Directed by Makoto Shinkai • 2004 • Japan
Starring Hidetaka Yoshioka, Masato Hagiwara, Yuuka Nanri
The feature debut from Makoto Shinkai is a haunting and beautiful story of friendship and loss, with stunning visuals and the emotional approach to science fiction that would become the director’s trademark. In an alternate postwar Japan, three teenagers become obsessed with a mysterious tower across the Union border. Hiroki and Takuya work on a makeshift airplane, which they promise their friend Sayuri they will use to visit the tower together someday, but she disappears before it is completed. Several years later, the tower suddenly activates, starting a phenomenon that threatens the world. And the young men now discover that their long-lost friend Sayuri may hold the key to it all.
Up Next in Directed by Makoto Shinkai
-
5 Centimeters per Second
Directed by Makoto Shinkai • 2007 • Japan
Starring Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi HanamuraYoung love, missed connections, and unrequited feelings collide in a stunning romance from visionary director Makoto Shinkai. Told in three vignettes, 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND explores the joys an...
-
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
Directed by Makoto Shinkai • 2011 • Japan
Starring Hisako Kanemoto, Kazuhiko Inoue, Miyu IrinoAn epic fantasy adventure set in a world of ancient gods, CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES follows Asuna, an introvert who spends her time listening to a radio that belonged to her deceased father. One d...
-
The Garden of Words
Directed by Makoto Shinkai • 2013 • Japan
Starring Miyu Irino, Kana Hanazawa, Fumi HiranoFor high school student Takao, a summer shower is a source of artistic inspiration . . . but when he skips school in order to sketch in a rainy garden, he finds a muse in Yukari, an older woman who seems ad...
