Therapist Reacts to YOUR NAME (Filmmaker falls in LOVE)

This is my favorite movie now. A master class in filmmaking. It's kind of a magic trick. They forget each other, but the changes that they experience remain even though they don't remember the experience itself. When they actually see each other for the first time, you believe that they're already in love because they're so immersed in each other's lives. The tone of this film I think is so spot on. It's a very dark storyline with a ton of hope and light and love. It's just right. It's so smart and so tough to pull off. It's just good. I just want to adapt this and ruin it. Please let me ruin this film for you. It's the American way. Welcome to Cinema Therapy. I am Alan Seawright, professional filmmaker who needs therapy. That is not me. That is... Jonathan Decker, licensed therapist who loves movies. Yes. I just wanted to make sure that we all understand you're not a figment of my imagination. We are not one. We are many. My name is Legion, for we are many. That seems appropriate. What are we doing today? I want to have you react to an animated film from Japan. Anime. It's your name. Okay, so right out of the gate, we've been getting a lot of anime requests. Everybody wants us to talk about their favorite anime. And as two middle-aged Westerners who... I think like we miss... We don't have a huge background in anime. No, and we miss the boat. And so a lot of things that people recommend we watch and we're like, okay, well, I could see how the kids would like this, but it's not really our cup of tea. I can't even see how the kids would like it. I'm just confused by it. An old man filled with... Again, it's not anime's fault. We're just talking about our limitations. It's clearly my fault. But this was delightful. Oh my gosh, I loved this movie. Yeah. I legitimately like, you know, for the first 10 minutes, I was like, okay, it's an anime. But like, I'm intrigued, sure. Yeah. And then for the next 10 minutes, I was like, I'm really getting into this. And after 20 minutes, I was just like, this is my favorite movie now. I love this. This is great. Dad, what are we watching for movie night? Your name, again. Your name. Dad, gosh. Well, you were saying you would love to get your fingers in this. Look, I loved this movie so much. And it spoke to me on so many levels. And the weird sci-fi conceit of the whole thing. I just want to adapt this. And ruin it. And make a live action English language version. Please let me ruin this film for you. It's the American way. For those who haven't seen it, this is, in some ways, on the surface of it, it's a classic body swap comic. It's a body swap rom-com, basically. Yeah. What is it with the one with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy? Trading Places. Yeah, Trading Places. Like a lot of those, they switch for almost the entire run time. And you switch once. They switch once. And then, at the end, you switch back, and like, oh, I learned something, and I grew. Yeah. This is super cool, because they switch bodies for a few hours or for a day, and then they go back. And then they go back into their lives, and then it happens again. And it kind of happens at random. And they also forget stuff, and it feels like a dream. So it's like, did I swap bodies, or was I just having a really weird, lucid dream? Yeah, as they piece it together. And what I really love is, because they switch, and they go back, and they switch, and they go back, they have opportunities to take what they've learned from walking in someone else's shoes and take it to their lives. So that's super cool. And then it's Armageddon slash Deep Impact all of a sudden. That threw me for such a loop, and I loved it. Oh, my gosh. It was like... Very, very cool. So we have Mitsuha and Taki. Taki is a teenage boy in Tokyo, and Mitsuha is a teenage girl out in the country. Out in the sticks, yep. And they're both longing for a different life, and she wants to be in Tokyo, and he wants to not have to do all the crap he's got to do. Yeah, daily grind of living in the city. Worse to her, that's just heaven on earth. And, yeah, here we go. They've been talking smack about Mitsuha, but it's Taki in the body. And Mitsuha would just roll over and take it, but Taki in her body is like, we'll be talking smack about my dad. I did what? You can tell when it's her, because she ties her hair with, like, this special ribbon, and Taki doesn't know how to do it. I love the idea of coming back the next day, and your friends tell you all about the wild crap you were doing. Like, what were you... Man, that was so crazy that you did this. So she's writing in his phone journal, and he's writing in her journal journal. Switching places! The art style in this movie is just beautiful, too. It's, like, semi-impressionist. Yeah. But also, like, hyper-real in a way. I don't