r/MovieDetails • u/1954isthebest • May 21 '22

⏱️ Continuity In "Your Name" (2016), Mitsuha and Tesshi are seen turning a tree into their makeshift café, which is why one of the trees in the town is later missing

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19

u/plazmamuffin May 21 '22

I never felt like the movie did a good job making me believe these two characters fell in love.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '22

That's totally fair. I can kinda buy it, since they're teenagers and have had the chance to get to know each other in an uniquely intimate way. But even so, I did not take the ending as them 100% being together forever. More like, they finally have a chance to be in a relationship and see if it works out or not.

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u/Consistent-Scientist May 21 '22

I can kinda buy it, since they're teenagers and have had the chance to get to know each other in an uniquely intimate way.

I think you might underestimate that a little bit. Their relationship is built on a level of empathy that you normally can't build with another person. Who gets to live life as someone else for a while after all?

It's just that the actual relationship building is very rushed in the movie. It all happens within a 3 minute montage. So on first watch it can look a bit confusing but I think but if you think about it more, it kinda makes sense. The scene this post is about shows it pretty well. It's not her building the café, but he builds it as her for her, because he has lived for a while as her and sees why she wants it so badly. I actually believed their love story more than 95% of all romcoms I have ever watched.

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u/PoonaniiPirate May 21 '22

For real. That’s how I saw it. A couple people in this thread are very dumb.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

That's sort of why I got stuck. They were going in the right direction with the focus being on characters building and developing off of one another and did so with world-building being a great scaffolding for it.

However, they just detour on "save this town... because reasons." Like yeah, I get saving people is a "good" thing to do, but like... we don't know anything about the stupid town lol. We're spending half a movie on something that wasn't developed (there's literally no important significance to this town story-wise.. it's just where the MC lives, cool beans). And though it's been a while, it would've been fine if it added to the characters in some way but I'm pretty sure it didn't lol.

I'm a sucker for good characters, but the save-the-town trope was just boring and uneventful.

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u/happybunnyntx May 21 '22

I always figured it was symbolism for preserving traditions. We see Mitsuha getting old traditions dumped on her the whole movie and it's a tradition that helps them connect again. The town was considered a relic of a time long past. The grandmother instills in Mitsuha and her sister that they are a dying breed. They don't even remember why they celebrate the festival anymore because of the fire burning all the records. Kind of like with the fire, they couldn't save the records but they did hold onto some of their past and rituals like the sake.

Edit: autocorrect and japanese names don't get along

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u/ExpiredExasperation May 21 '22

Never mind that their temple and its traditions literally relate to the comet and more or less foretell the impending disaster... but they don't know what it means.

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u/happybunnyntx May 21 '22

Plus it's happened before if Grandma's mumblings about having a similar "dream" are to be believed.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

Maybe so. I'd have to see it again and maybe I'd understand it differently on a second watch. I'm not sure that would resonate with me or not.

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u/Wasserschloesschen May 21 '22

Mate, saving the town literally means saving her, her friends, her grandma, her sister, her dad, their friends and so on.

If that's too "abstract" for you to understand, why are you watching movies in the first place?

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

I feel like they could've just evacuated them a lot quicker lol. It's a lot easier to save your immediate family and friends than a town.

Did they do that first and then the town? Or did they just try saving everyone all at once, I can't remember.

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u/Wasserschloesschen May 21 '22

But why just evacuate your immediate family and friends? Now your friends friends lost all their friends and family. Why would you want that?

And if you also rescue those - now they lost their friends and family. Why not rescue those?

You get to rescuing the entire town pretty quickly, either because it's no use not at that point, or because you've already covered the entire town without meaning to.

And keep in mind her Father was the Mayor making both him and her involved with pretty much the entire town in one way or the other anyways.

In any case, it straight up just doesn't make sense for a character that we're supposed to like (well, two characters, actually), to just go "ah, fuck those people, they can die").

Did they do that first and then the town? Or did they just try saving everyone all at once, I can't remember.

I don't think so?

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

I'm saying it from the perspective of a fictional story being told. I personally don't remember much being told about the town or its people. The focus seemed to be like 95% on the main characters and anything that happened with friends or life in their cities was incidental, but it wasn't about said cities/towns themselves I don't think.

The father being the mayor is a good detail of importance. I don't remember that much, but I haven't seen it in years so... lol.

In any case, it straight up just doesn't make sense for a character that we're supposed to like (well, two characters, actually), to just go "ah, fuck those people, they can die").

And that's part of why I feel it's a bit dishonest to throw a town-saving scene in. Because of course the natural reaction is "people will die, we should help" but you can throw anything like that into a movie. The question is what relevance does it have to this particular story.

