Your Name is a modern fairytale for today’s setting, complete with the usual feelings of hope, mystery, drama and magic – thanks to a body switch (of sorts) that take place between two strangers – and yet, the film is more than just this. It’s also an innocent tale of first love, puberty, traditions, family and friendships, whilst being a celebration of the culture and landscapes of Japan.
Centring around its two leads, Taki Tachibana (voiced by Ryûnosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha Miyamizu (voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi), Your Name breaks the tropes of body switches by having the characters swap back-and-forth between bodies, are complete strangers set miles apart (and as such in different contexts), while having the unity of being teenagers – seeing how each other’s worlds are affecting them as they stand on the twilight of being both an adult and a child.
The film doesn’t rush forward in its initial storytelling, and though you know there is a mystery there like the leads you’re confused and intrigued as to what it could be. Is it a dream? The leads at first believing they’re just dreaming and acting out a fictional life vastly different to theirs, whether it’s as a boy in Tokyo, or a girl in the country, but when they’re missing days from their memories, and friends and family talk of strange new behaviours, they come to realise that their dream counterparts are both real, and that they’re living each other’s lives. This swap allows personal moments to be shared, complete honesty, and as such deep trust. Initially setting rules on how they should behave in each other’s life to letting them experience it, and in the end leaving each other short messages.
Idealised somewhat in its romance, it’s still endearing and heart-touching without ever falling into being saccharine sweet. This is largely due to the physical distance between them, and yet ironically, the closeness of the two main characters. They experience and grow in their relationship by literally walking in each other’s shoes, and in a nod to traditional “love letters” – whilst still keeping it modernised – they write memos to each other on their respective phones. But these memos are more like diaries with extracts about how they’ve become involved, experienced, and understand the other’s world. Changing some parts even for the better. A side note and one of interest is the red braid worn by both Mitsuha and Taki which represents the folklore and tradition of a red string of fate; of fate connecting one person to another.
Your Name is a beautiful embodiment of music, eye-capturing illustrations and a touching script that feels as though they were produced all at once. They’re so in sync that you’ll wonder did the music affect the scenes creation? From instrumental, pop, and slight rock, its soundtrack conveys the emotional weight of the film’s scenes, and even enhances it. Your Name moving you softly from happy tears, a wry smile, to that feeling of something fading away, such as a dream or a memory. Meanwhile the illustrations are in keeping with the story and add to the sense of it being a tale, but one that’s alive, especially in its rendering of the distance and layers for countryside scenes. The illustrations fit so eloquently with the story that there’s an added message about the way our landscapes are changing, the diversity of them, whilst also being a celebration of nature and tradition. At one point Taki even states; “so I want to help build landscapes that leave heart-warming memories”, which Your Name certainly achieves.
In bringing such depth to the film, you feel at times as though you’re a third character to the film; being the only one to see both Taki and Mitsuha’s lives as they inhabit and share them with each other.
Aside from a great deal of wanderlust, caused by the film and in the characters wanting to see and know more, Your Name has an additional revelation that creates enough mystery to have been a TV show, with avenues of past lineage just begging to be explored. Without spoiling the cause of the mystery and the twist it brings, it does fill half the film with an ever-increasing sense of urgency. But at one pivotal moment, Taki forgets the urgency of his mission and instead you have a touch of awkwardness, happiness and relief. It breaks the film’s tension and relieves what would otherwise be too long a period of angst, but despite the sense of calmness suddenly exuded by Taki, it does seem as if he has forgotten the more important and life-changing aspects of what’s to come. This quick placement is odd, but touching.
Not lacking in poetry, the Your Name returns to where it started, a fitting and beautiful ending that leaves more than a touch of optimism. It’s satisfying and in keeping with the film, and yet you’ll greedily want the final few seconds to stretch that little bit further.
Director & Writer: Makoto Shinkai
Other notable works:
- Weathering with You 2019
- The Garden of Words 2013
- Journey to Agartha 2011
- 5 Centimetres per Second 2007