know. Yeah. And they do a bunch of these time-lapse shots. They're great. For what it's worth, I watched the dubbed version of this, and it's very good. So we got into a bit of the firestorm of dubs versus subs, and... You do you is the answer. Yeah, that's right. So she's, like, helping him court his boss, you know? Yeah. And be really sweet, and here's what a woman would like, how she'd like to be spoken to, and he's standing up for her in school when she usually gets picked on. No masks, no looking, no touching! Don't waste my money. They're, like, making rules for each other. Oh, it's fantastic. And she, who lives in the country, there's all these big city food that she is... She's, like, going to restaurants all the time, and he's like, I have to work so many shifts! Like, you're wasting all my money! And she says, I'm working for that, too. But what this made me think of is just the... When we try and live each other's lives... Yeah, of course there's that, but it's not gratuitous, because it's for... Like, it's playing into... He doesn't know how guys look at... Yeah, he doesn't know what he's doing to people. She's taking pictures of all the food in his body, and he's just pigging out. Oh, it's great. Stop wasting my money. It's going in your body. Is he wasting my money? Oh, man, this whole montage is just brilliant. And I love all of these, like, time-lapse shots that they animated. Yeah. Like, I really wonder if they just shot reference and then, like, animated over the top of it, or if they were just doing that freehand, like... Man, brilliant work by the animation team. Stop changing my relationships! There's a girl in love with me. You're more popular when I'm you. And so then they write each other, like, hate mail... Don't be so full of yourself. ...hate mail on each other's bodies. Like, he's gonna wake up and see, like, they're writing dummy and idiot... Dummy, idiot. ...on each other's faces. Oh, my gosh. Perspective taking. Let's talk about this as a therapeutic principle. Go for it. It is essential in our relationships that we have the ability to see things from other people's... What did you just do? I just whipped my hair. You can't be bored yet. I'm halfway through my sentence. I'm not... You gotta build to that. I start talking, and you're like, well, I'm out. Let's just play with our hair. Thank you, Raycon, for sponsoring this video. Raycon earbuds have optimized gel tips for the perfect in-ear fit, which means they're comfortable and they will not budge. Trust me. I work from home, so the noise isolation mode is really helpful to block out background noise when I'm trying to work, but the kids and the dogs are making all of the noises. 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When it comes to perspective taking, this story offers such a unique twist on that. Yeah. Where, as I said earlier, I'm living in your shoes and then I'm back in my life, right? And I'm back in your shoes and I'm back in my life and so we're growing with one another and I love the idea that they fall in love with each other because they actually know each other. Yes. They know each other's lives. So when they actually see each other for the first time and they're actually kind of in the same space, I mean, it's sort of a dream, dreamscape. Like, yeah, like a space between spaces, but when they're actually, when they actually get together for the first time, you believe that they're already in love. Oh, yeah. Because they're so immersed in each other's lives and they know each other so well. We can make a mess of each other's lives. We see in this scene where he's trying to take the reins. At school for her, this is how she should act. And for her, when he's at work, this is what he should be doing to woo his boss. Right. Except for he doesn't really want to woo his boss. I mean, he thinks she's pretty, he has feelings for her, but he didn't want this to be going on and she doesn't want to stand up to a bully. She's horrified when she finds out what he's done. We're all of us exceptionally arrogant. We all think that our way is the right way of doing things, right? And we always say, well, you know what you should do? And it happens to be. Exactly what I would do. Or what you should think, what you should say. Right. And you've heard me say this, you need to look no further than driving to see that we're all arrogant as hell. Because when it comes to driving, anyone driving faster than you. Is a psychotic murderer. Crazy woman driver. And anyone driving slower than you. Grandma. Granny shifting, not double clutching like you should. Why can't everyone just drive the way I want to drive? Exactly the way I want to drive and then everything would be perfect. And yet the next day you might be zoned out listening to music and driving slow. Or you might be late for something driving like a maniac to somebody