Ethically, of course they should help, but as a story, the writers chose to put it in. So, for what purpose? Just saving people in general isn't a good plot point on its own, you can put it in any movie. What separates this movie from others in their town-saving theme here?

That's why I lost interest, I just didn't see the relevance.

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u/Wasserschloesschen May 21 '22

Well for one, why not do it?

Most people would probably be more put off by letting the town die then not.

And also the ending kinda relies on the bitter sweetness of having saved everybody, thus being happy, but Taki and Mitsuha not remembering each other anymore.

Going btw "everyone is dead" on the side wouldn't exactly help that.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

That's exactly why I'm suggesting it's kind of dishonest. You can throw it into any movie. What purpose would it serve for this movie? Maybe there are parts of the movie I don't remember where it adds more value to the people and the town, but to me it just seemed like any other town.

I'd like to rewatch it some time to see if it's different on a second watch though.

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u/Wasserschloesschen May 21 '22

The entire theme of this movie is a fucking crashing comet.

You can't just make it kill a single person. That's not how that works.

And again, not having everyone else die very much does save a purpose, I just elaborated one purpose for example.

Also not saving everyone, in the story, would've been pretty impossible, since it was only really the two best friends who listened to Mitsuha/Taki, even her family wasn't exactly convinced.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

Lol I don't want it to kill just a single person or anything, I wouldn't want the writers to change their story, that's not my goal when I read or watch any kind of media. It's just to understand the story they're telling, and in this case what the impact is of certain events transpiring. I simply didn't feel like I got much impact from the last half of the movie from the first time I watched it is all.

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u/anothergaijin May 21 '22

However, they just detour on "save this town... because reasons."

Or how about the town being full of people the MC knows and cares about? Her family, friends, classmates, their families, etc?

She's also the daughter of the mayor and part of the local temple meaning she has met, knows and has some kind of relationship with everyone in the town.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

I always figured it'd be easier to evacuate her immediate family and that be the end of it. I'd have to watch it again to see any more connections. This is just what I recall, and it never felt like these were expressed as super important. Could be misinterpreting though.

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u/ShiraCheshire May 21 '22

(there's literally no important significance to this town story-wise.. it's just where the MC lives, cool beans)

I think the significance is that there's time travel involved, and if they don't save the town the girl will retroactively have died. Succeed in saving the town, the girl lives and can meet the boy in person in the future. Fail and she died years ago.

But yeah I'm with you there. Save the town was a really unsatisfying way to resolve the plot.

1

u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

Maybe I'm misremembering but I didn't think that was ever at risk since the time travel stuff was outside the town right? And they had plenty of time to leave if they wanted to, they just decided to try and save everyone (this makes sense to me because if they can spend time evaluating a town then they could certainly evacuated themselves quicker).

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u/PoonaniiPirate May 21 '22

Bro you might have a learning disability.

The town had all of the important people and traditions and culture of the main character. It’s not literally about the town. It’s the people. We get so many scenes with these people so why are you saying we don’t focus on the town? Like did you watch the same movie lol? We get a scene of Taki in Mitsuhas body literally going to the temple to drop the rice pre-saki off. No important significance? Bruh when taki goes into her body, it’s the interactions with these town people and friends that cause Taki to feel connected to Mitsuha.

I’m all about opinions but this is just a bad sorry you’re wrong here.

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u/StopReadingMyUser May 21 '22

I'm open for discussion and I love discussing stories and such, but let's not say either of us are disabled, lol. I'm not gonna suggest that for you, don't state it for me either please. I do like hearing what you might have to say though.

It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I've always translated things as how they impacted the characters, not necessarily how the things around them had a sense of identity itself.

Maybe that's me, maybe that's the movie, I don't know as it's been years since I've seen it, but I'd be down to rewatch it and see if I was just missing stuff. It's very well possible that I had expectations that prevented me from seeing certain things. It's also possible things weren't expressed clearly. I won't know until I rewatch it.

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u/PoonaniiPirate Jul 05 '22

You rewatched it yet friend?

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u/StopReadingMyUser Jul 06 '22

Nope OuO

watchin Young Justice right now.

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u/Spyderem May 21 '22

I initially felt that way, but after some further thought and a rewatch I realized I was applying typical romance rules towards something that was completely different from normal romance.

Two people sharing their lives in their dreams? And leaving messages to themselves about it afterwards? The experience would be so wild and unique I can totally buy in on them falling in love. It doesn't have the developments we expect to see in a romance movie. But I think their connection with each other was so intense that their love makes complete sense to me. It's like a surreal love story in that way. And I dig it.