Member review

Your Name:

Your Name has to be one of the stand out Anime films to be released this year. A major hit in Japan, which actually is now one of the highest grossing films of all time in Japan, which is certainly quite the feat being number 5, with high competition from the likes of Studio Ghibli. Your Name is quite the breakout success and there is many reason because of this. From the absolutely stunning and very well crafted, to the raw beautiful emotion of the films story, the settings the story covers and the fantastic emotional comedy of the film.

From Director Makoto Shinkai, Your Name really is an anime gem. I must confess I'm not the biggest anime fan however this film has changed my perception of anime and I'm more inclined to watch some more because of the film. The visual story telling it has are extremely 3D, which is odd to say about anime but this film done a fantastic job of presenting the 2D realm of anime but giving the casual illusion of 3D only in particular scenes I should add but I only became aware of this after seeing the film. I was lucky enough to see the film earlier in October at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Film Festival, so I feel very lucky and privileged to see this movie.

The movie is about two teenagers who live almost completely separate lives in Japan with one of them being Mitsuha, who is the daughter of the local town mayor, who is living the more traditional Japanese lifestyle in the isolated but beautiful countryside, performing ancient rituals and she is someone who dreams of moving to Tokyo. Her life is very boring though she has the entertainment of looking after her little sister who provides some great comedy in the film, when she's not doing anything else, she hangs out with her two best friends around their little quaint village. While our other main character is who Taki, who actually isn't introduced into the story for some time but also being the second main character is very important to the storyline ("Of course" I can hear you saying). He is your almost average schoolboy living in the big city of Tokyo, who is constantly rushing around the busy city getting from school, to his favourite cafe, to work at a restaurant and then back home again.

They both dream of having either the busy, rewarding life of the city or having the more quiet lifestyle of the countryside and having an easier life (You can easily work that one out).

They both end up switching consciousnesses at random intervals which leads them to slowly discover that they are not having any sort of dream and this is real life and each one of their actions in the other person has consequences. They end up figuring out how to react and behave with certain people and write a diary for eachother to discover what they had done when they had switched. While in eachothers bodies, they both get up to some very funny nonsense and creates some pure laughable comedy. I would go onto saying more about the story though it is very spoilable to actually say anything more as the story is very connected and it provides such an emotional journey for one to go through.

If you fancy watching a visually beautiful film, with an amazing soundtrack that perfectly fits the film, so greatly and a story that will leave you laughing and tears (I must confess it really made my cry, I almost choked up typing this up by remembering it all). If you want stellar storytelling and one of this years greatest films to hit the cinema screen, then Your Name is for you! I can't recommend enough seeing this wonderful piece of cinema! Guess who'll be pr-ordering the blu-ray disc once it's available haha!!

5/5