"In that moment, even one minute felt like an eternity. But time still slipped by, unstoppable,"
"I could only hold back my tears."
"Mingli, I hope you've already gone home."
Listening to these inner thoughts from Jishu in the animation, Xu Juan could feel just how important Mingli was to him—his anxiety, his worry, his guilt. This wasn't just what the character Jishu felt; it was what many viewers felt right now too.
Everyone watching thought the Porter was playing with their emotions.
Just a couple of young middle schoolers in love who hadn't seen each other in over a year, finally taking the plunge to meet—and then this? Snowstorm and train delays?
As if they'd ever actually meet up!
At this point, many in the audience were convinced the Porter was diving back into his signature heart-wrenching style.
"Wait, what?"
Xu Juan's face suddenly lit up with surprise.
Soft, soothing background music began to play.
After a long delay, Jishu finally made it into the waiting area, and there was Mingli, still waiting for him.
In the quiet station, Jishu ate the little snacks Mingli had prepared, and afterward, they headed to the cherry blossom tree she had mentioned in her letters.
"Doesn't it look just like snow?" she asked.
"Yes," Jishu replied.
And at that moment, in the animation, the falling snow transformed into cherry blossoms, as if it were spring.
Mingli's words from the start of the movie echoed here: the cherry blossoms looked like snow. But really, didn't the snow look like cherry blossoms?
Jishu understood her thoughts, and in that moment, he leaned down, and the two shared a kiss.
"This has to be true love, right?"
"If this guy ever breaks Mingli's heart, I'll tear him apart myself!" Xu Juan thought, watching the scene.
After all, Mingli had waited in the snow for Jishu, despite how late he was. Her feelings were clear.
This girl definitely loved him.
That night, they stayed at a shed on the edge of a field. The next morning, Jishu took the first train back, saying goodbye to Mingli.
Mingli watched the train leave, then quietly took a letter out of her bag—a letter she had written for Jishu but had never given to him.
Then the scene shifted, showing Jishu in high school.
A boy and a girl stood on a vast field under a sky full of stars. In that dreamlike scene, stars rose from the horizon, meeting the sunrise as it peeked over the earth, while clouds and stars filled the sky above them.
The scene was beautiful, almost surreal, and captivated the audience with the Porter's stunning art.
The story that followed focused on Jishu's life at his new school, where a girl named Chengtian developed a crush on him.
Watching Chengtian's shy attempts to get close to Jishu, Xu Juan couldn't help but think how innocent high school love was.
It was just a shame…
This sweet girl liked Jishu, but he had fallen for Mingli way back in middle school, meaning Chengtian's love was unrequited from the start.
Beyond Jishu's quiet, withdrawn demeanor, it was clear from his interactions with Chengtian that his feelings were elsewhere.
Throughout the scenes, Chengtian kept finding chances to be around Jishu, but he never once reached out to her.
At one point, the animation shifted from dark tones to bright ones, with uplifting music that gave a sense of excitement. Chengtian finally managed to ride a horse on the plains, and with her newfound confidence, she resolved to confess her feelings to Jishu.
That evening, she waited for him like usual, pretending to run into him by chance on his way home so they could walk together.
Stopping at a shop to buy drinks, everything seemed to be going well.
On the way, Chengtian tried to start her confession several times, but the courage she had found on horseback was fading with each step.
In the end, as they were about to leave the shop, her bicycle broke down.
"Leave the bike here and come back for it tomorrow," Jishu suggested.
When she told him to go ahead without her, Jishu looked at her and said,
"We're close to home now, so I'd rather walk with you."
This should have been Chengtian's perfect chance to confess. But instead, her face fell, sadness settling in.
Even though learning to ride had given her the courage to confess, seeing Jishu, the one she secretly loved, made that courage vanish, like a wave receding from the shore.
Because she finally realized that Jishu had never really seen her.
Jishu's kindness had misled her, made her think she had a chance. But in the end, that same kindness would hurt her deeply.
Chengtian gave up on her confession.
In the movie, she suddenly burst into tears as she walked behind Jishu.
He snapped out of his daydream and noticed her crying.
"Huh, what's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing… I'm sorry," Chengtian replied, her voice choked with emotion.
Head lowered, she thought,
Please… don't be so kind to me.
In the end, she never voiced her feelings.
She understood now that she had never had a place in Jishu's heart.
As the scene shifted, a rocket launch played on the screen.
The rocket shot up, its fiery trail dividing the sky, and as the sunset bathed everything in its warm glow, the exhaust trail seemed to split the world in two.
Chengtian and Jishu watched, their eyes wide as they took in the breathtaking sight.
The booming sound and awe erased everything else from their minds.
When they snapped back to reality, they continued their walk home together.
"Isn't that the Shenzhou 5?" someone in the audience whispered.
"Wow, they even timed the launch perfectly."
The theatergoers noticed the words "Shenzhou 5" emblazoned on the rocket.
Ren hadn't followed the original 5 Centimeters per Second timeline but had created his own.
In 5 Centimeters per Second, Ren split the story into three parts: Cherry Blossom Extract and Cosmonaut.
In the second part, Cosmonaut, he had chosen to feature China's Shenzhou 5 launch in 2003.
Even the launch sequence appeared in the film's animation.
Instead of Chengtian learning to surf, as in the original movie, Ren had her learn horseback riding instead.
----------
For 10 advance chapters: patreon.com/michaeltranslates