Kimi no Na wa

"Kimi no Na wa", the latest opus by Makoto Shikai, is a story of two strangers whose lives were intertwined, through some mysterious circumstance, and made such an imprint on each other which left them with a sense of longing for the other... whose name they cannot remember.

I've been a fan of a few of Makoto Shinkai's works which moved me in a lot of ways. His art and production style were simple back then, but the emotion of the voices and the depth of the story did more than enough to make up for it... it gave the movie a "soul".

This time, the production style is more extravagant, but everything gave the story more depth. From the background, to the mood set by the lights. And even the songs by "Radwimps" included in the movie added more emotion and set a crescendo leading up to the twist in the story.

The premise of the story was a bit humorous and amusing at the beginning. The lives that they changed both in their own selves and in their immediate surroundings. But the development of the story about a third into the movie left me in awe.

I am used to seeing some form of a twist in the story in Makoto Shinkai's previous works, but this movie gave the most interesting plot yet.

I hope the would release a DVD with English subtitles soon.