When I first saw Your Name, I enjoyed it for the most part. I thought the pop music montages and dialogue were pretty cringey, but overall the film was visually and atmospherically impressive enough for me to fall for it.
After a recent rewatch, I was actually shocked at how emotionally manipulative and utterly devoid of substance this movie really is. I'll break everything down for this:
The body swapping is a fairly generic idea, but they could have done a lot with it. Unfortunately it fails on so many levels to further cement the idea of the two protagonists exploring each other's lives and personalities, and instead the movie tricks the viewer into thinking that this actually happens. The two leads never learn about each other's lives from swapping bodies on any emotional level, instead those cringey montages that I mentioned before gloss over this important aspect that should have been more properly handled. This is also extremely problematic since we're supposed to believe that Taki and Mitsuha actually fall in love with each other, but we never find out why. They don't learn anything from living as the opposite gender either, in fact the story relies on breakage of character for comical effect. For example, the normally androgynously behaved and chilled-out Taki acts like a sporty, aggressive, manly-man while in Mitsuha's body.
SPOILERS: The second half of the movie is just as disastrous as the disaster it depicted. Not only does it abruptly drop the comedic tone of the first half of the movie, but it handles disaster and loss rather badly too. It relies far too heavily on the protagonists making dumb decisions, wasting time complaining about nothing, retardedly running around for no reason, and idiotically forgetting each other's names. All this is made even more unbearable by yet another wave of godawful pop music montages and cringey dialogue.
In the end there's no emotional loss in Your Name. There's no sacrifice, no learning from your mistakes, because in the end the protagonists just reverse the timeline and save the day. But now they've forgotten about each other forever? Surely there's a bittersweet ending? Nope, they get reunited and live happily ever after in the end, that's what happens. That time wasting ordeal of running around and forgetting each other's names meant nothing in the end.
Even though there are also many MANY plot holes that I didn't mention, Your Name's number one issue boils down to the atrocious writing and badly thought out story and characters. I still adore the film's visuals and immersive atmosphere, but it simply falls flat as a story.
After a recent rewatch, I was actually shocked at how emotionally manipulative and utterly devoid of substance this movie really is. I'll break everything down for this:
The body swapping is a fairly generic idea, but they could have done a lot with it. Unfortunately it fails on so many levels to further cement the idea of the two protagonists exploring each other's lives and personalities, and instead the movie tricks the viewer into thinking that this actually happens. The two leads never learn about each other's lives from swapping bodies on any emotional level, instead those cringey montages that I mentioned before gloss over this important aspect that should have been more properly handled. This is also extremely problematic since we're supposed to believe that Taki and Mitsuha actually fall in love with each other, but we never find out why. They don't learn anything from living as the opposite gender either, in fact the story relies on breakage of character for comical effect. For example, the normally androgynously behaved and chilled-out Taki acts like a sporty, aggressive, manly-man while in Mitsuha's body.
SPOILERS: The second half of the movie is just as disastrous as the disaster it depicted. Not only does it abruptly drop the comedic tone of the first half of the movie, but it handles disaster and loss rather badly too. It relies far too heavily on the protagonists making dumb decisions, wasting time complaining about nothing, retardedly running around for no reason, and idiotically forgetting each other's names. All this is made even more unbearable by yet another wave of godawful pop music montages and cringey dialogue.
In the end there's no emotional loss in Your Name. There's no sacrifice, no learning from your mistakes, because in the end the protagonists just reverse the timeline and save the day. But now they've forgotten about each other forever? Surely there's a bittersweet ending? Nope, they get reunited and live happily ever after in the end, that's what happens. That time wasting ordeal of running around and forgetting each other's names meant nothing in the end.
Even though there are also many MANY plot holes that I didn't mention, Your Name's number one issue boils down to the atrocious writing and badly thought out story and characters. I still adore the film's visuals and immersive atmosphere, but it simply falls flat as a story.