I was looking forward to this movie since everyone has been praising it for beeing even better than "Your Name". Having seen it, that comparison makes me puke!
Once the movie started I was immediately captured by the interesting plot and the appearance of the deaf little girl. Then the bully starts bullying her and the way the movie handels that is somewhat cliched. He just bullies her and the movie cuts from scene to scene without showing any proper motivation for the "Shoya" character. Then the movie cuts after a few years... don't know how much since the people who made this movie didn't bother to let me know... and we meet Shoya after the events that were shown in the beginning of the movie (which let you to believe it was a clever scene from the end placed at the beginning like in "Your Name". Not the case here anyway) as he finds Shoko again and asks her to be friends again. That was again a very nice and touching scene. But that is where the movie broke from for me. It brings characters that are older that apparently were in the same class as Shoya and hopes I would remember all of them of care about them at this point in the movie, when I'm more interested in the dynamic between Shoko and Shoya. From there the movie became so boring for me. I was constantly asking myself "what good does this and this and this scene for the movie?" and aside from other 3 fine scenes: the first where Shoko tries to tell Ishida that she loves him (more about that later), the second where Shoko jumps and Shoya saves her only to fall himself down in the river and the bridge scene at the end, I was bored almost to tears by this movie. I know it tried to depict depression and the way people feel when they are being bullied but the movie could have portrayed that in a more smooth way. Then comes my biggest issue with this movie, and that is the relationship between Shoka and Shoya. At one point as I mentioned she even tries to tell him that he loves him, giving him three sticks with some shapes on them. By the end of the movie when Shoya sees those sticks back home with his little sister, she and his mom tell him what they mean, at that point I was "hey maybe the movie is doing something with this relationship, having Shoya figuring out that Shoka tried to tell him that she loved him and then maybe trying to go see her and say the same thing or something like that". No, the movie just forgets about that scene, never mentions it and the movie ends with him finally being able to look people in the face. There was literally no reward for all the relationship they builded between Shoka and Shoya. Wouldn't that have been great if they became lovers after having so much trouble in the beginning. Also not to mention that the character turnaround in the beginning for Shoya was completely unbelievable although there were singns when he was bullying Shoka that inside he was regretting. He literally transforms in a mater of a transition from a scene to another scene.
I'm sorry but this is my opinion on this movie. I really wanted to be touched, inspired and moved by this movie, like I was by Your Name but apart from some truly wonderful scenes that somewhat touched me, I never got the feeling that I was fulfilled by the end with how the movie wrapped itself up, Wouldn't recomend this movie, especially if you've seen Your Name. 5/10
Once the movie started I was immediately captured by the interesting plot and the appearance of the deaf little girl. Then the bully starts bullying her and the way the movie handels that is somewhat cliched. He just bullies her and the movie cuts from scene to scene without showing any proper motivation for the "Shoya" character. Then the movie cuts after a few years... don't know how much since the people who made this movie didn't bother to let me know... and we meet Shoya after the events that were shown in the beginning of the movie (which let you to believe it was a clever scene from the end placed at the beginning like in "Your Name". Not the case here anyway) as he finds Shoko again and asks her to be friends again. That was again a very nice and touching scene. But that is where the movie broke from for me. It brings characters that are older that apparently were in the same class as Shoya and hopes I would remember all of them of care about them at this point in the movie, when I'm more interested in the dynamic between Shoko and Shoya. From there the movie became so boring for me. I was constantly asking myself "what good does this and this and this scene for the movie?" and aside from other 3 fine scenes: the first where Shoko tries to tell Ishida that she loves him (more about that later), the second where Shoko jumps and Shoya saves her only to fall himself down in the river and the bridge scene at the end, I was bored almost to tears by this movie. I know it tried to depict depression and the way people feel when they are being bullied but the movie could have portrayed that in a more smooth way. Then comes my biggest issue with this movie, and that is the relationship between Shoka and Shoya. At one point as I mentioned she even tries to tell him that he loves him, giving him three sticks with some shapes on them. By the end of the movie when Shoya sees those sticks back home with his little sister, she and his mom tell him what they mean, at that point I was "hey maybe the movie is doing something with this relationship, having Shoya figuring out that Shoka tried to tell him that she loved him and then maybe trying to go see her and say the same thing or something like that". No, the movie just forgets about that scene, never mentions it and the movie ends with him finally being able to look people in the face. There was literally no reward for all the relationship they builded between Shoka and Shoya. Wouldn't that have been great if they became lovers after having so much trouble in the beginning. Also not to mention that the character turnaround in the beginning for Shoya was completely unbelievable although there were singns when he was bullying Shoka that inside he was regretting. He literally transforms in a mater of a transition from a scene to another scene.
I'm sorry but this is my opinion on this movie. I really wanted to be touched, inspired and moved by this movie, like I was by Your Name but apart from some truly wonderful scenes that somewhat touched me, I never got the feeling that I was fulfilled by the end with how the movie wrapped itself up, Wouldn't recomend this movie, especially if you've seen Your Name. 5/10