This magical love story of two teenagers swapping bodies understands the special connection between music and animation.Makoto Shinkai is a name you should always remember. He was called by many as "The New Miyazaki," after his 2016 visually stunning movie, "Your Name," garnered international attention and success after becoming Japan's highest-grossing anime film, overtaking Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away."
Shinkai is also the recipient of multiple awards including Screenplay of the Year at the 40th Japan Academy Prize and Best Animated Film at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award.
"Your Name" is about a rural girl named, Mitsuha Miyamizu (Mone Kamishiraishi), and a Tokyo schoolboy, Taki Tachibana (Ryunosuke Kamiki), whose life intertwined after magically switching bodies. Things got more complicated when the two decided to meet in person.
"Your Name" is not simply a cute coming-of-age story. It's a romantic, disaster and science fiction film wrap into one. Though the science behind everything that transpires in this film are faulty and questionable, what makes this movie engrossing, for me, is that it doesn't try to look smart to everybody. The logic behind time and space and heavenly bodies seems to be purposedly illogical and somehow that is understandable because this is an emotionally driven film that genuinely wants to connect to its audience to share it's overflowing emotions of loving and longing.
What makes "Your Name" very effective is the way it uses sounds and visuals in such virtuoso. The movie understands that animation alone is one-half of the magic film can create so it employs the musical score provided by the Japanese rock band RADWIMPS. The band fulfills the other half needed to capture the allure and soul of the movie. Their heavenly jubilant music is enchantingly captivating and simply beautiful. This movie will never be what it is without Shinkai and RADWIMPS bridging the gap between music and art.
"Your Name" is not a perfect film but it's a movie with a skyful of emotion. The plot might be a little convoluted and many elements of it don’t make sense but because it is so well-acted, well-made, and true, every flaw it has is easily forgiven and forgotten.
4.5/5
