The Garden of Words Review: An film of intriguing metaphors
While I am too busy to binge-watch all the anime I'm constantly recommended to watch (I've only gotten about six episodes into One Piece), I stay up to date on anime films when I have the chance. With both Weathering With You and Your Name ranking amidst my top ten favorite movies of all time, CoMix Wave Films quickly solidified itself as one of my absolute favorite animation studios of all time. With promising, gorgeous cover art, I had high, high hopes for this film. Did The Garden of Words live up to my lofty expectations, or did it crash and burn? That is what I, Brighton Nelson of The Reel Ranker, will be tackling in today's review.
The synopsis of this film, which I didn't read before watching the film, tackles two lonely people struggling to find their place in life. The two leads are Takao Akizuki and Yukari Yukino, the former a 15-year-old boy who is an aspiring shoemaker and the latter a mysterious 27-year-old woman. These two consistently meet at the park, both eventually opening up to one another, and the film continues as a metaphor for the Japanese cultural concept of "lonely sadness" and the awkwardness of learning to be mature.
Now, that last sentence was the pitch proclaimed by the director. If that's the emotion that I felt while watching the movie, I'd definitely be a big fan of the nuanced metaphor the film conveyed. I firmly believe there is true value in having friends older and wiser than you and vice versa. However, this film started to lean toward the romantic side of things, and the execution of every aspect of this film did not work for me. It felt twisted in a way that, while perhaps not intentional, completely tarnished my opinion of the film. This film was perfectly described by a random Google review by someone I can't find anymore, but I digress. It stated, "The Garden of Words? More like the garden of feet and pedophilia."
That's a perfect description of how I felt about this film. If the genders of the characters were reversed, this movie never would have flown in the West. Like, at all. While I understand this is a layered story about two social outcasts, that age gap made the final moments feel pretty disgusting to me, and I couldn't see through that aspect, regardless of the metaphorical side of the film. There was no reason not to make the male lead an 18, 19, or 20-year-old. That little change would alter my whole perspective on this film. While I understand it was more one-sided and could be seen as an asexual enamorment instead of an actual attempt at romance, the way the movie frames it still feels incredibly wrong.
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Unreel
The Reel Ranker Score: 4%
Letter Score: F
Star Ranking: 0 out of 5
As somebody who has been immersed in Japanese culture from a young age and is currently studying Japanese in college, I know that Japanese media can be very metaphorical and indiscrete, but while I understand some people are able to enjoy this film, the metaphor doesn't work for me, and the movie feels lewd and meaningless for me. This is one of my least favorite films of all time—regardless of its one redeeming aspect, its beautiful animation—and I find it to be a mysterious misfire and a serious stain on the reputation of one of my favorite animation studios of all time. Frankly, I can only recommend this movie to female pedophiles. The end, finalement, all that jazz.
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