Your Name, film review: Shock of the body swap

The film’s focus on the physical element of this swap is refreshing, says Charlotte O'Sullivan
Exquisite: the animation is gorgeous, but the story line heads in the wrong direction
Charlotte O'Sullivan18 November 2016

It's hilarious watching people discuss this Japanese anime epic. Person A: “I saw Your Name last night”. Person B: (cautiously delighted) “My name? Where?” There’s a lot of hype around the project and the consensus, vis-a-vis director Makoto Shinkai, is that he’s picked up from where Studio Ghibli’s Miyazaki left off.

Our heroine, Mitsuha, is a rural teen with an overbearing father. One day she wishes she was as free as a boy. For reasons never explained she proceeds to wake up as a Tokyo lad called Taki. Over several months she and Taki fitfully swap bodies. He is shyly obsessed by her breasts while she, though electrified by the big city, is horrified by his penis and groans with panic when she needs to pee.

The film’s focus on the physical element of this swap is refreshing. True, the script doesn’t explore an obvious and fascinating avenue (are the characters, even the extremely well-behaved Mitsuha, ever tempted to masturbate?) But it consistently offers a sense of how conservative modern earthlings can be when it comes to natural bodily functions. A religious ritual, organised by Mitsuha’s granny, involves spittle, which all the school-friends dub “disgusting”.

The animation is exquisite (look out for an autumn landscape containing mellow yellows and the hottest of reds). What a shame the characters get more anodyne as the story turns into a eco-disaster/time-travel romance. Basically, the whole thing runs out of steam (unlike Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which threw a lovely hag into its third act). Shinkai is one to watch but doesn’t quite yet deserve to be a household name.

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