Kimi no Na wa (Your Name)

[LeafByNiggle]

"Your Name" is the anime movie that achieved the second-largest gross for a domestic film in Japan, behind Spirited Away (Ghibli), and the fourth-largest ever, behind Titanic and Frozen. This film by director Makoto Shinkai was released in 2016, and I just love it.

I have watched in numerous times. It has a very compelling story line (see minor spoiler in my next post), exquisitely detailed animation with a style invented by the director, and a super musical track by the Japanese band, Radwimps that integrates beautifully with the story. If you haven't seen it yet, it is available on YouTube, UK Netflix, and on DVD. There must be someone here whose seen it. Anyone?

If you want to see what Shinkai's animation style is, see his 45-minute film, Garden of Words, that seems to be available on YouTube for free.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Here are some spoilers for "Your Name" that don't really spoil the enjoyment of the movie:

The story involves a boy living in Tokyo and girl living in a remote village in the countryside who, when they go to sleep, start dreaming that they are living each other's life. But they both think it is just a dream, until the reactions of the people around them gradually makes them realize they are actually swapping bodies several times a week at random. The two finally realize the reality of what is going on 30 minutes into the film. They start leaving notes for each other on their phones and set up rules ("no touching, no baths", etc.) so they can work through this strange thing that is happening. There is brief montage of ways in which they mess up (or fix up, depending on your point of view) each other's lives. Now we are at 45 minutes into the film, when suddenly the body switching stops. Because of the way memory of dreams fade, they never really connected in real life. The boy does not even know where in the countryside the girl lives. But now he is invested in her, having lived some of her life, and he goes on a quest to find her in real life. He is an architecture student and very good at drawing, and he remembers the landscapes around her town. So he draws these pictures from memory, does some research online, and then travels by rail to the Hida region, the most likely area, based on the mountains he saw in the distance in the dreams. Two of his friends join him on the search. Although they think he is a bit crazy, they are concerned for him because of his recent erratic behavior. After showing his pictures to various people of the area and not having any luck, the boy is about to give up and return home when a waitress at a restaurant recognizes his drawing of the lake and the town. Her husband (who runs the restaurant) was born and raised in that town. It is at that time when it is revealed that the town was destroyed by a fragment of a comet -- three years ago. (It is the comet we see at the opening of the film.) Hundreds of people died, including the girl he is looking for. They go to the site of what remains and witness the aftermath of the destruction of the town, Itomori. But the boy is not ready to give up. OK, that's as far as I can go without really spoiling the movie for you. Let's just say there are several more twists and reveals ahead.

As a side note: J. J. Abrams has bought the rights to make a live-action remake of this story set in America. Word is the boy will be in Chicago and the girl will be a native American somewhere far away. Makoto Shinkai, the director of the Japanese original has voiced his support for the project. Unfortunately they just lost their writer a month ago, so the project may be stalled. I'm hoping they find someone to take over and get it done.