5 CENTIMETRES PER SECOND

SYNOPSIS

Told in three interconnected segments, we follow a young man named Takaki through his life as cruel winters, cold technology, and finally, adult obligations and responsibility converge to test the delicate petals of love.

DIRECTOR: MAKOTO SHINKAI

BACKGROUND

Byousoku 5 Centimeter was completed on January 22, 2007. The first of three parts was available for streaming on Yahoo! Japan exclusively for its premium users between February 16 and 19. The complete film was released on March 3, 2007.

The film won the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

If you have already watched the movie, then you are welcome below. If not, SPOILER ALERT!

EPISODE 1: CHERRY BLOSSOM

The movie starts with cherry blossoms falling and the character saying that the speed at which cherry blossoms fall, it’s five centimeters per second. Then the two kids namely Akari and Takaki run down the lane and gets separated in a railway crossing. Before bidding goodbye, Akari wished to see the cherry blossom again with Takaki next year.

Takaki is seen reading a letter, probably from Akari. In the letter, she wrote about summer and their last time together at their elementary school graduation. It has already been half a year and she wonders if takaki still remembers her.

It is the end of autumn, and takaki is seen reading another letter from Akari. A senpai interrupts him. She wanted to know if it is true that takaki is transferring schools. Takaki agrees and says he will change at the end of the year, to Kagoshima because of his parents. Takaki continues reading Akari’s letter where she talks about the changes she had and jokes how takaki won’t recognise when he sees her.

Takaki is sitting in a bench exhausted with his friends during P.E. when he casually asks them if they have ever been to Tochigi. He wondered how to get there. Apparently, Akira is in Tochigi. She moved there upon graduating from elementary school.

In another letter, Akari finally learns about Takaki’s transfer and expresses that she feels a little lonely because Kagoshima is a little far away and it would no longer be a distance where she can just jump on a train and see him whenever she wants.

They decided to meet each other on MARCH 4TH.

Takaki befriended Akari when she transfered to his elementary school in Tokyo. They had similar interests and attitudes which resulted in them growing closer to each other. They liked reading the same books and they preferred the library over playing on the sports field due to their seasonal illness. They were often teased by their friends for being together but as long as they had each other, things like that didn’t scare them. Their seperation was painful for both of them.

 

He received the first letter from Akari half a year later, during the summer of his first year of middleschool. He remembers every word last word of it. Over the two weeks before the day they were to meet, he spent his entire time writing a letter he could give her. It was filled with all the things he had to tell her. All the things he wanted her to hear. There were so many.

On the day, they were to meet, the rain turned into snow in the afternoon.

The train was delayed at every station and soon their agreed time passed. The unfamiliar place, slowy ticking time and hunger was trying to dampen his spirit. He also had a feeling that Akira was beginning to worry. In the Oyama station, he learnt that his next train will be delayed for more several hours, he decided he has no choice but to keep heading towards the station where Akira is waiting.

When he was about to buy a coke from the vending machine, his letter slipped from his pockets and was carried away by the wind.

 

Due to disrupted schedule from the heavy snowfall, the train had to make a temporary stop. But in the end, the train remained stopped in the barren wilderness for two hours. He was hoping that Akari had already returned home.

When Takaki reached their agreed place, he was suprised to find Akari still waiting there. He went near her and called her. When she saw him, she couldn’t stop her tears and they both started crying. It was a long journey, afterall.

 

They had dinner (most delicious rice balls) together and roasted tea. They strolled through the night. They had their first kiss under the cherry tree.

He felt like he knew where eternity, their hearts and their souls all lay. He felt as though he had shared all the experiences of his 13 years and in the next moment he was filled with an insufferable sadness. He knew that they wouldn’t be together forever. The overwhelming weight of their lives to come and the uncertainity of time hung over them. They spent that night in a shack by the back of the field, wrapping themselves in an old blanket, they talked on and on and on…

The next morning as he boarded the train, he parted with Akari.

He never told Akari that he had lost the letter, he wanted to give her because he felt that his words were completely changed after that kiss while Akari silently looks at her own letter addressed to Takaki. All he wanted was the strength to protect her and with that thought in his mind, he continued to gaze out over the landscape beyond the window….. forever.

It tells a very beautiful romance story revolving around the lives of two people. It can be incredibly depressing and heartbreaking at times, and yet it also has genuine moments of heartwarming mixed in too. Filled with beautiful animation styles, it takes the viewers on a deeply introspective journey.

THANK YOU, READERS!

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