Just like the traditional braided chords spun and wound together at the Itomori shrine, Makoto Shinkai masterfully weaves together an emotionally impactful narrative that leaves the viewer’s heart feeling full to the brim, while longing for so much more at the same time. That is the ambivalent brilliance of his 2016 animated film, Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name). Shinkai shines as an animator through this film because of his attention to the cinematic elements that the film is composed of, and how he raises the standard for visual storytelling even with his seemingly traditional style of animation in a saturated digital world.

Kimi No Na Wa centers around Taki and Mitsuha—two high school students who each lived average and routinary lives: one, as a country girl, dreaming to uproot herself and venture out into the bigger world outside her little pocket of a rural town; the other, a jaded city boy, living the conventional hustle afforded to one living in the urban jungle that is Tokyo. Until fate itself decided to intervene and have them swap bodies, and by extension, their lives too. What follows is a tale of adjusting perspectives, unexpected self-discovery, a journey to finding the truth, and finally, the unlikely possibility of finding yourself through somebody else.

Upon watching the Kimi No Na Wa, the best word that could describe the stylistic direction of the film is impressionistic — especially in how it takes familiar spaces, and effectively evokes emotion from them. A major factor to this is just how big of a movie it is. Off-the-bat we are shown the view of an expansive sky evening sky with a comet hurtling down into a fairly large view of a lake town (which we will learn later to be Itomori itself). This will be a common visual scheme in the film, as we are guided through the streets and traditional architecture of Itomori on one hand, and then looking up into the glimmering skyline of Tokyo on the other. This helps establish the thematic element of grandeur, helping viewers see that we are all connected in the bigger scale of things. Shinkai also makes use of “lighting” techniques in the film. By incorporating blends of lighting and effective usage of shadows in the animation, such techniques help impress a natural vision of the spaces we see. The experience, then, of watching the film becomes especially immersive. Just like Mitsuha, we begin to excitedly experience arguably mundane things with a glimmering appreciation and awe.

Another important element that contributes to the overall experience of the film is the music used. Going through the whole movie one can’t help but feel that the flow of the film is guided by the music itself. From the beginning of the anime-style opening track, the whole score of the film is beautifully interwoven in the scenes so much so that it almsot feels essential to the viewing experience. True enough, Shinkai revealed in an interview that work on the actual animation of the movie was done hand-in-hand with the creation of its music (of which he worked closely with the RADWIMPS on). I would even argue that the whole mood of the film would change drastically if there were to be change (hence why the announced Hollywood live-action remake makes me feel apprehensive, but that is besides the point).

Overall, I believe that Kimi No Na Wa is the epitome of storytelling done right, and it beloved across a diverse array of audiences universally because of the fact. On the most basic level, Shinkai proves through his craft that when you pay close attention to how things are interconnected (whether thematically or cinematically speaking), you are bound to create — or even discover — something truly special.

Ha-na (Yooyoung) works part-time at a convenience store and shows her successor Gi-cheol (Gong Myeong) the ropes. As always she is a bit late and starts to have feelings for her lesbian co-worker Eun-yeong (Jeong Hye-in). Gi-cheol is gay, too, and soon needs to do his military service which is why he doesn’t want to deepen the relationship to his boyfriend. Another shift is taken over by Hyeon-soo (Sin Jae-ha), who wants to go to a casting, but simply can’t leave the store as he is constantly bothered by customers. Shop assistant Soo-hee (Kim Hee-yeon) has similar problems, having to deal with a customer ranting and raving against her. Min-hee (Kim Sae-byeok) even gets trouble with her boss, because she doesn’t put up with everything from a customer, and Seong-joon (Ahn Jae-min) has to watch over a box given to him by a strange woman.

All these seemingly random and misconstrewn story arcs might seem all over the place but in reality theres a central theme that binds each story together despites is randomness. A lot of the movie consists of numerous people trying to make a “future” for themselves, each one has goals and worries that they carry and the Convenience Store is an avenue for them to escape their current situation or at times can be the one in their way. Every character had a visible problem they had to overcome but the obstacle might not have been directly physical but a manifestation of something deeper like the weird box being left, or rude customers, or being late to an important meeting.

It was as if we were taken into the behind the scenes or bloopers that go behind the counter. We’re so used to being on the other side that we forget these people are humans that have lives that move forward and change and adapt and in a way, the movies explores these narratives no matter how ridiculous it might seem, each story dives deep into the stereotypes one might. Every age, gender, and sexuality was represented in the wide array of cast, its seemed almost like each character represented a single moment or even just a snippet of what each person in society experiences.

