5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) (Blu-ray) (English Subtitled) (Hong
Kong Version)

Product Description

Since the release of his award-winning short Voices From a Distant Star in 2002, visionary animator Shinkai Makoto has been earmarked as the future of Japanese animation, the next Miyazaki. Though these are no easy expectations to live up to, Shinkai has shown that the hype is well deserved with his 2004 follow-up The Place Promised Our Early Days & now 5 Centimeters Per Second, a.k.a. a chain of short stories about their distance. The title refers to the speed at which cherry blossoms fall to the ground, a fitting image of the films delicate, lyrical splendor. 5 Centimeters Per Second continues with the soft, dreamy aesthetic & bittersweet adolescent sentiments of Shinkais previous works, but this time he moves away from the sci-fi themes, reveling in the lingering beauty of the everyday.

Split into three episodes, 5 Centimenters Per Second follows the tender romance & coming-of-age of Takaki & Akari. They first meet as fourth-graders, lonely souls who love the same books & become the best of friends. When Takaki moves far away, it marks the end of his childhood & an unforgettable friendship. In his high school years, he becomes the object of affection for a young surfer girl named Kanae. As adults, Takaki & Akari watch the cherry blossoms fall, alone in their memories. 5 Centimeters Per Second does not tell so much a story, but a feeling, a portrait of life & longing captured by a distant train, a melting snowflake, a falling blossom.