Director: Makoto Shinkai

Writer: Makoto Shinkai (Screenplay)

Starring: (Voice Talents) Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryo Narita, Aoi Yuki, Nobunage Shimazaki, Kaito Ishikawa

Plot: Two strangers find themselves linked in a bizarre way. When a connection forms, will distance be the only thing to keep them apart?

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Just Wow

Story: Your Name starts as we meet small town girl Mitsuha who dreams of getting out of the town and moving to the busy Tokyo, we also meet Tokyo school student Taki who has found himself looking after himself searching for his next stage in life.

With an incoming comet passing over the strange event starts to happen for the two strangers who find themselves swapping bodies and lives, the two start communicating through messages to inform the other what they have been doing, some good other bad, but when the communication is lost, the truth about their connection comes out.

Thoughts on Your Name

Characters – Taki and Mitsuha are both fantastic characters, they both come off like normal high school students in the lives they are living, both dreaming off things outside what they see as their reach, both confused but adapting to the body swapping lives they believe to be dreams. The rest of the characters who are part of both lives which does work for our main characters story arc.

Story – The story brings a fresh approach the body swapping sub-genre, we become invested in the lives of both of the students and the bigger story going on which I don’t want to get too detailed but this story will make you go through a full range of emotions and you will be left shocked with the final outcome of the story.

Fantasy/Romance – The fantasy side of the film comes from the body swapping elements which does get increased when you learn the twist within the film’s story. the romance comes from how these two people from different worlds can fall in love being part of the others life.

Settings – The settings for the film show the different worlds the two come from, we get to see the busy streets of Tokyo and small town where families work to support the next generation filled with tradition.

Animation – The animation is as you would expect almost flawless for telling the story.

Final Thoughts – This is a film I have heard only wonderful things about, those things were not wrong, this is a wonderful story with great leading characters, that will pull on the all the emotions you have through the whole film.

Overall: Truly special animated film.

Rating

2017 Movie Watched List

Movie Watched list are always interesting to read to see what order people watch films in, over the past two years I have started doing watched lists with two different styles to talk about the over 1000 movies I had seen. This year I decided to mix it up once more. This time I will be listing the films in 10 like before and then picking just my favourites on a couple of subject’s I am picking favourites over best because sometimes the best films are difficult re-watches which is why I like the term favourite.

Here is 41 – 50

1.    Nosferatu The Vampyr

2.     XXX the Return of Xander Cage

3.     Split

4.     The Guard

5.     Ocean’s Eleven

6.     Ocean’s Twelve

7.     Goal of the Dead

8.     Ocean’s Thirteen

9.     Resident Evil

10. Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Favourite Film
Ocean’s Eleven

This is the beginning of the hugely enjoyable Ocean’s series, this introduces to all the characters and just how they pulled off the heist in a way we can all enjoy with an amazing cast of Oscar nominated stars which can be enjoyed at all times.

Worst Film
Ocean’s Twelve

For me this is a very weak sequel that just over complicates a very simple formula by taking the film to Europe instead of using the Vegas setting which made the film so enjoyable in the first place.

Favourite Character
Gerry Doyle – The Guard

When you watch buddy cop crime comedies it is always hard to bring in a fresh character, this film brings us a new look at a cop who isn’t on the clean side of the law but does know how to do the right thing and would never hurt someone, he comes out with some of the most inappropriate lines in any film too.

Worst Character
Isabel – Ocean’s Twelve

This highly annoying character joins the Ocean’s franchise as a love interest for Rusty who just so happens to track down thieves, yeah talk about adding a character we really don’t need in the series.

Star Performance
James McAvoy – Split

When you look into any horror film it is hard to find a performance that makes you go wow, this performance as a host of these different personalities makes you take a step back and wonder just who could have done this to the level McAvoy achieves.

Any other question you would like to know about the selection feel free to leave a comment and I will answer or maybe even add to future Watched Lists.