Monday, August 06, 2007

5 Centimeters Per Second

Rarely do I come across movies which I feel compelled to blog about, much less animes. But this time, I just can't ignore the urge.


5 Centimeters Per Second - simply the best anime movie I've ever seen. It's so beautiful in so many ways. The art is nothing short of breathtaking, the soundtrack is amazing but most of all - the storyline is delivered in such a delicate yet powerful way.


Of all the animes I've watched, nothing comes close to this in terms of production quality. Every frame is meticulously drawn, almost never recycling scenes like how many other animes do. Many of the scenes were based on real-world locations, and utterly I'm amazed by how much detail the artists of 5 Centimeters Per Second managed to capture.


The soundtrack left me hopelessly addicted to the movie. Playing it over and over again just to listen to the incredibly beautiful tracks. The music blends so well into the movie, and it inevitably injects much of the emotion that the movie aims to present.


"A chain of short stories about their distance". This movie is literally painful to watch. Every minute was heartrending. It portrays the bittersweet lives that many can relate to. It's frighteningly real. It doesn't end with a simple "... and they lived happily ever after". That only happens in fairytales. It illustrates how much lives can change through time and distance. How much distance can mean so much, yet so little.

It might be an anime, but it's on a whole different level.


The last 5 minutes of the one-hour long movie were filled with as much emotion as the entire hour itself. So very many scenes, flashing by so quickly, barely having enough time to digest them. Such a short period, yet so much happened. Every scene is masterfully, never aimlessly , crafted. Every second meant something. If a picture is worth a thousand words, by the end of the 5 minutes you'd have a novel.

That 5 minutes alone, will keep you wondering for the next 5 days.


5 Centimeters Per Second is painful to watch, but never have I come across pain as beautiful as this.

13 comments:

little girl said...

Byousoku 5 Centimeter? It certainly does looks nice *drools*

Andrew said...

whats it about? the screenshots looks nice

Tze Lun said...

-Regina
Yeah, Byousoku 5 Centimeter. It's beyond nice. I didn't know who Makoto Shinkai is, but now I do. And he's a genius.

-Andrew
It's about trials and tribulations of love and life. It's hard to explain what it's really all about, it has to be felt instead. Believe me, the screenshots do no justice to the real thing.

Eli James said...

How come the screenies don't load on my browser?

Tze Lun said...

Urh... I don't get it. It's not showing up even on my side. I didn't edit the post in any way. The images were hosted within Blogger. Blogger acting up?

Tze Lun said...

I suppose Blogger won't bring back my eaten images so I re-uploaded them.

Was lucky enough to be able to recover them from my recycle bin.

Joshie New said...

looks and sounds really really good.=) will download asap!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone here know where I can get the soundtrack of Byousoku 5 Centimeter? The piano part sounds pretty nice.

Can't wait to see the score for it.

corina said...

hi, i just saw this film last weekend and i still haven't gotten over it yet. such a sad yet beautiful film :)

Tze Lun said...

-Anonymous
I myself had a hard time finding the soundtrack. Try www.tokyotosho.com. Yeah I absolutely love the piano part!

-corina
Neither have I! I can't resist the urge to take a peek at it from time to time.

Eli James said...

The stills are up Tze Lun, even on my end. They look gorgeous.

I'm going to hunt this down, thank you vely mush ....

Anonymous said...

Great review! I just saw this at a screening in Seattle. I'm going again on Thursday, too.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that your review was nicely written...it was able to intricately connect the themes Makoto wanted to potray and display....

the last line really moved me =)

thank you~

manfa