else. We all think that our way is the right way. Merely a side effect. Of drift fever. We cause more harm than good when we try and take the reins from somebody and tell them how to live their life. Sure. Which is exactly why I don't do that in therapy. Right. I don't want to tell someone how to live their life. And if you're going to a therapist to say, take the reins, Jesus take the wheel and just you do this for me. It's bad therapy. Don't do that. What you need is someone who helps you to explore new avenues, new ways of thinking but still honors your ability to choose your own path. And right now, they get into each other's lives and they're like, oh that's not what I would do. So they start doing what they would do in the other person's life. And messing things up completely. Dummy. Idiot. I just, oh man, I just, I love this movie. It's, the script is so tight and it's so much fun. So here's Twilight Hour. So he's gone on a journey to try and find her because he's like, can't get her out of his head. And his like, sorta crush came with him and helped. And his buddy and her hometown has been destroyed three years earlier. By a comet, like a meteor. So they haven't just been body swapping across space. But across time! Come on! It's very cool. Oh, I love it. And at sunset, is where like, the bridge between space time kinda folds in on itself a little bit. It's magic hour. So this is super cool. Just, man, just look at these backgrounds. Look at what they're doing to animate the light. And the shadows coming off of them. Lens flares from the sun are, oh man. Come on. So does he see her or does he sense her? I think he sees her. And I love that the way it's played, instead of shock and awe, he's just like, It's just a quiet moment of like, oh yeah. Like, I knew you were here. So now he just wants to save her and the village. It's a weird way. You ever see Frequency with Dennis Quaid and Jim Caruso? Where there's like this really beautiful father-son drama and then it's a thriller at the same time. Right. Yeah, this movie really keeps propelling you forward with that tension of, you idiot! Perfect! I couldn't help it. It was just once. Sorry. So he came to find her, but three years ago, she came to find him. So for both of them, it was about the same time in their body swap journey. Yeah. That they wanted to see each other. Hers just happened three years before and she found him and he, of course, was three years younger and didn't know what was going on. Had no idea what was going on. So she gave him her hair tie. I love that she hasn't stopped blushing this entire time. Yeah. I just love his reaction to that. Having been a teenage boy when a very pretty girl asked, how do I look? And you just kind of go like, how do I tell you you're extremely beautiful without coming across like a weirdo? And she tries to be all haughty and everything and then she just starts laughing. But this is the day that her village is gonna… It's gonna… Get Armageddoned. And he's telling her, please, you have to… you have to go save yourself and your village. Like, this is the only way to, you know, that we can be together. Well, we got to write our names, because they keep, like you say, they keep forgetting, like, when you wake up from a dream. And this is my favorite part about the script. It's so smart and so tough to pull off. They fall in love, but they forget each other, like, constantly. Oh, that's brutal. And then she's just gone. She just, poof. Because that part of Twilight is over. Yeah. And how they're trying desperately to remember each other. Yeah. But they can't hold on to it. Very similar to how you can't hold on to a dream, you know? Yeah, and this is… I mean, it's just gorgeous to look at. It's beautiful to look at. The music is really pretty. The… You don't often think about editing in an animated film, but animated films are edited just like any other movie. And it's… Every shot, you live on the correct amount of time. And I don't know how to quantify that. It's not a thing that you can, like, read in a textbook. Like, what's the correct amount of time to stay on a close-up? I don't know. Depends on the moment. But there is one. And this is it every single time. Like, this scene is a master class in filmmaking. You could watch this scene and do an entire semester course at a university on this scene and come out of it and be a better filmmaker. It's just good. And to the point I was speaking about earlier, when it comes to perspective taking, perspective taking requires humility. Right. That my way isn't necessarily the right way. And it may be the right way for me. That doesn't mean it's right for somebody else's life. The way I see the world may work well for me doesn't mean I need to impose it on another person or that it would even work well for them. Well, and it might work well for them, but it's