Weathering With You

image for Weathering With You

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Not recommended under 12; parental guidance to 15 (violence, themes, sexual references, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Weathering With You
  • a review of Weathering With You completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 August 2019.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not recommended due to violence, themes, sexual references and language.
Children aged 12–15 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes, sexual references and language.
Children aged 16 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Weathering With You
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes, animated violence, coarse language.
Length: 112 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

When Hodaka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo) leaves home to make a life for himself in Tokyo he has no intention of ever returning. On the ferry to Tokyo Hodaka nearly drowns but his life is saved by Mr. Suga (voiced by Shun Oguri) and after failing to find a job in Tokyo, Hodaka humbly seeks Mr. Suga’s assistance once more. While working as an editorial assistant for Mr. Suga and his niece Natsumi (voiced by Tsubasa Honda) Hodaka is asked to help with a story on ‘sunshine girls’. Believed to be similar to shamans these sunshine girls, or weather maidens, have become part of another world up in the sky. They, and they alone, are able to take a prayer or a wish to the sky and the sky will magically respond. Hodaka doesn’t believe the legend until he meets Hina, (voiced by Nana Mori) a young girl who prayed at a gate to save her mother and since that day has been able to influence the weather. Together they set up a business to briefly bring sunlight and blue skies to small patches of Tokyo. Hina uses the money they make to look after her little brother Nagisa (voiced by Sakura Kiryu) and Hodaka falls in love with her. When the curse of the weather maiden begins to come true and Hina begins to disappear Hodaka will stop at nothing to bring her back, even if it means crossing over into the sky world and condemning Tokyo to endless days of rain.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Children separated from parents, runaways, illness, and excessive weather conditions.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • A man trips Hodaka who falls into a trash can, knocking the contents into the street. He finds a gun and quickly puts it into his bag.
  • There are guns on a huge billboard outside Shinjuku station.
  • Hodaka grabs Hina away from two men and they chase him. When they catch him one man smacks and slams him into the ground repeatedly. Hodaka pulls the gun out of his bag and shoots. The man is clearly terrified but not injured.
  • Hodaka resists arrest and Hina pushes a policeman so that he can escape. Something comes off her arm, there is a connection with lightening in the sky and a truck suddenly explodes.
  • Hodaka is taken into police custody but escapes to try to help Hina. Natsumi picks him up on her bike and they weave their way recklessly through traffic, narrowly missing trucks and people.
  • A police officer slaps Hodaka and is bitten in return. Hodaka points a gun at police officers who grab him by the head and force him down. Hodaka’s face is bruised and bloody.
  • Nagisa hurls himself at a police officer, knocking him down.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • When Hodaka finds the gateway and enters the sky world there appears to be some sort of raging storm with huge fish and whales. There are close ups of enormous teeth that narrowly miss Hodaka and there is lots of screaming. The scene is wild and may be confusing and frightening to many young viewers.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Hina’s mum lays dying in the hospital and Hina is clearly distressed and sad.
  • When Hina sacrifices herself to the sky Hodaka and Nagisa are clearly very distressed. Hodaka was inconsolable the night before when Hina showed him that she was disappearing.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Some children between the ages of eight to thirteen may also be upset by the above-mentioned scenes.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

It is unlikely that children over the age of thirteen would be frightened by this film.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Pepsi is seen very clearly in one scene.
  • Hodaka is sitting in a McDonalds restaurant when Hina brings him a Big Mac saying that it is the only proper food he has had for 3 days. Hodaka is very touched and grateful and relishes eating the burger which the camera shows in close-up.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Hodaka looks at an advertisement for a sex club waiter.
  • Two men try to force Hina to work for a male club. It is not stated but it appears to be some sort of sex club.
  • Hodaka looks at Hina’s chest and says: “I don’t think you are cut out to work in a club like that.” She gets his meaning and blushes, offended by his comment.
  • Hodaka mistakenly thinks that Natsumi is Mr. Suga’s mistress instead of his niece. He is occasionally found staring at her ample cleavage.
  • Nagisa suggests that he, Hodaka and Hina all take a bath together. Hodaka and Hina are both terribly embarrassed at the prospect and Nagisa and Hodaka take a bath together while Hina has one on her own.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • When Hodaka first goes to Mr. Suga’s home he finds Natsumi sleeping on the couch wearing a very skimpy pair of shorts and a tight little shirt that leave little to the imagination. Hodaka stares at her cleavage and the camera zooms in so the audience can get a good look as well.
  • Mr. Suga is seen sleeping with his hands in his pants.
  • Hina partially removes her robe, exposing her bare chest so that Hodaka can see how she is becoming translucent. Despite the fact that she has exposed her breast nothing specific is seen.
  • A teenage girl says to Nagisa that her heart is beating wildly and that he should feel it. The girl that is with them puts her hand on the other girl’s breast instead.
  • As Nagisa’s two friends try to help him escape from social services one of the girls turns to him and tells him to turn around so that she can take her clothes off. No nudity is seen. The pair swap clothes and Nagisa is able to escape.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Hodaka buys a large beer on the ferry for Mr. Suga who has just saved his life.
  • Mr. Suga drinks a lot (both beer and whisky) and repeatedly offers beer to underage Hodaka.
  • Natsumi occasionally drinks alcohol.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • There is infrequent but occasionally multiple use of the following words throughout the film: “Heck,” “Hell,” “Brat,” “Idiot,” “Dummy,” “Assholes,” “Bullshit,” “Crap,” “Dang,” and “Jeez.”

In a nutshell

Weathering With You is an anime fantasy set mostly in Tokyo. The film is entirely in Japanese with English subtitles and as such will largely appeal to anime fans and lovers of Japanese culture and language.

The main messages from this movie are to believe in the impossible, that a world of magic lies beyond the clouds and that true love will conquer all.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Compassion
  • Helpfulness
  • Spreading joy to others
  • Self-reliance
  • Creativity
  • Discipline and hard work

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as.

  • Running away from home
  • Young girls getting groomed for male clubs and the inherent dangers and risks thereof.
  • Hiding from social services and law enforcement.
  • The consequences of trying to control nature for our own purposes.