Your Name – Kimi no na wa. (2016)

Directed by: Makoto Shinkai | 106 minutes | animation, fantasy, drama, romance | Original voice cast: Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryô Narita, Aoi Yûki, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Kaito Ishikawa, Kanon Tani, Masaki Terasoma, Sayaka Ohara, Kazuhiko Inoue, Chafûrin, Kana Hanazawa

The anime hit ‘Your Name’ (Kimi no na wa., 2016) has already won many hearts worldwide. In Japan alone, the film broke records and the audience favorite brought in amounts that normally only a film by Hayao Miyazaki can achieve. In the Netherlands, the film has already been shown at a few film festivals, but in the end there is a distributor who dares to give the film a regular release. And we are very happy with that!

‘Your Name’ is about two teenagers. First we meet a girl, Mitsuha, who lives with her father (who is the mayor), grandmother and little sister in the village of Itomori, an idyllic place between the mountains. But like so many of her peers, Mitsuha longs for an exciting life in the big city. Taki, the second main character in ‘Your Name’, leads such a life: he attends a high school in Tokyo and has a part-time job in a restaurant. Mitsuha remembers a strange dream one day. And when she talks to her family and friends, it turns out she’s been acting really weird the day before. As this becomes more frequent, Mitsuha begins to remember details of the dream. In her dream she is Taki. But… the dream isn’t a dream, it’s real: Taki and Mitsuha just swap bodies!

Because the two youngsters have no influence on when this happens, nor can they detect a certain regularity, they are initially insecure about this. They don’t dare to talk to anyone about it, because admit it; they are already being laughed at for behaving differently than usual. But the two eventually manage to find a way to communicate. They leave messages for each other and Mitsuha uses an app to keep a diary in Taki’s phone. They now understand what is happening, but the why remains uncertain for a while. A special friendship develops between two people who have not actually met each other and who did meet each other…

After the funny and perhaps somewhat childish first half, ‘Your Name’ suddenly takes a completely different direction and the urgency in the story is increased enormously. You suddenly have to see everything you have seen in a different light and that is an attack on your emotions. The pace and tension increases and nothing is certain anymore.

In addition to an ingeniously put together scenario, ‘Your Name’ is also a visual spectacle. From detailed drawings of Mitsuha’s bedroom to breathtaking scenes in the metropolis of Tokyo, the beautiful landscapes and images of the starry sky; this is one of those films that you can easily watch ten times and discover something new every time. It has been worked on with so much love and attention, and the result is so romantic, stunning and compelling that you can’t help but fall head over heels in love with this film.