still not your choice. Yeah. To choose for them what's going to work for them, you know? And then you go a little further into it. What do I have to learn from another? Yes. When I'm, instead of my way is the right way. And what I think is most beautiful about the whole dream amnesia stuff, I don't like the word amnesia at first. Because amnesia usually means lazy storytelling. It usually means, hey, I'm a crap screenwriter. Here, it's just crushing and poignant. But the notion that they forget each other, but they remain changed by one another. The changes that they experience by living each other's lives remain, even though they don't remember the experience itself. Right. You know? And that is so cool. So she's trying to save her village, and nobody's really believing her. She trips and falls. He says, let's write our names on each other's hand. And she hasn't looked at her hand yet since he wrote his name on it. What are you doing? That's just such a great laughter-through-tears moment of she can't help but laugh at this idiot. Like, I can't remember your name with this. Come on. But, like, man, the way the voice actress delivers it. I don't know how she delivered it in English. I'm sure it was pointing this out. It's very similar. No, it's a very good dub. Yeah, the way the voice actress delivers it, the needle drop of this little pop song coming in, and just the beautiful, like, dreamlike comet, you know, going overhead, out of focus in the background. Just beautiful filmmaking. And, you know, they... Congratulations, you nailed it. It's the most difficult emotion to elicit in a film. Laughter-through-tears. Well, she's simultaneously... And, I mean, she's doing it, right? Yeah, yeah. She's laughing through tears, too. Well, she's upset that he didn't give her his actual name. Yeah. But he also said, I love you, so she's happy. Right. You know, so she's feeling multiple emotions at once. It's just... And I... The tone of this film, I think, is so spot-on. You know, they do such a great job, even with the comet coming, and it's going to destroy the village. There is a... Like, it's a very dark storyline. Yeah. With a ton of hope, and light, and love. And there's still even, like, a whimsical element to it. Yep. Even as they're saving the village, you know? Sure, yeah. And you could play that as a horrifying, terrifying scene. You could make this exact same story, and have it be a real downer, dark, sad thing. Aside from this very last scene. Right. You make... You know, you get rid of that one scene, and everything else, and you could make it a dark, horrifying tale of sadness and apocalyptic woe. Yeah, of lost love, and lives in danger. And even though that's all there, the tone is... Light is the wrong word, because light, to me, suggests that there's no threat, there's no weight, there's no emotion. It's just right. And it's kind of a... It's kind of a magic trick, honestly. It is. To take this story, and to... Really, you have to see it. You have to see it to really get what we're talking about. But it's... It's lovely. Do you want more Crying with Alan? Do you like it when I suffer? So does he! Check out the extended director's cut of this episode, and lots of other stuff, on our Patreon, patreon.com forward slash cinematherapy. Thanks, patrons, for making me cry more. So then, of course, the village is saved. Of course it is. Um, well, it's not an American movie, so you never know. That's true. The village is saved. It's years later. They've forgotten each other. But there's, like, an itch. In the back of their mind. I miss something, and I don't know what it is. And they see each other on the train, and then they run to find each other. And then they both are so socially awkward that they just walk past each other, even though they know. And... Oh, now I'm crying. Bad ending got me. Just... Man, what a film. Oh, man. Well, we know what Alan's next fundraising project is. Not this. I am not equipped to make this movie yet. To those who recommended this film, thank you. Thank you so much. I would not have watched this movie if it wasn't for you guys. If there are more anime movies that I, a, you know, dumb old man, don't know about, please put them in the comments. We want more excellent anime like this. This has improved my life. Thank you. And as far as perspective taking, you know, I said what I needed to say. Rewind the video and watch it again. Watch the video again. But make sure that we get the ad revenue. So, like, watch something else and then come back and watch this. Oh, my gosh. We need those clicks. There it is. I'm such a b****. So until next time... Your name is... And... Watch movies. I can't believe I found you. Are you the Mitsuba right now? Wait, what's your name? My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. I'm Spicy Corn Chips. What the hell? Taki. Is that all? Okay.