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9.5/10
FilmFascination Rating
I still remember the day when I first watched ‘Your Name’. I was excited to watch it the whole day and, in the night, it was magical. It still is one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I do not understand the lyrics, but the Radwimps songs still starts in my mind sometimes, unexpectedly, and remind me of that beautiful night.
The movie starts with Mitsuha, a high school girl who lives in Itomori, who wakes up and is shocked to see she has girl parts. It is actually Taki, a boy living in Tokyo who suddenly wakes up in Mitsuha’s body without any notice. And like any teenager, the first thing he does is feels her breasts, just to make sure. On the other hand, Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body and is equally stunned to find herself in a boy’s body. Both think it is just a dream, but quite a realistic one. But slowly they and also we start to understand what actually is happening. It gets clear from the reactions the people around them have the next day. They don’t know why it is happening, because they’ve never even met each other in real life.
Mitsuha and Taki would likely never interact in the real world, but they slowly start to become supportive of each other, and essentially to each other’s happiness. They communicate by leaving messages on paper, phones and sometimes on each other hands. The idea of knowing another person you have never met but has similar fears and knowing their life, is beautiful in some sense. It is like getting to know a person and starting to love them by not meeting them but by actually being that person for a day. By actually being in their shoes.
Both of them have an impact on each other’s lives and start to know each other better. Mitsuha (in Taki’s body), for instance, sets Taki up on a date with his crush Okudera, which he never could have done himself. Shinkai brings many light-hearted comic scenes and has fun with the body-swapping concept. You become so much invested in the movie and its plot. You are pulled into this world and genuinely care about what is going to happen.
And at about the moment you’re ready to scream at them to just meet each other already, what has seemed like a teen rom-com turns into a much deeper, very different sort of story. Shinkai does the character and plot development very well. The movie has a very distinctive story timeline. Something you notice, probably when you watch the movie second time. The initial fun part where you are a little confused and are trying to figure out what exactly is happening, the mid part where you understand everything, the twist, then the bit serious part…. The scenes build up individually, one by one, to give us the satisfying end it has. Transition from the fun part to the part where you need to pay a little bit attention is masterfully done by Shinkai. Many movies struggle to make this progression but ‘Your Name’ does it so smoothly.
A complex plot can either make the movie or ruin it forever because most of the people just couldn’t get it. The plot does get complex at a moment, but still, it leaves no doubt for the viewers and makes everything very clear. That is something I really like about ‘Your Name’. Elements that feel like extra details — a Shinto temple; a racing comet; and a traditional sake called kuchikamizake, twilight — gradually become part of the foreground story.
To say that “Your Name” is visually striking would be a huge understatement. Shinkai has both an eye for detail and music. The atmosphere “Your Name” creates somehow feel both lived-in and magical at the same time. It has fantastic beauty but is grounded at the same time. May it be Mitsuha’s wooden house, a never-ending horizon in Itomori, the giant skyscrapers touching the sky or even the café in Tokyo. It is like you could pause the movie anytime and could hang that frame in the room and it would still look beautiful. Yes, it is that gorgeous to watch it. And how can I forget the delightful music, it adds to the grace of the movie and helps to send the emotions so powerfully. They pop up in the movie just at the right time when you need them the most. They definitely are a big part of the movie.
There is just so much to adore in the movie- the plot, the music, the characters, or the world it portrays. The movie made me smile and got me teary many times. And that satisfying ending, I did cry but it was because I was just so happy. I think one of the reasons I like this movie so much is that I can relate to the feeling of waking up and searching for something. The feeling that someone is out there and it might even be the person you just walked past. You never really know what a person is like unless you really know what they are going through and what has molded them into the person they have become.
Just like ‘A Silent Voice’ I had postponed writing for ‘Your Name’ for a long time. I always thought, whatever I did write wouldn’t give justice to this masterpiece.
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