Your Name

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It has been some time since a Japanese anime had got me so emotionally involved into the characters. ‘Your Name’ (君の名は) managed to do that when I was just casually flicking through pages of Netflix recommendations the other day. I was looking for something to accompany me through my cooking, but I ended up sitting down completely engaged in the story.

The premise seemed straightforward – a boy dreamed about a girl and a girl dreamt about a boy. However as with a lot of Japanese anime, they are rarely so. As the story unfolds it gets more and more complicated and by that time you figured out the threads, you have involved so much in that emotional journey that you just couldn’t help but root for the characters.

It is hard to write about it without giving away too much. But the ingenuity of the movie was that it skilfully manipulated our modern-day technologies and lifestyle, and weaved them into a fabric that before you travelled to the end of the roll you will not know what’s going to happen. Also, it smartly left a lot of hints here and there and rewards you with all those enlightened moments that fed you with doses of satisfaction, if you managed to spot them.

Japanese anime might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for me in an age of candy soap opera and tacky romantic comedies, ‘Your Name’ is a breath of fresh air, not just for anime but the whole genre. In fact, it feels like it had redefined the genre. I felt like I haven’t seen something like this before and thus became so engaged with the story and the character. All those ‘what ifs’ and ‘buts’ that were scattered around the plot made you really wanted to find out what impact would every decision made have on every character you came to know and care about.

‘Your Name’ is a classic example of a story told right and complimented by some of the most beautifully drawn scenery in animation. This is particularly impressive when you are watching it on a 4K HD big screen. The scenery just jumped to life on your TV in the most impressive manner. In the day and age of computer-generated animation, it is when you saw something like ‘Your Name’ that you remembered how you need to appreciate the master artistry Japanese animators brought to the medium. From the sketches drawn by the main male character Taki, to the actual scenery you saw when you actually saw the ‘real thing’ in the story, you couldn’t help but wonder how did we come to forget the beauty of traditional drawing and painting?

Accompanying with the story was a beautifully composed soundtrack by Radwimps that starts and stops at every single right moment in the story. From the urban hustle bustle of Tokyo to the tranquillity of the countryside, the soundtrack captured the world of ‘Your Name’ perfectly, and without losing a beat.

As with most Japanese anime, the characters were beautifully voice acted and I felt that this is why it became so engaging. Japanese voice actors were highly regarded in Japan and it shows why. They commanded real emotion with their animated counterpart so perfectly that you sometimes forgot they were just hand drawn characters on sheets. That is the magic of superb Japanese voice acting.

As I said, Japanese anime is not for everyone. This is especially the case with ‘Your Name’ as it started off pretty slowly and could be head scratching for some if you are not paying attention to the details. But once you see past the anime fabric of the movie, you will appreciate that it is a great and intriguing story told in the most masterful way that one could imagine. If you have an hour and a half to spare, check it out on Netflix before it disappears.

Love, Simon

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Movies about teenagers seemed to have changed a lot since my self-imposed exile from them because of ‘cannot relate to them’. Last I wrote about the surprised Netflix hit for me through ‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’, which I felt a breath of fresh air into the genre. Tonight, I ran into a little piece of gem that I missed while people were raving about it when it was in the cinemas – ‘Love, Simon’.

Yes, I know. I am late to the party and the whole universe had moved on. But I was quite impressed about how the movie dealt with the issue being highlighted as the theme. Simon, played by the perfectly performed Nick Robinson, came from your most picture-perfect suburban family. Dad Jack (Josh Duhamel) was a famous ex-League player and mum Emily (Jennifer Garner) was the smartest and most liberal wife and mother you could find. With a well-articulated and ‘career-focused’ younger sister, Simon had it all – except for one thing – his secret identity as a gay teenager.

Simon is loved among his friends and was never the target of bullies. He is doing fine at school and is the principal’s favourite student. However, as Emily pointed out, Simon has been holding back his breaths for years. That is, until Simon met ‘Blue’. A fellow student at his high-school who posted a blog on the school’s gossip site talking about a secret that was affecting him all throughout the years. Feeling a connection Simon reached out as Jacques, and the correspondence continued. Their online relationship flourished and Simon started putting genuine smiles back on his face. His favourite pass time was waiting for ‘Blue’s’ replies. He felt that he was himself again. However, the freedom within the online world was also met with threats when part of the conversation was accidentally spotted by another fellow student and started blackmailing Simon. Determined to keep his ‘relationship’ with Blue under wraps Simon juggled and as we all knew juggling is taxing and eventually things fell apart.

It was a movie not just about growing up, but about the need to deal with shit that nobody should be dealing with because of who he / she is. As Simon’s fellow classmate Ethan said, coming out, no matter at what age, is not easy. Simon’s jealousy of the freedom Ethan enjoyed at school for being who he was, was not at a small cost. But that is the part that Simon slowly learnt and accepted. And this was the same for his friends, whom responded in their own ways to the crisis unfolding at school while re-assessing their own identities.

The movie was dealing with some heavy issues but with expert light heartedness that did not trivialise the subject. I think that was the reason that I was so impressed and got hooked into it. The conversation between Jack and Simon, in which Jack was filled with guilt for not knowing earlier to be more helpful and understanding, while Simon was the person who salvaged the situation for him, demonstrated one would never know what is inside another person’s head, no matter how close they are, and also help would always come in its surprising way. At the end of the day, proper space and open-mindedness are important for everyone involved. I also particularly like how the principal flashed out what is meant by ‘tolerance’ without letting the notion going down the cliché drain.

Love, Simon seemed to have initially presented itself as a teenage love story but it is so much more. The delicate balance that it presented made this movie an exceptional story and experience for the audience. I do not know whether everyone who saw it took away something with him / her but for me the most outstanding part was its achievements of balance without being laborious. You don’t need to overthink. It is there. Whether you want to take it with you is your choice.

Love, Simon is a teenage movie done right. It is not cliché and it is full of joy, heartache and surprises. If you have missed it, come in with an open mind for you will never know what you can learn from these teenagers.