Before its ending, the story of '5 Centimeters per Second' was delicately written, but strictly speaking, it was simply a story about two long-distance lovers who eventually drift apart in the vast sea of people and time.
Although watching it was painful, most viewers could still emotionally adjust themselves during the process.
But the train scene at the end truly became the finishing touch.
All the viewers were waiting for the train to pass.
In fact, almost everyone believed that since Takaki Tono had been so deeply influenced by Akari Shinohara throughout his growth—
Even after graduating from university and getting a girlfriend, he still broke up with her because he couldn't devote himself wholeheartedly. In the end, he even became numb toward his job and resigned.
Then Akari should have experienced something similar.
The movie didn't give much of Akari's perspective, but most viewers believed this to be the case.
Because back in middle school, Akari's feelings for Takaki and Takaki's feelings for Akari were equally strong.
The scene in the first act where Takaki is anxious to the point of almost crying because his train is delayed.
And the moment when Akari waited for him until the middle of the night in freezing weather.
No one believed that such feelings would completely disappear with time.
But the result…
It was exactly that.
At the end of the film, the train passes by.
Takaki sees the empty railroad crossing on the other side.
He freezes for a moment.
Then he smiles faintly and turns away without looking back.
The male protagonist has finally let go.
But what about the audience?
Late at night, people who had brought their partners to the cinema to support Su Yan were completely stunned.
It wasn't that they hadn't expected depressing elements—after all, Su Yan had quite a track record.
But during interviews, Su Yan had said the protagonist would be smiling at the end, which was extremely misleading.
So this was the smile he meant?
What kind of joke was that?
Even if the ending were sad, people's worst expectation had been something like 'The Garden of Words'—where the male and female leads cry together, separate for a while, but the male lead says he'll go find Yukino again in the future.
So it counted as half-tragic, something audiences could accept.
But what was '5 Centimeters per Second'?
A couple who once loved each other so deeply—
And their final ending was not even a single glance back at one another.
Couldn't Akari wait just a few dozen seconds for him?
Just like that—
Their destinies completely diverged into separate paths in the sea of people.
Inside the theaters across the Xia Nation, many viewers were already feeling something was wrong.
Especially the couples.
They silently walked out of the theaters, their eyes red.
Although it was just a movie, art comes from life.
And the more people thought about the story in this film, the more it seemed painfully close to reality.
So…
Love does disappear, right?
The love between Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara faded with time.
Then what about people in real life?
Emptiness.
Depression.
Heartache.
Various emotions are tangled together in people's minds.
In the end, it resulted in '5 Centimeters per Second' climbing to #1 on trending lists across the four major streaming platforms.
["Guys… I really can't take it anymore."]
["Waaah… I'm a girl, and I cried so hard outside the cinema after watching it."]
["I'm jealous of you girls—you can cry whenever you want. I'm a guy, and I was smoking in the theater bathroom. I started thinking about my ex. We broke up for no reason too…"]
["My girlfriend and I were already arguing and close to breaking up. We went to watch a movie together to ease things. But after watching '5 Centimeters per Second', I directly broke up with her. Ease things? My ass! If Takaki and Akari can split up, what chance do we have?"]
["Bro, don't get too immersed. It's just a movie."]
["So what if it's a movie? The movie just inspired me. The lesson is something I realized myself. Honestly… it feels meaningless now."]
["I'm an idiot. Why did I go watch this movie?"]
["I suddenly remembered my first love."]
["I went to watch it with my girlfriend. After the movie ended, I remembered my first love. Then I saw my girlfriend secretly looking at photos of her ex on her phone in the car. I saw it through the rearview mirror. I feel like my relationship is doomed."]
["Su Yan, you old sadist! What's wrong with you?!"]
["It hurts so much. My heart feels empty after watching this movie."]
["Sigh… I want to curse Su Yan, but at the same time, this ending is genius. No change would make it better."]
["Four movies premiered tonight. I didn't watch the other three. Has anyone seen them? Are they good? Which one has the highest box office?"]
["At this time, no one can say yet. Tonight's box office champion should be 'Windmill'—it has way more screenings. But later it might change. Four movies premiered at the same time, yet '5 Centimeters per Second' already topped the trending lists on all four streaming sites by 9 PM. That says a lot."]
["This is my first time watching a Su Yan project. Let me ask his fans here—are all his works like this?"]
["Of course not! His earlier depressing works at least had someone die. So when he made a pure romance film, everyone assumed it wouldn't be that cruel. Who knew '5 Centimeters per Second' would be like this… It's killing me."]
