"The Garden of Words and Leaves" tells the story of "teacher-student love" in the rainy season. The central dialogue in the film comes from an ancient Collection of Japanese poems: The Song of Thor in Volume 11 of the Manyo Collection. "Manyo Collections" contains many poems of "tragic love" between lovers that cannot last forever. Therefore, although it is in the context of the metropolis, it makes the audience vaguely feel the "sadness" of the ancient characters. The time and space switch between rainy days and sunny days makes the feelings of the male and female protagonists ripple on each other in the natural changes. This article introduces the film from the aspects of the film's plot, character setting, aesthetic use, and sociality.
The plot of the film
At the beginning of the film, Akizuki, who aspires to be a shoemaker, and Yukino, the school's teacher, meet in the park courtyard on a rainy day, and the feeling of déjà vu makes Akizuki wonder if she has seen it anywhere, and then when Yukino notices Akizuki's school emblem, he sings the first half of the song of the god of thunder in the "Manyo Collection": しとよみて さし昙り Rainも降らんか君を留めん (faintly thundering, hazy sky but waiting for the wind and rain to come can keep you here)
On the second rainy day, the two met again in the courtyard unexpectedly, Qiu Yue secretly painted the feet of Yukino, and before leaving, Yukino said to Akizuki that maybe she would see each other again in the rainy days in the future, and when she heard this, Akizuki looked forward to the arrival of the rain day day and night. Because he could only see Yukino on rainy days, the next two often met on rainy days, chatted together and ate bento when they met, and when Akizuki first confided his dreams to people, that person was Yukino, and at this time Yukino also began to look forward to rainy days.
Then the film's first climax appears. During a meeting, Yukino bought a book to make shoes and gave it to Akizuki. When Akizuki told Yukino with gratitude that she was making a pair of women's shoes, Yukino took the initiative to stretch out her feet and frankly said: "I don't know when to start, I don't know how the road should go," Although the two at this time do not even know each other's names, it can be seen that the two at this time have no understanding of each other's love.
Sun rain at the first orgasm
At the end of the rainy season, Yukino still often waits for the appearance of autumn moon in the courtyard on a sunny day, but since he was a child, he did not want to be treated as a child by Yukino, so he has been working hard for tuition and dreams all summer vacation, and he has always wanted to make a pair of shoes for Yukino that can go further.
After the school started, the two met in the school, at this time the two knew each other's names, when the two met again in the park, they could no longer hold back the second half of the Thor song that could not hold back the autumn moon that missed Yukino: の 少しとよみて 降らずとも I は止まらん妹し留めば (faint thunder, hazy sky Even if there is no rain, I will stay here)
At this time, the camera once again switches the time and space from sunny to rainy, and it is drifting heavy rain, the two are wet and go to Yukino's house together to hide from the rain, taking this opportunity, Akizuki finally confessed to Yukino, who is 12 years older than him, although Yukino was very touched at this time, he still refused on the grounds of moving to Shikoku, and also confessed to Akizuki that he had been practicing in the park even without shoes to take a step alone. And thank you for the company of Autumn Moon during this time. Hearing this, Qiu Yue was sad and had to turn away. Seeing Yukino leave Akizuki, he cried bitterly alone, while thinking about the past with Akizuki.
When I think back to Qiu Yue reading out the second half of Thor's song, I suddenly changed my mind, and ran out without wearing shoes, trying to catch up with Qiu Yue. What I didn't expect was that Qiu Yue didn't leave at all. At this moment, the dialogue between the two pushes the film to a climax.
From the embrace of the last two people, you can see the rainbow halo as the background, rain and tears mixed together, at this time the two people no longer have hesitation and uneasiness in their looks, some can only feel the joy of each other's body temperature, and the expectation of wanting to be together forever. At the same time, I have more courage to go down with each other.
At the end of the film, the camera switches time and space to snow again. At this time, Yukino had already started a new teaching career in the distance, and Akizuki in the park pavilion took out the shoes she had made for Yukino after reading Yukino's long letter, and planned to wait until she was mature to see Yukino.
Shoes at the end of the letter: At this time, Yukino is still encouraging Akizuki not to give up on her dreams
Character setting
In addition to the plot, the most interesting should be the setting of the characters, in the usual pure love films, the male protagonist is always desperate to pursue the heroine, but "The Garden of Leaves" shows a lot of Yukino's initiative: for example, at the beginning of the film, Yukino left the first half of Thor's song, thus extending a relationship. When the plot develops to the point where Akizuki wants to measure the size of Yukino's feet, it is Yukino himself who takes off his shoes and stretches out his feet. At the climax of the plot, Yukino took the initiative to embrace Akizuki. On the other hand, Qiu Yue's character setting is more like a traditional Oriental woman: cooking at home, crying on the balcony when she is in love. From here, we can see that in fact, the whole relationship is more often Yukino taking the initiative.
The use of animation aesthetics
The plot of the whole film is not complicated: the two have chosen loneliness and lovesickness for most of the time since they met, even if the two are clearly in love with each other, they still cannot open their hearts to accept each other's love. However, since most of the plot takes place in the park courtyard, the spatial scope that can be used to express the plot is very small. But Makoto Shinkai makes the audience feel the emotional connotation he wants to express through his unique animation aesthetic. For example, the basic tone in the film: green representing nature. In addition to the green courtyard in the park, there are also weeping leaves, and the flowing lake water is green. The bulbs and seasonings at home are also green. And this tone that should have appeared in the mountains also makes the film in the urban background full of lightness and tranquility. In addition, through the unique time and space switching method of sunny and rainy days, the fluctuations of the surrounding scenery are driven, coupled with the dynamic portrayal of the expressions when the rhythm of the characters' hearts changes, which makes people have a visual impact and also allows the audience to follow the film to see a modern metropolis, but it can be called a classical Japanese sadness.
The animation scene compares with the real scene of Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo, allowing us to feel makoto Shinkai's CG technology.
The social nature of life
In fact, what Makoto Shinkai can experience in his films is not only his aesthetic storyline and animation aesthetics, but also a certain sociality. The sociality expressed in "The Garden of Words and Leaves" is how to take the next step on the road of life, even if it is barefoot. Therefore, in the film, there is a shot of Yukino not wearing shoes but pounced on Akizuki, and perhaps Makoto Shinkai also wants to tell the audience through such a metaphorical expression: the road of life continues not by shoes, but by himself. Finally, in the small courtyard, the two not only fell in love, but also understood how the road of life should go. Although the film does not explain the final ending of the male and female protagonists in the end, which makes the audience have a slight sad regret, it is this open-ended ending that is the most acceptable to the audience. Because whether it is autumn moon or snow field, after this, there will be their own life, on the road of life, both of them will go further and walk out of the better future of life.
PS: In the novel of the same name, the two end up meeting in the courtyard.