An amazing experience

‘Your Name’ is wistful, more romantic than fantastic

The international success of writer and director Makoto Shinkai’s arresting, mysterious, and sweetly romantic new film, “Your Name,” is a good sign—at least when it comes to the idea that a foreign-language (or any) animated film has to appeal to some four-quadrant, lowest common denominator paradigm in order to connect with audiences. 

The surprise Japanese hit has as much name recognition for being the highest-grossing anime film in history as it does for its distinctive story. But that’s how snowballs, thankfully, get made.

Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) is a bored high school girl in rural Japan on the verge of graduation. Living with her grandmother and her sister, there’s nothing to do, and no place to hang out with her equally restless friends.

That is until she wakes up one morning in the body of a Tokyo high school boy named Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki), who conversely finds himself inhabiting Mitsuha’s body. Both struggle to wrap their heads around what must be an incredibly realistic dream, and promptly grasp the disconcerting reality of their new naughty bits. 

The pair, apparently without the benefit of having seen “Freaky Friday,” deduce that they, instead of dreaming, really have swapped bodies—a curiosity that is perhaps made possible by a comet that’s passing by on a 1,200-year orbit. 

Once the comet moves on, their transpositions cease, leaving them both with a nagging sense of loss that compels them to try and find one another again.

That’s as far as I can get into the story because where “Your Name” begins only hints to where the wistful narrative wanders—a mystical, dream-like love story that tugs on heartstrings both figurative and literal.

Based on Makoto Shinkai’s novel of the same name, which he released a mere month before the film’s premiere, “Your Name” is something different, aimed squarely at a YA crowd inundated by dystopian action stories, sparkly vampires, bespectacled boy wizards, and disaffected youth in search of meaning in an often indifferent and cruel world.    

Shinkai’s film also reminds us how the rural pace of life can open one’s eyes to the quiet truths of the world, while the bustle and artificiality of urban life often obviates them with modernity. Love and death are reasons to live. Time is at once finite and infinite. Shinkai weaves these ideas together into a Möbius-like narrative.

While Shinkai’s film certainly dabbles in the fantastic, he is a romanticist at heart. The sincerity of emotion he evokes in “Your Name”—whether it’s joy or sadness, wonder or serenity—satisfy on almost every conceivable visual and narrative level. It’s the kind of movie that is less of something you watch, as opposed to experience.

This isn’t Studio Ghibli, and it’s not Miyazaki (who is much more of a fantasist). The art and amination from CoMix Wave Films are stunning in their level of attention to detail—some shots look nearly photo-real—and the beauty of it all is soul-soothing in the way that slice-of-life stories set in the bucolic mountain forests of Japan tend to be. 

I’d step through the screen, were that possible, and never return.

Full Circle

A brief rundown of what’s happening at Circle Cinema

OPENING APRIL 21

The Promise
An epic early 20th Century love triangle set in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. Stars Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte Le Bon. Directed by Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda”).
Rated PG-13.

Free Fire
Set in the late 1970s crime underworld, this feature-length genre shootout unfolds in high octane Tarantino-esque style. Stars Brie Larson, Sharlto Copely, Cillian Murphy, and Armie Hammer.
Rated R.

OPENING APRIL 28

Colossal
This quirky independent sci-fi movie is about a woman (Anne Hathaway) who suffers a nervous breakdown while being psychically connected to a rampaging monster. Co-starring Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, and Tulsa’s own Tim Blake Nelson.
Rated R.

Their Finest
A married woman and screenwriter fall in love during World War II while making a propaganda film for Britain about the evacuation of Dunkirk, France. Stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, and Bill Nighy, from director Lone Scherfig (“An Education”).
Rated R.

A Very Sordid Wedding
Special opening night event on Thurs., April 27. Reception at 6 p.m. with director Del Shores & actor Emerson Collins; 7 p.m. screening. This indie comedy examines questions, concerns, and bigotry when marriage equality comes to a small Texas town, with characters from Del Shores’ popular film “Sordid Lives”. Co-stars Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Caroline Rhea, Dale Dickey, & Whoopi Goldberg.
Not Rated.

Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
This new documentary by Beatles expert Scott Freiman examines the making of the landmark album from multiple perspectives.
Not Rated.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Fright Night (1985) 
The popular horror classic about a teenager who learns that his next-door neighbor is a vampire.
Rated R.
Fri. Apr. 21 and Sat. Apr. 22, 10 p.m.

Bandelier & Beer/Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Part of the Woody Guthrie Center’s 4th Anniversary Festival. Live music and reception at 6 p.m. with director Jim Brown, followed by his film about folk artist Pete Seeger at 7 p.m., featuring artists like Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and more
Tue. Apr. 25th, beginning at 6 p.m.

Bill Evans/Time Remembered 
A documentary about the music and times of jazz pianist Bill Evans. Features interviews with Tony Bennett, Jack Dejohnette, Billy Taylor, Paul Motian, Jon Hendricks, Bobby Brookmeyer, and more. Q&A with director Bruce Spiegel follows.
Sun. Apr. 30, 2 p.m.

TED Cinema Experience 
Experience TED2017 with extraordinary speakers, risk
takers, visionaries, celebrities, and emerging thought leaders.
Mon. May 1, 7 p.m.

For more from Joe, read his review of the retro-horror flick, “The Void.”