Oh yeah, the body switch genre. These films were so common in my youth, I naturally assumed they were based on real life. Not all of these are made up, right? Check Big or Vice Versa for the words “based on a true story.” From them, I derived the following bits of wisdom: avoid all gypsies, even mechanical ones … or don’t and hang out with people much better looking than me while announcing at random intervals to nobody in particular, “boy, I sure wish I were you, Doug.” Sounds like a plan, right?
Teenager Mitsuha (voice of Mone Kamishiraishi) wishes she were the girl next door … in Tokyo. There’s not even a café in her tiny mountain town. Seriously, the setting is like Japanese “South Park.” She and her friends improvise with a vending machine and a log outside a bus stop; perhaps they can add pebbles to create bubble tea. One day, Mitsuha wakes up and while attempting to give herself the daily mammogram, she realizes she’s no longer a she. In fact, she’s some slacker dude from the big city named Taki (Ryûnosuke Kamiki) .
So, hey, what would you do if you woke up and you weren’t you? I think the kids are much kinder than I would have been. Honestly, I wake up as somebody else and it would be, “Schedule? Screw that. I barely know how to be me most days. I’m checking out the town.” Mitsuha, however, actually attempts to be Taki – she finds his school, his friends, his café, his job. She even makes a move –inadvertently- on Taki’s would-be girlfriend.
Meanwhile, in another film, Taki is suddenly a small mountain towner. Your Name. disguises itself as City Mouse v. Country Mouse, the prevalent question, “is Japanese life harder for a boy or a girl?” I kinda wanted to see Taki take on Mitsuha’s sake creation ritual, which not only involves a complicated dance, but also the chewing and contained drooling of rice chunks to begin the fermentation process.
The switching process tends to leave only shadow memories at best for the kids, hence it takes them a bit to catch on that there’s a bizarre relationship here. After that point, they start leaving one another notes: “Stop spending my money!” “Don’t mess up my
hair.” “Don’t eat all the Bugles.” Etc… One of their key agreements is to respect one another’s body privacy. I imagine this would be incredibly difficult for teens, but to their credit, neither Mitsuha nor Taki indulges, cuz that would be … wait for it … “Tacky.”
For me, the best part of Your Name. (yes, the period is part of the title) is that the film didn’t care a lick about how the transfer took place – maybe it has something to do with the comet parading about in the evening sky, but honestly, Your Name. pulled a honey badger on this issue. The “why?” is a better question, and it will get answered before the film ends.
Now, who wants to take my place and pull a movie marathon on Saturday?
♪I was a girl and I liked it
Decoupage after practice
I was a girl in the mountains
Hope her grandma don’t notice
Don’t know what’s wrong
Must make it right
Have to explain if you’re white
Woke up a girl in boondocks
Sure beats Kafka♫
Rated PG, 106 Minutes
D: Makoto Shinkai
W: Makoto Shinkai
Genre: The ol’ switcheroo
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Romantics
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Skeptics
♪ Parody inspired by “I Kissed a Girl”
