5 Centimeters Per Second

Yours truly is so full of sorrow and melancholy now.

I just watched 5 Centimeters Per Second, a 2007 Japanese animated feature film by Makoto Shinkai. It's a breathtakingly beautiful film with realistic and well-drawn scenes, and I can only imagine how much dedication and concentration it took the animators to piece together the consistently flawless illustrations.

I say realistic, because I could actually recognise the train stations from my trip back in March - from the turnstiles to the top-up machines and the platforms.

Beautiful picturesque sceneries and settings make my heart weep. Some probably understand how I feel - when you see something so pretty, but you just can't do anything about it. It hurts a little just gazing and marvelling at such a creation, but you can't tear your eyes away.

It suits the storyline of this film really well though, I realise - now that I've written the above out. The plot essentially evokes those somewhat bittersweet, quietly sad and slightly painful emotions in you. Actually, there is no plot.

Unlike American films and cartoons that go with the basic Intro-Problem-Climax-Resolution-End plot, this film (along with many other well-known Japanese films) seems  to want to embrace the real experiences of life, channeling the almost directionless notion of our lives where we live each day out not actually knowing what to expect tomorrow. It makes you slightly uncomfortable when you recognise that element and empathise with what the characters are going through. Instead of leaving you with good feelings and motivation in life , 5 Centimeters Per Second leaves you questioning our brief existence in this time frame.

This show is a must-watch for people who really appreciate beautiful landscapes, and especially for people who ponder a lot about life. I can imagine some people who'd yawn and fast forward during the show, and go "What the heck" after watching, lamenting about their wasted time, though.

I just wish I hadn't watched it on the night before a work day, because I will bring all the melancholic vibes with me which would just make me even more tired with the work added on.

Anyway, here's the ending song at the end (duh) of the film, with a brief overview of the whole film in form of selected movie time frames: