Japanese director returns with new anime feature

Actually, though, the new film is more adept at displaying Shinkai's stylized view of adolescent romance and supernatural phenomena.

The story follows Hodaka Morishima, a 16-year-old high school student who escapes his home on a remote island before landing a magazine job in Tokyo. In the Japanese capital, which is in the midst of months of continuous rainfall, he encounters Hina, the so-called "sunshine girl" who has the ability to alter the weather.

The two youngsters turn this supernatural power into an online business providing sunny days for special occasions, such as wedding ceremonies or grand celebrations. However, it soon becomes apparent that their activities are upsetting the natural balance, resulting in a situation that quickly spirals out of control.

The underlying concept of the film suggests that the sky is a separate ecological system that is connected to the Earth through generations of these "sunshine girls".

Talking about his fictional sky dwellers, especially a species of fish which can transform into raindrops, Shinkai reveals that he used the 2016 Chinese animated blockbuster Big Fish & Begonia-hailed for its creative idea that human souls turn into fish after death-as a reference while drawing the scenes.

Additionally, a copy of American writer J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye appears in the film several times, as Shinkai believes the personality of his teenage protagonist bears a resemblance with Holden Caulfield.

"Both of them are the type of person who feel that they are isolated in our modern world," explains Shinkai.

A signature of all Shinkai's movies is that most of the scenes-whether in the metropolis of Tokyo or remote towns-feature breathtaking picturesque landscapes. As such, he has been dubbed the "desktop wallpaper filmmaker" by his Chinese fans, who are delighted to see the new film live up to that reputation.

Weathering With You is made up of around 1,700 shots-100 more than those for Your Name-with each of the shots being discussed meticulously with his team. A shot refers to a series of frames that runs for an uninterrupted period of time. Voice performers for the two leading roles were selected from around 2,000 candidates, according to the director.

However, Shinkai's painstaking effort was outperformed in last Friday's box office charts by Chinese dark horse Better Days, which had already been on screens for over a week, and the Hollywood blockbuster Terminator: Dark Fate, which also made its debut on Nov 1.

Aside from its flat performance a haul of 185 million yuan ($26.5 million) in four days-it has received mixed reviews on the country's mainstream reviewing sites.

Most online reviewers say they liked the delicately-painted scenes, but felt that the plotline was loose and unconvincing. Criticism mostly revolves around the somewhat selfish values and the Sophie's Choicea situation where no outcome is preferable over the other-presented in the film. By it's very nature, the question posed is not an easy one to answer and will divide those that try. Questions over the prospects for Shinkai's new film will probably draw a clearer answer. With more blockbusters set to hit screens over the next few weekends, it seems that Weathering With You will struggle to recreate the glory of Your Name, which grossed 575 million yuan in China.