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The Garden of Words Movie Review

The Garden of Words is a 2013 anime drama film directed by Makoto Shinkai. It is a short, but wonderful feature.

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“I’m twenty-seven, but I don’t feel

any smarter than I did twelve years ago“

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When a lonely teenager decides to miss his morning lessons in favor of sitting in a lovely garden, he meets a mysterious older woman who shares his feelings of alienation. This is Shinkai’s shortest movie, clocking in at just 46 minutes. On the one hand, this led to a movie that was too brisk and ultimately far from memorable, but on the other hand, it made for a very engaging and charming film that was emotionally effective.

Takaro and Yukari are very Japanese – they are lonely and they have trouble making connections with other people. The movie is all about loneliness and how that affects people who experience it, but the director actually did not condemn in any way introverted people, but actually show that some of them may still want to live less social lifestyles even if they feel lonely. That complexity to the treatment of this issue made the movie quite commendable.

The Garden of Words is quite moving in its ending and genuinely captivating in the scenes between the two characters. When they were just talking, I’ve had a blast with the film. But whenever the movie cut away from these two in order to focus on other characters, it made for a much less interesting viewing experience. I would have preferred just one prolonged dialogue scene for the entire runtime to be honest.

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The main highlight of The Garden of Words is most certainly the animation, which is simply astonishing. The titular garden is gorgeous to behold and this is one of those anime movies that truly achieved photorealism in the depiction of nature as well as cityscape. Rain is a major motif in this film and it looked beautiful and quite cozy. The entire movie is highly atmospheric, wonderfully directed and tenderly scored. The script is surprisingly sophisticated and so is the dialogue, but I did find the characterization and overall storytelling to be muted due to its short length.