Movie of the Week: “Your Name”(“Kimi no na wa”)
The Brazilian public has already been privileged with two great films that play with the idea of exchanging bodies between a man and a woman, “Se Eu Fosse Você”, with Tony Ramos and Glória Pires. But, what if this exchange happened to two people who never saw each other, and worse, they were teenagers! This theme was magically transported to the screen by the Japanese director Makoto Shinkai, in the animation “Your Name” (“Kimi no na wa”, JAP, 2016).
Mitsuha Miyamizu (voice of Mone Kamishiraishi) is a young woman living in a small town squeezed between sea and mountain, in some remote place in Japan. Mitsuha lives with her grandmother and younger sister since her father left home after the death of the girls’ mother.Mitsuha has a normal life, divided between school and the traditions of her religion, of which the grandmother tries to transmit the philosophy and the traditions, that include the dance, the weaving and the primitive production of sakê. Like all young people in the city, Mitsuha dreams of moving to a major center.
Far away in modern Tokyo lives Taki Tachibana (Ryûnosuke Kamiki), a young high school student who dreams of being an architect. Taki lives with his father, and divides himself between school and work in an Italian restaurant.Like all his work colleagues, Taki feels attracted to Miss Okudera, a beautiful young woman a little older than them.
One day, the impossible happens: the two young people change their bodies, and are forced to live each other’s day-to-day lives without having the slightest idea how this happened. Besides this odd situation, as they are still growing young, have to dela with all the problems, dreams and difficulties of this difficult phase of transition between childhood and maturity.
The phenomenon happens a lot of times, and they need to establish some rules of coexistence among themselves, in order to not to disturb the life of the other more than they are already being forced to endure.This strange communication leads to the birth of a friendship that awakens in them the desire to meet face to face. But one day the exchange of bodies and communication cease to happen, which bothers them.
As with most Japanese animations, the quality is exquisite, both sound and image. The landscapes of the girl’s city are excellent, but the sights of Tokyo seem to be more real than reality itself.We can say that this is a real product of Makoto Shinkai, who wrote the book and the script, directed and edited the movie. It was also the first Japanese animation of great success outside Ghibli Studios.
But what enchants the most in this film is the conduction of narrative, which until half shows in a playful way the life of Japanese teenagers, but then takes on the tones of mystery, adventure, suspense, and even supernatural.
The film deals with some interesting concepts, such as the word “musubi”. This was the name of the divine guardian of the Mitsuha region. Musubi can also mean the manipulation of the threads to weave the wefts of the fabric, but also the connection of the people, and even the passage of time. The girl’s grandmother sums up saying that Musubi are all God’s forces. And in these forces is that the characters will find what is necessary to change their destinies.Another reading we can do is that if we put ourselves in the place of the other it makes easier the understanding and the coexistence.
Deep in the heart, we know that “Your Name” is totally romance, but in a subtle, timid and delicate romanticism, in a perfect portrait of the Japanese culture itself. It is perfectly believable the birth of a love between two people with such a degree of separation, and it is not surprising that the viewer realizes that he is very cheering for them to meet.
Of course this movie is not for everyone’s taste. Anyone who is used to the American high-comedy comedies, with drunks and beats, is better to stay with that. Films like “Your Name”, mainly being animations, is destined to the spectator who since childhood loves the Japanese drawings, and mainly the productions of the Ghibli.This kind of movie is destined for those adults who have never ceased to have the heart of a child.
Original title: “Kimi no na wa”