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anime/review/your-name
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:CreationDate: 2017-07-23 10:52:22
:Id: anime/review/your-name
:tags: - anime
- review
:rating: 4.5
:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/your-name
Ah, the life of high school students in Japan. In her small country
town, Mitsuha gets up, prepares breakfast for herself, her sister and
grandmother, goes to school with her friends, and then carries on the
centuries-old traditions at the her family's shrine. In Tokyo, Taki
gets up, has a quick snack while his father goes to work, then goes to
school with his friends, and after that works shifts at a
restaurant. Nothing special, we've seen these scenes hundreds of
times.
Until Taki wakes up in a room he doesn't recognise, in the body of a
girl…
Until Mitsuha wakes up in a room she doesn't recognise, in the body of
a boy…
There's a long and mostly unsavoury tradition of body-swap stories,
where the first thing people do when they realise what's happened is
to explore their "new" body. Shinkai does not ignore that convention,
but does not indulge in it either: a nod, a laugh, and it's obvious
that the focus of this story is different.
Mitsuha and Taki keep swapping bodies on random but frequent
days. They have to learn to communicate and coordinate their lives, to
not appear too out of it to their families and friends, even if
they're never in the same place at the same time, and the memories of
their "other lives" fade quickly like dreams.
As if two young people learning about each other's lives and seeing
the world through each other's eyes were not enough to build a great
story on, Shinkai adds enough emotional depth and plot twists to
affect even the most unfeeling audience. No, I'm not going to spoil
the story for you: the buildup should really be experienced with all
its surprises. I'm sure the film holds up to multiple viewings, but
the first time is magical.
Shinkai became justifiably famous back in 2002 with Voices of a
Distant Star (ほしのこえ), and he's been getting better ever
since. He's not only good at writing original, strongly emotional
stories: he's also good at choosing great artists and musicians, and
you can see the fruits of these skills in Your Name. The gorgeous
backgrounds set the mood of each scene and ground it in the two very
different environments of central Tokyo and rural Itomori. The
powerful music by Radwimps conveys the strength of the characters'
feelings and emotions. It all adds up to one of the most intense
experiences I've ever had at a cinema.
"Your Name" is the best Shinkai movie to date, and I think everyone
should see it, especially those (like me) who were a bit soured to his
movies after the maybe-too-slow "The Place Promised in Our Early Days"
and "5 Centimeters per Second".
