Photo courtesy of YouTube
Review: Your Name
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Full of heartwarming and tearjerking moments, Your Name (Kimi no na wa in Japanese) is an emotional rollercoaster, showcasing one of Japan’s most popular works. Directed by Makoto Shinkai, the movie was an immediate success as it garnered $72.1 million just ten days after its release in July. The film has gone on to receive many positive reviews and awards, including Best Animated Film for 2016.
Your Name is an endearingly sweet movie about a young high school girl in the countryside longing to live the life of a Tokyo city boy. The story starts off with Taki, a boy from Tokyo, waking up in the body of Mitsuha, a countryside girl. Just as she’s always dreamed of, Mitsuha is able to spend a day in Tokyo and Taki is able to escape the bustling city life.
Time passes and the body swap has become routine. They begin to leave each other notes on paper and in memos on their phones. As Taki and Mitsuha grow more familiar with each other, they also start to step into each other’s lives and make significant changes, which often leads to humorous confusion and plenty of romance.
However, one day Taki wakes up in his own body and later realizes that they have stopped switching bodies, devasting both him and me. Months later, he makes the journey to find Mitsuha and an explanation for the strange phenomenon. With only a sketch of her village from his memories, Taki travels around the countryside of Japan and searches for clues to where she is.
Eventually, a restaurant server identifies his drawing as Itomori and Taki is revitalized, looking for Mitsuha once again. From here on out, I was constantly torn between happiness for them and despair every time something went wrong.
By the end of the movie, I was amazed by how everything tied together. The ending was incredible and somehow made me feel very nostalgic. I also found the soundtrack wonderfully well-implemented. Although there were times I felt slightly confused by the plot, Your Name was very worthwhile and I would recommend it to anyone interested in having their heart torn out and then placed back into their chest.
