"The movie is named 5 Centimeters Per Second for the speed at which cherry blossom petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways."

Beautiful. Absolutely an instant masterpiece by Makoto Shinkai. I enjoyed Voices of A Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, But I never thought that he could pull off another great film.

Plot-wise, it has similarities with his previous works(Voices of A Distant Star),but it manages to create a different atmosphere here. Watching all 3 short stories consecutively, I'll have to say the final chapter was the best among 3. The pinnacle, however, is the first one. Second chapter is a little slow-paced, but it matches the movie theme nicely.

Can't have much complain towards the music. As usual, Tenmon proves he's got the talent with emotional piano pieces. The theme song is nice as well.

Animation & visual effects is stunning. Makoto Shinkai definitely gets a solid certificate to be one of the best visual directors out there at the moment.

Overall, a 9/10 for me. It's almost flawless, but nothing can be perfect, right? ;)

This is a very good movie. It is slow paced and the ending isn't a typical Western ending. I had to look up the ending online to fully understand it but this is a great film on love and long distance relationships. It's also beautifully drawn. There's three parts to it. Part one was set in childhood and there's a section about a long distant train journey. Having lived in Tokyo myself and taken Japanese trains, I was blown away by how lifelike the animation was. Part two was set in the countryside during the teens and some of the animation there is also mind blowing. Part 3 is back in Tokyo in adult life. I can't say anymore or I'll ruin the film but overall it's a wonderful film.

For me, the difference between cinema and literature is that while the latter is fundamentally about words, the former should tell its story at least as much through visuals and movement as through dialogue. 5 Centimeters Per Second, however, tells its story almost completely through words. You could simply read the script and get the entire story.

For example, the first of the movie's three episodes begins, after a snippet of dialogue, with a series of read letters while you watch their receiver go about his day. The bulk of the episode is a train ride in which his anxiety over train delays is expressed mainly by hearing his thoughts about how anxious he is. Shut your eyes, and you wouldn't miss a bit of story.

You would, admittedly, miss some really stunning animation. This movie is absolutely gorgeous, with stunning backdrops that will take your breath away.

The story itself is moderately interesting, a slice of life contemplation of time and desire and feelings of loss.

But it's very slow. And while the movie has some emotional impact, most of it is contained in a final music video-style piece whose combination of lyrics and images would be almost as effective without the hour of story preceding them.

Most of the people writing reviews here find this movie deeply moving, and I do understand why. The situations are sad, the images are pretty, and a sense of melancholy hangs over the whole thing. But for me, it was too slow, too wordy, and lacked the things that, for me, make film so powerful.