After watching the cast interview for 'the place promised in our early days', I have a better understanding of Shinkai's aesthetics. Not a whole new understanding revealed in torch light, but rather an reinforcement of the elements that are already evident in his movies.
He said he used to stare out of the railway train for hours and hours wanting to catch everything. There's always something new to see. So he was bound by a nostalgic childhood scenery that becomes an recurring motif. I guess there is indeed something wonderful and meditative about rusty railways nestled quietly in road grass, appearing blotchy and flickery under warm sunlight. The place isn't for trespassing, except when trains whoosh through with the old chunky chunky rhythm. The two parallel lines could lead you somewhere, might be better than where you stand. Most of all the air smells of a slightly baked summer.
Opposed to a preformed image I have of him, shy and taciturn, Shikai is actually rather outspoken and he talks in 1.5x average human speech pacing (make it 2.0x when he gets carried away). Still I look at him and couldn't help thinking, this's a sensitive guy who makes feminine, monologue movies where voice overs make up for the lack of actions or a solid story plot. Sometimes I wonder if this 'shortcoming', which forwards itself as a trademark rather than an outstanding defect, can be easily brushed aside. There's no limitation to the type of medium a director chooses to fulfill his artistic needs, but there seems to be too much abandon in the code of free expression. It's the same thing when I look at modern art. The spotlight is on 'the concept' while traditional craftsmanship, the solid skills easily slip unnoticed. Call it heavy make-up?
It would be better if Shinkai could do more than a bunch of nostalgic feelings and pretty screensavers.
