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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Love, climate join forces in ‘Weathering With You’

Dan Webster

Anime fans — or, to be fair, anyone who follows Japanese cinema — should be excited about the latest GKIDS release.

That release, Makato Shinkai's "Weathering With You," will play at three area theaters — AMC River Park Square, and Regal Cinemas sites at Northtown Mall and Coeur d'Alene's Riverstone Stadium — Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Showtimes both nights will be 7 p.m. for dubbed versions, 8 p.m. for original language with subtitles.

"Weathering With You" tells the story of a runaway boy who comes to Tokyo and meets a girl who seems to be able to manipulate the weather. The film carries overtones of a coming climate disaster, but it is no solely an ecological warning. It is also a film about young love.

As Washington Post critic Mark Lieberman wrote, the film might not reach the heights of Shinkai's previous film — "Your Name" — but "it still achieves something impressive: It tells a story that, without sugarcoating the environmental challenges that lie ahead, manages to end on a hopeful note."

In this era of runaway Australian fires and rising sea levels, hope is something we could all use.