school in a town in the Tochigi Prefecture. The two kept in contact ala penpals through letters sent to each other quite often.

When Takaki's parents move towards a country area (Kagoshima Prefecture) near the ocean, their distance has increased. Both are still wanting so badly to see each other, wanting to communicate their emotions to each other but still have difficulty in doing so. One year after Akari has moved away and a week before Takaki moves, they both agree to meet each other in Akari's hometown. What will happen when the two reunite?

For those wondering about the title. From the initial starting scene of part one, the title is derived from Akari telling Takaki that a cherry blossom petal hits the ground in 5 centimeters per second.

The second part is titled "COSMONAUT". The story continues years later as we learn that Takaki lives in Tanegashima, an island that is used by the National Space Development Agency of Japan for rocket launches. Takaki plans for college and to return to Tokyo but in the meantime, his classmate Kanae has fallen in love with him. In fact, it's more like love at first sight.

She very much wants to tell him how she feels about him but as for Takaki, his mind seems to be somewhere else. In fact, he seems to be texting on his cell phone quite a bit? Who is he texting to? And will Kanae reveal her love to him?

It's very interesting to watch this second part and to see how Takaki has been since moving to a new area and how one yearns for the past.

The third part is titled "5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND" and without revealing too much of this final part of the film, the story revolves around Takaki who is now an adult possibly in his late 20's. Working for a company and his life has changed since his teenager days. All I can say is this final segment alone is just one awesomely, beautiful visual piece with the awesome music of Yamazaki Masayoshi's hit song "One More Time, One More Chance" and just how everything just fits.

The storyline for each three parts is definitely heartwrenching and there are words said by each character that one can just come away watching the film and just realize how touched they were.

GRAPHICS:

The film is presented in 1:71:1 and is presented in 16:9 anamorphic. For me, what was accomplished via background art, character design and just overall animation was just perfect. The staff traveled to various locations and took thousands of photos and within the year and a half of making this film, you can't help but just be amazed of how much was put into this film.

From various scenery, skylines and locations in Tokyo or somewhere in the country, you get not a few but MANY background art variations. The way the sky, the city or town, the hills, the snow, the trees, the vehicles, a building or buildings, indoors, you name it...they take you on one hell of a visual tour that just screams of awesome, beautiful backgrounds.

I am just amazed of how realistic the background art was done and even though Shinkai says that he and his team are not trying to reach realistic sceneries but more of a scenery that one has in their memory of, I'm just digging every aspect of it.

The character designs are just impressive. From the emotional standpoint of the characters, to breathing patterns, the flow of wind and how it affects the characters, was remarkably done well on this film as well.

SOUND:

For the Japanese audio, it's presented in 2.0 with English subtitles with encoding at 224kbps while the English dub is in 5.1 and encoded at 448kbps.

As for the voice acting, I primarily watched the version with the Japanese audio but also watched it in English. My only problem with the English dub is when the beginning scenes feature a junior high Takaki, he sounds no different from an older Takaki. While in the Japanese version, there is a difference and amazingly, even discussed further about that situation by Shinkai and the voice actors in the bonus features.

But it was pretty cool to watch both because in a way, the variety of emotions in Japanese and the English dub, there with each character is different and you can probably watch both versions and come away with something different emotion-wise but both voice acting are well done.

The fact that for the Japanese version, what these voice actors were able to accomplish for their first time voice acting and the direction that Shinkai and staff wanted to achieve was impressive and you learn all about the casting selection and his experience on the special feature interview.

As for music selection, I was impressed by the music used. When I heard LINDBERG's "Kimi no Ichiban ni" in the second episode, I realize that they put the time period at around 1996. I was surprised to hear LINDBERG but even moreso suprise to hear Yamazaki Masayoshi's hit song "One More Time, One More Chance" and how it was utilized for this film. Excellent!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

For the special features, I can't tell you how happy I was to have an in-depth interview with Shinkai Makoto on this DVD. The interview lasts around 36 or so minutes and Shinkai really shows us what was on his mind from the creation, finding locations, the voice acting, the man is quite meticulous in his planning and he knows what he wants and how to work with great people and work together.

Also, where the previous films, distance and speed were a focal point. Although distance is involved, he wanted to show the speed of how things change within time and how he shows the changes in different time periods of the characters is impressive.

I actually was surprised to hear about the growth of the staff and how everyone worked at his apartment and how the apartment could not handle electricity-wise of all the computers used for the film. So, he rented another apartment for more of his staff nearby and how they all worked together. It's so amazing!

He's also so down to earth that even during the interview, his cat was walking around his office and that's something you just don't see in an interview. That was interesting to see.

And to make things even more special is similar to a Robert Rodriguez or even Quentin Tarentino DVD of them helping film fans understand how they shot certain scenes, on this DVD, Shinkai has no problems of showing his thoughts of a creation of an anime and will show you steps of how they accomplished certain scenes and the staff using Adobe Photoshop for the backgrounds and character designs. I was so happy to see them talk about this and I just wish there was so much more.

I really enjoyed how they would show the original photo of the scenery and then show the after animated version, especially adding snow and giving a wintery feel. That was cool to see!

Shinkai has definitely become a fan favorite because of what he was able to accomplish by himself with "Voices of a Distant Star" but his approach to creating an animated film is just so avant garde, unique and fresh that I'm just proud of him and his work and how he plans things out. Especially his mentality and his observance of people, especially on how he selected his voice actors.

Also included in the bonus feature is interviews with the Japanese voice cast and the challenges they faced (since for many of them, it was their first voice acting job) and more importantly what scenes touched them and how they reacted to the film after watching it.

These are lengthy interviews and was very happy to see this.

Last is "THE MAKING OF 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND MONTAGE" features behind-the-scenes shots of Shinkai and staff but also a few shots used on location for the film.

I can't tell you how much I loved this film. Shinkai achieved perfection with animation, background art, screenplay, voice acting and the music, everything is just amazing!

This is not a film that could be live-action but done in animated form and even animated, almost reaching realistic settings through the background art. Shows the talent of Shinkai and his staff. Absolutely awesome!

There are not many people who have achieved perfection but it's amazing how Shinkai Makoto has evolved from a guy working on his own to winning an award, to getting a second film and working with a staff and now, his third film and a DVD that just showcases his mindset and what he set out to accomplish.

This is one DVD that deserves an A+, 5 out of 5 stars and simply a must-buy! Highly recommended!"

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