News

World Premiere of The Garden of Words at Gold Coast Film Festival.

The Garden of Words is Makoto Shinkai's latest work in colloboration with CoMix Wave Films. Makoto Shinkai stated that this film is the first time he is making a "love" story based on the traditional Japanese meaning of the word. At one time, "love" was written as "lonely sadness" (koi) but over time the modern concept of "love" (ai) was imported from the West. While Kotonoha no Niwa is set in the modern era, it will be about koi in the original meaning — of longing for someone in solitude.

CoMix Wave describes the story:

We have met, for each of us to walk forward.

Takao, who is training to become a shoemaker, skipped school and is sketching shoes in a Japanese-style garden. He meets a mysterious woman, Yukino, who is older than him. Then, without arranging the times, the two start to see each other again and again, but only on rainy days. They deepen their relationship and open up to each other. But the end of the rainy season soon approaches …

Premiere Details

• What: "In Conversation with Makoto Shinkai" talk followed by world premiere of The Garden of Words.
• When: Sunday the 28th of April at 4:00pm AEST.
• Where: Pacific Fair BCC Event Cinemas, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
• Tickets & Further Info: Gold Coast Film Festival Website.

You can view the subtitled trailer below;

Takao is voiced by Miyu Irino (Sena in Eyeshield 21, Staoran in Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE) and Yukino is voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Nadeko Sengoku in Bakemonogatari, Akane Tsunemori in Psycho-Pass). Kenichi Tsuchiya designed the characters and oversaw the animation process alongside Hiroshi Takiguichi as art director. Daisuke Kashiwa composed the music and Motohiro Hata contributed the theme song "Rain" with lyrics and music by Senri Oe.

Makoto Shinkai started work creating video clips for games and graphic design at Falcom. However his first anime title was the self animated, directed and produced five-minute short, She and Her Cat, in 1999 which received the grand prize in the 2000 DoGA CG Animation competition. Shinkai then quit his job in 2001 and started work on Voices of a Distant Star, a 90 minute feature film he wrote, directed, animated, produced and even voice-acted the main characters with his fiancée all from his desktop Power Mac G4. Shinkai then went onto Direct, write, produce and perform multiple duties on The Place Promised in Our Early Days in 2004, 5 Centimetres Per Second in 2007 and Children Who Chase Lost Voices in 2011.

The Garden of Words was announced by Shinkai via his website back in December last year and will be recieving a manga adaptation by Midori Motohashi in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine from the June issue to be published in April.

The Garden of Words will open in Japanese theatres on the 31st of May 2013.

Source: GCFF Press Release & GCFF website.