Hello Reader!

So I had to write a blog post (separate blog from this one) on my favorite movie for my “Introduction to Cinema” class and I thought it was a darn good blog post of the movie, so I want to share it with all of you (and not just my professor). I also wanted to create a movies page on my blog where I critique or talk about a movie that’s stuck with me. MAYBE I SHOULD BECOME A MOVIE CRITIC?! OR DIRECTOR!? Haha just kidding parentals…maybe. 

Love, 

Kate

By far one of my favorite animations of all time is Kimi no Na Wa (also known as ‘Your Name‘ in English) written by Makoto Shinkai and produced by the company CoMix Wave Film, which is a Japanese animation film studio and distribution company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Makoto Skinkai and his team took the time to focus on every detail of the animations from the landscape to the characters to the tiniest details of the movie, ultimately making this animation aesthetically breathtaking! Not only is the animation beautifully drawn, but the soundtrack, Your Name, by the RADWIMPS is elegant and compliments the movie entirely. Makoto Skinkai pushes his artistic abilities further by focusing on themes like distant love, time, space, traditions, destiny, and so many more!

Kimi no Na Wa was first premiered on August 26, 2016 and has produced a gross of $328,013,836 (worldwide). The film fulfills the genres of animation, drama, fantasy, and romance and is rated 9.32/10 on MyAnimeList and 8.6/10 on IMDb. Most recent critic reviews on Kimi no Na Wa:

“An endearingly loopy mix of time-travel, body-swap, and disaster-movie ingredients that’s already a massive hit in its native Japan” -Peter Debruge, Variety

“Part body-swap comedy, part long-distance romance, part… something else. If you only see one Japanese animated feature this year, see this one, and see it more than once” -Dan Jolin, Empire

Summary:

Kimi no Na Wa is about two high school students, Mitsuha Miyamizu and Taki Tachibana, witnessing a century old comet, but what they don’t know is that from that point on their lives will change forever. Mitsuha lives in a small mountain town, Itomori, in Japan with her grandmother and sister in a Shinto religious temple, her father is the mayor of the town but isn’t close to him due to tragic family history. Mitsuha dreams of leaving this small boring town and living life in the busy city of Tokyo, where no one knows her or her family history and she can be free to do whatever she pleases. Taki lives a completely different life of Mitsuha who lives in Tokyo, has a waiter job at an Italian restaurant, and dreams of becoming an architect or artist. Every night both Taki and Mitsuha have a dream of living a completely different life to which they currently live in, what’s even better is that they are living in each other’s life. But suddenly, when witnessing the comet, the dreams stop and they try to figure out why..

Interested in watching? Well here’s the trailer to show you what you’re missing!

*SPOILER ALERT, IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE MOVIE OR PLAN ON WATCHING DON’T READ ANALYSIS*

Analysis: 

One of the themes to focus on in the movie is, tradition. Mitsuha lives with her grandmother and sister and performs Shinto rituals (Japanese religion) because it’s family tradition and they’ve performed rituals throughout family generations. “In contrast to many monotheistic religions, there are no absolutes in Shinto. There is no absolute right and wrong, and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith, as humans are thought to be fundamentally good, and evil is believed to be caused by evil spirits. Consequently, the purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits by purification, prayers and offerings to the kami(God)” (japan-guide.com). The conflict behind this theme is, Mitsuha’s father, who left the religion to pursue politics within the city after Mitsuha’s mother died from illness. In a way Mitsuha’s father was more in love with his wife than the religion and could care less about the religion since his wife was no longer alive. Yikes! Family drama! This theme can be brought to real life issues all over the world, whether in Japan, United States, or any other country, politics and religion always conflict. Throughout the movie we see conflict that Mitsuha must face within her family as well as herself. Mitsuha doesn’t want to be viewed like her father by her grandmother, but she wants to get away from her small simplistic life and do what she pleases; yet she also wants to become a miko (young woman who complete rituals) to make her grandmother proud.

Another theme to focus on in the movie is, destiny. Mitsuha and Taki stop switching bodies after witnessing the comet; Taki unconsciously draws the town of Itomori (the buildings structures, landscape, etc.) and wonders what happened to Mitsuha…and so he takes his destiny into his own hands. He travels down south with two of his friends (Tsukasa Fujii and Miki Okudera) and asks everyone if they’ve ever seen his drawings in real life. Unfortunately he finds out that Mitsuha and the entire town of Itomori were destroyed because the comet split and destroyed the town and everyone in it. Again hoping to change his destiny, as well as everyone that was killed in the disaster, he hopes to go back in time (based on the information he received while being Mitsuha and performing Shinto religion) and warn Mitsuha about the disaster. Which encourages Mitsuha to take it upon herself to control her own destiny, to finally do what SHE WANTS instead of following religious tradition or disappointing anyone. YOU GO GIRL! Part of the reason both of the characters decide to take it upon themselves to control their destiny compliments the theme of distant love and how they fall in love with each other without ever meeting one another directly, but because of the journey they’ve been on together.

The theme I believe that drives the movie the most is distant love. The irony of the theme is that they’ve never met each other (or have they?), so how is it possible to fall in love with someone that you’ve never met before? The two characters show the desire to live in a life completely opposite of their current ones which produces a FOIL for Taki and Mitsuha. Due to the body switching these two characters encounter, they are constantly living the life of the other. Yay! It’s what they’ve always wanted! FALSE. Just when they begin to get in the hang of things: Mitsuha (who is currently in Taki’s body) is helping Taki win Miki Okudera’s (Taki’s coworker) heart. Taki goes on this date with Okudera (thanks to Mitsuha) and as the date progresses he realizes that he is no longer in love with Miki Okudera (even Okudera realizes that he is in love with someone else). While this date is happening, Mitsuha fantasizes what the date would be like with Okudera and then fantasizes what the date will be like with Taki. DUN DUN DUN!!! Don’t you love rising action!? Mitsuha begins crying and she doesn’t know why; but in all honesty, it’s because she has fallen for the boy that she’s gotten to know by living in his shoes (literally). Although their love was never direct, the two characters have seen the struggles of the other; they help each other by fixing problems that only the other knows how to handle (e.g. Mitsuha winning over Okudera’s heart because Mitsuka knows what girls look for in a guy).Come on!? How could you not fall for a girl that won you a date with your crush?! Taki and Mitsuha realize what the other has done for him/her and how much they care for each other; everything in their lives are practically perfect, besides the fact that they can’t be with each other due to time and space (and that’s where the movie gets GOOD). 

Love…conflict…time…space…are what drives viewers to the edge of their seats. Kimi no Na Wa uses these devices (and much more) to evolve their plot and story line, making you constantly want more. Kimi no Na Wa takes you to a world of escape and fantasy, making you never want to go back to reality; it also inspires you to fight for what you believe in and to take advantage of your destiny, just like Taki and Mitsuha.