["I can't sleep. I'm going to curse him on the Dimensional Pictures website."]
["Waaah… I'm guilty. I'm sick. Watching something like this late at night and reminding myself of my first love."]
["This movie's aftereffect is too strong. I need time to recover…"]
["No way. I can't be the only one suffering. Everyone, go promote this movie so more random couples watch it in theaters."]
["Exactly! We can't be the only Su Yan fans who suffer. More people should experience this."]
["Charge!!!"]
Throughout the night, fans of '5 Centimeters per Second' leaving theaters continuously posted about the movie online.
In fact, the Xia Nation's film media had long understood something about Su Yan's works.
People could curse all they wanted—but what mattered was what they were cursing.
If they cursed the work itself for being bad, that meant the film had truly failed.
But so far, that had never happened.
However, once fans started cursing Su Yan personally, it meant the work likely had the potential to become a huge hit.
With only 16% of screenings, '5 Centimeters per Second' had already created this much buzz online.
That alone spoke volumes.
After midnight—
The July 16 box office data for the day's premieres was finally compiled.
The box office champion was naturally the film with the highest screening ratio and the most pre-release hype:
'Windmill'.
Opening day (Friday) box office: 98 million yuan.
Just slightly short of 100 million.
With numbers like that, barring accidents, it would easily surpass 100 million per day over the weekend.
The second-place film was also revealed.
'5 Centimeters per Second' ranked second with 83 million yuan.
But a closer look at the numbers revealed many key points.
Another film with 16% screenings, the fantasy movie 'Black Mist', only made 59 million yuan on its first day.
It should be noted that these three films all featured well-known Xia Nation actors.
In terms of cast lineup, they were roughly at the same level.
'Windmill' had a slight advantage, while '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'Black Mist' were comparable.
Since the cast wasn't the reason for the gap, why did 'Black Mist' earn so much less despite having the same screening share?
On opening day, word of mouth hasn't even formed yet—so it can't affect the box office.
The answer was obvious.
If the actors didn't create the difference—
And the director of 'Black Mist' was actually more famous—
Then the only remaining factor was the screenwriter's influence outside the film itself.
The screenwriter of '5 Centimeters per Second' was Su Yan.
Even though he didn't act in the film, many of his television drama fans chose to support it tonight purely because of his name.
Many people in the film industry fell silent.
The screening share on a movie's opening day mainly depends on pre-release marketing and industry connections.
But after release—
The screening ratio depends on quality.
Seat occupancy rates.
Ratings.
Word of mouth.
All of these factors are crucial.
Cinema owners aren't running charities.
They prefer shorter movies because they can schedule more showings per day.
And as for seat occupancy rates, that goes without saying.
In both aspects—
'5 Centimeters per Second' had the advantage.
Late at night, hundreds of thousands of viewers submitted ratings for the films.
The movie that had been cursed onto the trending charts that very night—
'5 Centimeters per Second'—
Opened with a 9.4 rating.
Among the four major releases that day, the lowest box office film, the comedy 'A Sad Family', had 8.9.
The fantasy film 'Black Mist' opened with 7.8.
And the film that the entire industry had been most optimistic about before release—
The one predicted to become the summer box office champion—
'Windmill'.
Opening score: 9.0.
After these numbers came out, many people in the film industry looked increasingly uneasy.
Some movies have high ratings but low box office because of niche themes.
Some are pure popcorn films—fun to watch, but with mediocre ratings.
But a true blockbuster must have both commercial appeal and a strong reputation.
A 9.0 opening rating for 'Windmill' was already extremely high.
And its opening day box office was nearly 100 million, which was very impressive.
But no matter how you looked at it—
The data for '5 Centimeters per Second' wasn't inferior at all.
Yes, its opening day box office was 83 million.
But it only had 16% screenings.
Fewer screenings naturally limit the box office.
And its audience rating was even higher.
A 9.4 opening score—what did that mean?
It was the second-highest opening rating in Xia Nation's film industry this year.
The first-ranked film had excellent reviews, but its total box office hadn't even reached 100 million—a classic case of critical acclaim but poor ticket sales.
While industry insiders were still thinking about it—
Cinema chains and theater owners had already made their move.
Saturday, July 17.
Both '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'Windmill' had their screenings increased—
Now tied at 22% each.
The screenings for 'Black Mist' remained unchanged.
The screenings for 'A Sad Family' slightly decreased.
Meanwhile, the war movie 'Assault', which had already been in theaters for a week, suffered a massive drop in screenings.
Those low-budget minor films with barely any screenings were cut in half.
The brutal competition of the summer film market had begun to reveal itself.