MAKOTO SHINKAI’S “Weathering With You” is the Japanese entry for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

It is the first time since Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” in 1998 that Japan has selected an anime in the best international feature film category, known as the best foreign language film until last year.

The climate-change romantic fantasy from the director of “Your Name” is just passing the US$100 million mark at the domestic box office, the first Japanese film to do so since the director’s 2016 smash hit. “Your Name” went to take US$358 million worldwide, breaking the box office record of Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away.”

Like Shinkai’s previous film, the two main protagonists are a young man and woman, one from Tokyo and one from the countryside, and it involves supernatural elements. It also sees Japanese band Radwimps again on the soundtrack and the return of producer Genki Kawamura. In “Weathering With You,” teenage boy Hodaka moves to the big city and meets Hina, a young lady with the ability to alter the weather, at a time when Japan is suffering from excessive rainfall.

“Weathering With You” has been picked up for North American distribution by GKIDS and will make its regional bow at Toronto International Film Festival.

The 92nd Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 9, 2020.

(SD-Agencies)