Your Name (2016 movie)
- catalogingdreams
- Dec 15, 2016
- 5 min read
Please play this OST soundtrack from the movie “Your Name” while you continue to read on.
“Your Name”, or “Kimi No Na Wa” is a beautiful Japanese animated movie. One of the best I’ve seen in a while. The art is vibrant, colourful and realistic while the plot, even more so. Set in Japan, the movie talks about the romance between a couple that met under the most unusual of circumstances. The story can get quite complicated so you might get completely lost if you’re distracted. Even with its complicated style, the show is peppered with many humorous scenes that will move the plot and lighten the mood.
Of course, since I am covering this movie in this blog, one of the themes of the movie is unsurprisingly, dreams. The idea of a dream fading with time was beautifully captured in the show. When we wake, we might not remember what we dreamt about but the feelings that we felt continue to linger on. Dreams are not a fake reality. Our feelings are evidence of that. What we felt, what we thought and what we did in our dreams are real! But without the restrictions and rules from reality, we can do and accomplish more than we ever thought possible. The dream world holds many wonders! Many recounts how they heard the voice of god, foreseen the future, inspired their works or even fell in love! Who are we to say that it was all a figment of their imagination? “Treasure the experience. Dreams fade away after you wake up.” – Your name
“Your name” is still currently showing in cinemas at some places, so be sure to catch it! Otherwise, there are online sites featuring it already as well.
The following paragraphs would be recounting the movie. Hence, ***spoiler alert!!!*** Do not scroll any further if you do not wish to know any details about the movie!
You have been warned…
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The movie starts with rather disjointed scenes. We see the ominous falling of a meteorite dangerously close to earth.
Next, we cut to how a girl and boy waking up but feeling disconcerted about forgetting something important they saw in their dreams. This feeling, unable to put into words, haunts them as they go about their daily lives.
Snippets of a train meeting tell the audience that the two have an inexplicable connection. The red string used in the girl’s hair also symbolises the red string of fate between the 2. Love is thick in the air and only now do we start to embark on this crazy story!
(“Once in a while when I wake up, I find myself crying. The dream I must’ve had I can never recall. But… the sensation that I’ve lost something, lingers for a long time after I wake up.”)
Introducing, Mitsuha!
An innocent countryside high school girl......
A high school girl groping and checking herself out early in the morning?
As Mitsuha continues her day, she is faced with more and more confusion. There appears to be a gap in her memory! According to her friends, she was behaving strangely the day before although Mitsuha herself did not feel any different.
It is also revealed that Mitsuha and her younger sister are shrine maidens. According to tradition, they have many rituals to perform such as dancing and making of the kuchikamisake (liquor made from the saliva of virgins). Mitsuha laments about her strict and traditional lifestyle in the countryside and longs to go to Tokyo. P.s. her town does not have a single café!
(Sister suggests selling the kuchikamisake to raise funds to go Tokyo)
Next, we have Taki!
“Taki”, a high school boy in Tokyo, wakes up to the same troubles. Disoriented, he too learns of his unusual behaviours, of which, he has no memories of.
The pair soon find out that they somehow switched bodies with one another at random times. They start communicating by leaving notes on their bodies and record the events of what transpired while they were in each other’s bodies on their phones.
("Baka" written on Taki's face, "Aho" written on Mitsuha's face. Both means stupid)
Mitsuha even helped Taki score a date with his long-time crush and senpai at work, Miki Okudera. On the other hand, Taki helped Mitsuha gain more popularity in school.
After an unsuccessful date with Miki, Taki tries to call Mitsuha but to no avail. He soon realised that they have stopped switching bodies too. Following an urge, Taki takes on an obsession with finding Mitsuha. Using only his memories of her village, Itomori, Taki sketched them out and went on a journey to find Mitsuha.
Finally, Taki learns that Mitsuha, her family, friends and the entire village was destroyed when a fragment of a comet fell on earth 3 years ago. Taki realizes that his and Mitsuha’s timeline were out of sync. This also explains why Taki did not recognize Mitsuha when she went to Tokyo to find him.
Determined to prove that all that had happened was not a mere dream, Taki chases his memories and found Mitsuha’s family’s shrine in the land of the underworld.
He drinks the kuchikamisake that Mitsuha made before and was once again connected to her. Against the twilight backdrop, the 2 were finally reunited. Taki warns Mitsuha of the oncoming danger and tells her to convince her father to evacuate the village. When the sun sets, they returned to their respective timelines.
(Taki trying not to forget Mitsuha's name)
Mitusuha raced against time to save the village. Seeing as her stubborn father would not believe her story, with the help of her friends, the 3 did all they could to evacuate the villagers. However, it appears that they were unable to save the town in time.
8 years later, we see that the village of Itomori was saved as Mitsuha managed to persuade her father to evacuate the villagers just before the comet hit. However, Taki and Mitsuha eventually forgot each other’s names and the events that happened between them. Like a dream, the details faded but the feelings lingered on with time.
Now adults, Taki still finds himself drawn to news and things related to Itomori and wonders about these strange feelings. One day, while riding a train, he passes by Mitsuha in a separate train.
A strange pull overcame them and they got off their trains to look for each other. They found each other at a staircase and with that unmistakable sense of familiarity, they ask for each other’s name.
Here is a link where you may catch the full movie in Japanese accompanied by English subtitles.
"Kimi no Na wa"
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