I have to say that this time, I really have to kneel down to the ground with Makoto Shinkai.
After watching a lot of domestic routine youth films, I have passed a certain age. In fact, watching similar themes is inevitably tired, and I am always afraid that I will be drenched in blood again. But "Your Name" grabbed people from the very beginning. The comet falls into the sky, atmospheric and mysterious. The daily life of the common dwellings in the countryside of the island country is all the familiar flavor of the sun, and the nostalgic atmosphere is blowing in the face. Of course, nostalgia alone won't last long, so the first baggage comes quickly - body swaps.
The motif of men and women swapping bodies has also been played in other films before, such as "Miss So Hot", "Falling in Love with Red Keen", and "Men and Women". There are also precedents in Japan and South Korea. Naturally, they are not new. Fortunately, the director did not rush to render this, but maintained the suspense with a series of quick explanations and an orderly rhythm. This treatment is undoubtedly to guide the audience to take the only way - meet.
Originally, the stalks of body swapping were nothing more than bisexual jokes, unfamiliar experiences, etc., including the heroine in this film helping the male protagonist "pick up girls", which is just an ordinary joke. These episodes before the meeting were regarded as petty troubles, paving the way for the second half. Then the boy finally couldn't hold back and tried to contact him, but the phone couldn't get through. The unyielding male protagonist then gave full play to his artistic talent, and he wanted to meet and then hurry up, and this was the real inflection point - he couldn't see it at all.
Self touch. The last time I touched it, I burst into tears
The hard-working male protagonist is always the key factor driving the plot. This time, the boy's efforts also brought him awareness of the truth: the two of them turned out not only to exchange across space, but also across time. The girl who left her message turned out to be someone from three years ago. And now, the girl who "entered her body" every day has long since died in the natural disaster of the comet's fall. The isolation of life and death, the time difference between the fall of the comet, instantly brought the whole plot into a dark and deep canyon-the whole movie can be said to have just begun from here.
(I want to insert a sentence here, saying that the body swap is "entering the other's body" is not just a joke. In fact, this implies an unspoken rule of similar themes, that is, "sexual suggestion". From the psychoanalytical From an angle, this is indeed an ingenious metaphor and symbol, and it is also one of the reasons why this type of plot is so popular among otakus.)
Of course, Makoto Shinkai's films do not allow "heroes to save beauty". Japanese manga fans didn't agree either. Therefore, the male protagonist's action to rescue the female protagonist through time and space must start. The rhythm of the second half is quite well controlled, almost all the arrows are on the strings, and they have to be made. Every movement is refreshing and natural, without any sloppy waters. Whether the heroine is dead or alive, as usual, the director did not immediately explain.
Time has changed, and it will be five years later. The ridicule that people who are looking for a job are often blocked and that they are not used to wearing a "suit" is actually the imagination of the adult world from a teenager's perspective. Just like watching the world of adults when I was a child, it is inevitable that I will feel a lot of difficulties. After a short period of imagination, it finally returned to the tune that youth films should have. The lover in adulthood can only be the true daughter of the youth. So the heroine appeared - passing by countless times, and finally getting the destined look back.
The bell rings. The two recognize each other. What does it matter if you remember the name or not, some loves can transcend the boundaries of memory - the moment when they say "your name" to each other, the curtain falls and the whole film ends.
Although the plot of this film is not brain-burning; although the direction from the beginning to the end can be guessed; although the reunion is the ending that almost each of us has expected, this movie still did not disappoint me, it earned enough tears , and also fulfilled our desires - this is the ungrown child in everyone's heart, the desire that has been sunk in reality for a long time. Just for this, it is enough for me to pay tribute to Makoto Shinkai.
In addition, there are several points that have to be mentioned. The first is the introduction of the comet passage. The meaning of comets, if you have seen "The Night the Comet Came", then the viewer must understand that this means that fantasy elements are mixed in. The same is true for the reference to comets in this film, but it does not give strong hints at the beginning. The flashes and foreshadowing of several shots can only be realized in the middle of the film. For the old viewers of Japanese comics, these settings are not difficult to accept, and they are not the focus of curiosity. The important thing is - under such a setting, how does the protagonist solve this mystery entangled with emotional fetters. The process of solving the puzzle is also the process of the hero and heroine's emotions from unfamiliar to familiar, from distant to close, from amnesia to recalling all the details.
This mental path, the audience will follow the male and female protagonists and walk together, which is also the reason why the whole film makes people feel uneasy.
Others questioned some of the fantastical details. For example, why can you cross again after drinking fermented wine, and connect with each other when you run back to the Holy Land? In fact, this is purely a setting, and it is absolutely necessary to get to the bottom of it. Exactly doesn't matter. In contrast, how the male and female protagonists pass the test, find more hidden fetters, and recover more lost memories is the highlight. So when someone asks why the male protagonist can't persuade him directly and forcefully to go back through time, he has to make so many tricks - the answer is here, the emotional development process can't be saved.
The last is the "farewell" that traveled through time and space near the "twilight" crater. This is the climax of the whole film, and it is also a sensational scene. Fortunately, the film did not fall into the pattern of Korean films after all, and used music and crying scenes to forcibly incite. It can even be said that all the dialogues between the male and female protagonists in the process are so natural that people forget that they are sensational, and they have to cooperate with the surging emotions. Also, the timing is just right. Suddenly, the other party disappeared, and the black pen fell to the ground. The climax of the repeated foreshadowing came so short, and immediately fell into the trough of the eternal - sorry, I have forgotten your name.
"お前はだれた..." When I saw this, I couldn't tell the sadness.
I think this may be the most heart-wrenching moment in the whole film. The two people who all the audience were happy to see, saw that they had touched each other's fingertips, and the chains of time were cut off without warning. And this is not only the separation of time and space, but also the eternal separation of life and death. However, since the fantastic comets have pierced the sky, time and space have passed through many times, and most of the spectators are ignorant teenagers, they decided not to inject despair into their young and immature hearts. (And I believe that if the heroine dies, Makoto Shinkai will not have to make films in the future.) Therefore, we saw a scene of anti-Hollywood value training at the end-the past has really been changed.
In the news reports N years later, we learned that the heroine did not die, and everyone in the village was saved. At this point, the tension in everyone's heart was finally loosened by half. The other half is whether the male protagonist can find her in his destiny. In the end, all the plots are in the director's repeated provocation, leading to the moment of reunion. The dust settles, the plot is complete. For all audiences, is it not the desire for perfect love in their hearts, the most splendid imagination of her/his?
In my opinion, this is the key to the attraction of Xin Haicheng - he may not create the ideal image for boys and girls (after all, everyone has their own preferences, and there will never be a fixed template for gods and goddesses). What he creates is the feeling of falling in love - from the awkwardness of not knowing each other, to the coincidence of encounters, and even to regaining lost memories, life, hobbies, worldviews and all things that tacit understanding. In this process of retrieving, he used life and death to be wide, time and space are forever separated, and he used the openness of heaven to earth and the vastness of time in the universe to run through it, so that love became as beautiful and eternal as the vast starry sky and mysterious destiny.
There is no unnecessary entanglement and suspicion, no unnecessary desire to indulge, no deliberate, no skill. It was only after the loss that the unforgettable search was reunited after a long absence.
Is this the most beautiful form of love?
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