The masterpiece that was 'Your Name'
“Nothing more... nothing less... than a beautiful view.”
Around the 20th of April last year, I watched ‘Your Name’. It was a movie I had heard all about. One of the critics I followed loved it (Chris Stuckmann) and it was talked about all around the community. I knew I had to watch it. But since it wasn’t in cinemas when I wanted to watch it, I had to buy a DVD (I didn’t have and still don’t have a blu-ray. Plan on buying a blu-ray player and ‘Your Name’ again). There was a lot of build up to watching this movie, since it took a little while for the movie to actually get to my house. But then on that day, on the 20th of April, I finally watched it.
I don’t think I can explain my experience through words. There was something about this movie that just clicked with me. Whether it was the characters or the story, something about it just… did something to me…
‘Your Name’ follows Taki and Mitsuha, two high school students who live on two very different parts of Japan, one being in the middle of Tokyo and one being in the country. One day, the two strangers switch bodies with each other. With Taki in Mitsuha’s body, and Mitsuha in Taki’s. We get to see how Taki and Mitsuha have to change their lives for each other. We see them grow and change through this body switch.
I am a person who likes to have everything in a movie to be as great as possible. I want the characters to be good, I want the story to be good, I want the visuals to be good. I want everything in a movie or show to be good. Now, this has lead to me thinking more about movies with my head rather than the heart. It has lead to me rating a movie/show lower cause I realized that the characters weren’t that memorable. It has led to me not feeling anything, cause I was just thinking.
If I look back at this film, it never feels as good as it does when you watch it. I look at the characters, and the story, and the music separately which leads me to slowly dislike the film. It’s not that I realize things about the aspects that make it worse, but just some weird feeling that it isn’t as good as I thought.
But when I watch this film, there is just something that happens. I’m completely engrossed by its story and characters, that it is hard to see some of the mistakes. Cause there are mistakes and flaws in this film for sure.
The characters could’ve had a little more depth, the story had some holes and the third act felt a little slower than the rest.
But whenever I actually watch the film, all of those flaws disappear in my head. The characters feel real and I’m invested in the story. I don’t think I can explain through text how much I love this movie. But I’ll try.
My favorite part of ‘Your name’ is how its story and characters have a connection. It doesn’t feel as if they wrote a story, and then wrote characters. They never felt separated but were completely connected. That the characters develop through this body change that occurs multiple times under the film. That Mitsuha and Taki learn about their desired lifestyle. How Mitsuha learns how stressful the life in the city is or how Taki learns about culture and connection in the country (it is never stated that Taki dislikes his life in the city, but it was something I wanted to add since Mitsuha shows the stress that is in the city). That Taki doesn’t do anything with his life until Mitsuha changes that, and how he repays her by saving her life.
Or how the story has themes of what the Japanese society is becoming. That they are drifting away from culture (religion) and into modernization and politics. About wanting to keep a balance between culture and modernization. A whether you should uphold tradition, or be yourself.
And how all of that being connected with the dreams that the main cast experience, of how they get to see how their wished lives would’ve been. They get to see whether or not it is their culture or their dreams they want to take force in their future. Whether they want to continue to live the life they have lived all of their lives, or if they want to make a risk and maybe feel a little uncomfortable but in the end live a better life.
In the end, I think the characters and story both embody the constant struggle between the two sides.
But then there’s also the constant feeling of looking for something that might fulfill themselves that is referenced. Whether it is a person, a place, or even just a job.
There are a lot of movies and shows that have a character or a plot element that I find relatable. But this the first time I felt the same about a feeling expressed in a medium. Maybe I explained it badly. The feeling of trying to find something that might fulfill yourself is something I think everyone has felt. Or maybe not even fulfill, but just trying to find something, cause you have the constant feeling that you need to find it.
I can’t believe I have gone through this review this long without mentioning the art.
There are a lot of shows and movies I would consider visual masterpieces. Like ‘Spiderman into the spiderverse’, ‘A Silent Voice’ or Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’. And while I would still consider them a few of the most visually appealing movies of all time, there is something about ‘Your name* that makes it so beautiful. Whether it is the incredibly detailed backgrounds that fit so incredibly well with the fantastic, or if it’s the coloring that brings the emotion so well together with its shading. It is a mystery I have yet to solve, but want to keep a secret. To have something to have unexplained.
And I can’t not bring up the music. Wow, what an amazing score. The work by ‘Radwimps’ is honestly something I admire completely. It is one of the few soundtracks that I almost remember completely. It is what makes many of the scenes into what they really are. It’s what makes so many of the scenes bone-chilling. It’s what makes so many of the scenes so marveling.
At the end of the day, I absolutely love ‘Your Name’. It is a movie that I think I will have in my mind for all of my life. A movie whose score will be stuck in my head for eternity. A movie who’s visuals will be ingrained in my brain. And a story of which will be cemented into my soul.
I have seen movies that I think are as good as Your name. 2001 a space odyssey, a clockwork orange are both two movies I think are about as good as this film. But in those two, it is more the thought-provoking and complicated story that they have. They aren’t necessarily movies that are made for the heart, but are still amazing for it. But when I watch ‘Your Name’, something about it just grabs me. I don’t know what it is, but the first time I watched it, I loved it completely. But I don’t know how to describe it. It isn’t a sad film, not necessarily a realistic one nor a romantic one. You could probably describe in many ways. but for me - it is the unnamable. Nothing more, nothing less, than a beautiful film
Submitted April 02, 2019 at 08:44AM by ODMAN03 https://ift.tt/2FRGzFP
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