Your Name - Movie Review

Your Name is the latest anime film out of Japan from Makoto Shinkai, the guy who brought us The Garden of Words, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Voices of a Distant Star, all types of great anime films. He likes to tell stories about people who are sort of like star-crossed lovers that have something that's keeping them apart. He's good at it, but it's definitely his wheelhouse, and Your Name fits right in with that. Except there's something incredibly unique about this film that I've honestly never seen and that is that this is a body-swapping film. This movie opens with a young girl named Mitsuha who wakes up and begins to touch herself and realizes that, oh my god, I have girl parts. Now that's normal for a girl her age, except for the fact that Taki, a boy who also lives in Japan, is currently inhabiting her body. So that's weird. And that same boy, Taki, wakes up in Japan, begins to touch himself, and realizes, oh my god, I have man parts down there. That's because Mitsuha and Taki have switched bodies. And the story of this film is these two characters who randomly wake up as each other, swapping bodies, without any warning. And they have to figure out how to spend a day in the other person's body, they have to figure out why this is even happening, and eventually they kind of grow to appreciate one another as they learn about each other's lives in an extremely unconventional way in an anime film that I loved watching. I got to see this film at the Lemley Music Center in L.A. It's currently the only place in the United States showing it because it's a limited Oscar-qualifying run. I was really lucky to be in L.A. when this film opened. I drove like an hour in an Uber to get to this theater, and it was like the only showing that wasn't completely sold out. I was in a theater filled with Japanese people. I must have been like the only white dude there. It was really cool, actually, because I saw it with a crowd that understood it. This is a film that you will appreciate more if you have a varied background in watching a lot of anime, or if you have a knowledge of Japanese culture, because there's a lot of humor here that you will never see in an American film. And it's so refreshing. It's also a very different story. I've never seen a romance told through body swapping, which is a very, very unique way of doing it. And the unique Japanese humor that's in this film, make Your Name one of my favorite movies I've seen in 2016. This is an emotionally powerful film that isn't just very funny, but has a great way of really tugging at your heartstrings without feeling too much like a soap opera. I know a lot of people are probably going to see this film, and especially if you don't have a background in watching a lot of anime, or if you don't know much about Japanese culture, a lot of people are going to say this is a super melodramatic soap opera movie that just is for teenagers or whatever, but it's not. It's a lot more than that. This film has a beautiful way of examining youth culture in Japan, and what can make two people fall in love even if they've never actually met, because they're learning about each other's lives by actually being that person for a day. And so you know more about the other person than you ever possibly could, which is such a cool way to tell a romance in a film. And I know I already mentioned this, but I must reiterate, the animation in this movie is beautiful. It's so gorgeous. I love traditional hand-drawn cell animation. I'm so sad that America has almost completely abandoned it in favor of CG animation, which is fun and enjoyable, and I don't have a problem with it. It's just I love hand-drawn animation, and I'm so happy that Japan is sticking with it because it is a beautiful thing to see in this film. The characters are so well realized. They're so likable, and the film also has a great way of transitioning from fun and humorous to serious and emotionally powerful and somewhat suspenseful, actually. A lot of dramedy-style films have a hard time doing that, where it starts off and you're like, oh, this is all laughs, and all of a sudden, like, people are dying, and it's like, oh, shit. This is really serious all of a sudden. A lot of films have a hard time bridging that gap between those very different feels. This is a beautifully animated film that serves as a heartfelt reminder that even though Miyazaki has supposedly retired, we still have great directors like Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai making great anime films. I'm gonna give your name an A+. I honestly don't have a single problem with this movie. I think that if you are a big anime fan and if you like films from this filmmaker in particular, you're gonna love this movie. Some people who aren't as familiar, as I said, are not going to love it as much as I did. I would say if you aren't a big anime fan, this will be more like a B+, for you. But if you understand anime, and you understand the humor that comes out of Japan that's often in these types of films, and you appreciate the unconventional romance, then you're gonna probably enjoy it as much as I did. Guys, thank you so much, as always, for watching. I greatly appreciate it. And if you like this, you can click right here and get Stuckmanized.