Your Name. (Shinkai, 2016)
We are big fans of the anime director Makoto Shinkai in this house and on Saturday night we got to re-watch his 2016 classic Your Name. in a recent 4K UHD collectors edition from Madman (now out of stock it would appear).
The film is like a distillation of all of Shinkai’s obsessions – fantasy and sci-fi, young people falling in love and attempts to wrestle control back from a natural disaster (or other existential threat) that makes us feel powerless.
This is also a body-swap film, but a body-swap film with a twist.
Bored small-town teenager Mitsuha wishes she had the exciting life she imagines a teenage boy in Tokyo might live and one day that dream comes true. She and Taki from Tokyo periodically switch bodies – and lives – and eventually work out how to send messages to each other to prevent social disaster.
When the messages from Mitsuha stop as suddenly and inexplicably as they started, Taki travels across country to try and find her, realising in the process that they weren’t just travelling spacially, they were also travelling in time – a three-year distance – and the fragments of a falling comet have devastated the village where she lives.
Only a special kind of magic will allow him to revisit her body and persuade her to warn the community of the impending threat, and thus save hundreds of lives including her own.
Shinkai’s recent work is famous for its accuracy to time and place. If you’ve ever visited Japan, you’ll feel a deep sense of familiarity and peace watching his films. Here’s an article from a blogger who has created a kind of pilgrimage around Tokyo to locations from the film. You’ll see why it is that Your Name. is so beloved by fans.
Ever since it came out in 2016, there have been persistent rumours of a live action remake from JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot company but we have been waiting an awfully long time for it. Best to go back and watch the anime once again. It’s glorious.
Where to find Your Name.
Aotearoa: Blu-ray from Madman Entertainment, digital rental from AroVision or Apple
Australia: Blu-ray from Madman Entertainment, digital rental from AroVision, Apple or Amazon
USA: Streaming on Crunchyroll
UK: Digital rental from the usual outlets
Further reading
For RNZ, I reviewed one of Shinkai’s later films (Weathering With You) and one of his earlier ones (The Place Promised in Our Early Days). His most recent film, Suzume, came out in cinemas last year but hasn’t made it to home video yet.
