By Megan Ruge Living & Arts Editor
Though it is quite relaxing to live in the now, this week’s film discusses what it looks like to live in someone else’s past.
“Your Name,” a Japanese anime film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, focuses on what it’s like to live in someone else’s past, literally walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.
In the film, two lives intertwine. The first is a girl from a small country village outside of Tokyo where culture and family is prevalent in everyday life.
The other is a boy from Tokyo who wishes to escape from the hustle and bustle of life in the city.
Looking for something more, each wants the others life. The girl, Mitsuha, wants to leave her simple life behind and experience the city for herself.
They boy, Taki, wants to throw away the fast-paced life he lives to lead a life focused on family and traditions.
The yearning to experience this life only grows as the two begin to experience the other’s life. Little do they know, everything that is happening is meant to prevent the small village from grave danger.
Though the entire film is in Japanese, the story is not hard to follow and subtitles are available. The storyline is well presented throughout the movie and the film’s lack of English doesn’t take away from the overall message.
The film uses several mediums of animation to really give a complexity to the two worlds they combine in the film. A large majority of backgrounding is computer animated to give the locations a real feeling.
The second form of animation is a combination of hand drawn art and computer animation to bring the characters to life.
The final form used is the completely hand drawn sequences that are put together panel by panel. The more psychodelic sequences with demonstration of mental state are hand drawn sequences, beautifully drawn to show a raw kind of beauty within vulnerability.
The film contains a large amount of cultural references that are not exactly explained at first. This is generally the case, but because many of the cultural references are made within teachings, the references are then explained.
As Mitsuha’s grandmother teaches her and her sibling about culture and the way things work, the viewer begins to understand these references.
For a film so fully rooted in culture, I believe it connects well with someone who doesn’t understand how much culture relates to this way of life. The film makes an emotional impact with the viewer.
The films contains a heart-warming storyline that gives almost a romantic feel. The viewer will fall in love with the dedication the characters carry for each other, even after they leave each other behind. I give this film five stars.