For me, Futureless things didnt just explore the system of franchising a business or, evil corporations, but of the different relations and ways humans interact in a communal space which in turn becomes private to them, as every store is identical to the next, it mimics how even we cannot recognize what is real or which is a reality and just accept the future that is given to us. After watching Futureless things, I felt both empty and filled. Sad for GoT but even pikachu was able to appear for you.

I had a great time watching this film because it had a very creative way of tackling social issues like, racism and capitalism. Here we see our protagonist Cassius Green, a broke black man who lives in the garage of his apartment, with his girlfriend, struggling in life to earn money and live in a better life. Getting in a call center agency, he is introduced to the ins and outs of the job. How to become a “power caller,” which is to part of the best of all the callers, who receive special treatment, lots of money. He meets Langston, an old worker. Cassuis was curious as to why after all his years working for the company he never became a power caller. Langston told him to be a power caller he should use his white voice, and samples Cassius his own. Here we can see Langston as someone who is wise and loyal and refuses to let himself forget who he really is. We see Cassius try it out and was able to land a deal. He got hooked and became famous in the company right away. At the same time, his girlfriend, Detriot, a very strong-willed artist, started working there at company. He and his friends planned on striking the company because of its unjust treatment to its workers. Just when they had their first strike, Cassius was promoted as power caller. Here we see the glimpse of racism and white supremacy, when Cassius accidentally used his normal voice and was said that only white voice is allowed in the Power Caller floor. Cassius started living better and better and better. Here is when we see the capitalism side of the movie where Cassius started living a luxurious life and forgot about his friends in the lower floor who was still on strike. Cassius succumbed to the capitalist, white favoring system of his work place, that he forgot who he really was. Even outside the company, he was so used to using his white voice that everywhere he goes that what he used. As he was being richer and richer and more famous in the eye of the top people, he was able to get the attention of Steve Lift, the richest man and owner of the company he works for. In the party, Cassius stumbles upon a room where he saw horrific thing. An equisapien or what we filipinos commonly call, a tikbalang. Cassius finds out that this equisapiens were men before and turned into those creatures to be a better work force, and Steve wants him to be the leader of the equisapiens and work for Steve. Cassius decides to go against Steve and join his in strike again. With the help of the equisapiens who manage to escape, they were able to fight off the security guards of the company. Cassius gives his lavish life away for a better life of simplicity, when suddenly he turns into an equisapien and hunts Lift down. Sorry to Bother You is a film with great humor and plot. I loved how it tackled social issues and showed it in a weird but fun way.

The Lost Highway is one of those movies that would give you a nightmare. As I was watching it, I honestly got confused during the character switch from Pete to Fred. The movie got intense quickly because of the video tapes Fred would receive every morning. Things got a whole lot creepier when Fred met the mystery man in the party. This was the first “holyshh” moment in the movie because the mystery man was with Pete while talking to him as if he was the one who answered telephone in Fred’s house. The following scenes were to build up how this movie is a horror film. After being sentenced to death because Fred murdered his wife, Fred suddenly became Pete. When Pete became the protagonist, I got lost again because I felt like they threw away the plot of Pete and started a new one for Pete. It was somehow a good thing because I got more hooked into the movie to look for the connection of Pete and Fred. When the mystery man appeared in the story line of Pete. Then later own, we find out the Alice and Renee are the same girl, which marks the second “holyshh” moment in the movie. When Pete was finally escaping with Alice, whom he stole from a gangster named Dick Laurent, and later, arrived at the deserted cabin, they make love and while they were making love alice said the lines “You’ll never have me!” and suddenly we’re back to being with Fred again. Which made me think if both are one person. We then see Fred in a motel and finding his wife, Renee, sleeping with another man. Fred gets mad and kidnaps the man. At this point, I was lost again because I couldn’t understand what was happening. The man and Fred tussled, and when Fred was losing a hand appeared out of nowhere and hands him a knife and murders Dick, leaving him lifeless on the ditch. All of a sudden, the mysterious man appeared with a video camera and chases Fred.

            After re-watching the movie, I understood so much things and there is just o much things going on in the movie, and these are:

1. Fred and Pete are the same person.
2. Renee and Alice are the same person.
3. Pete was a developed personality of Fred wherein the scenarios are different in way that Dick stole Renee from Fred but Pete steals Alice who is Renee from Dick.
4. Mystery man is another person developed by Fred because of madness and jealousy.
5. No matter what happens being Fred or being Pete, he can never have Renee/Alice.
6. Mystery man is another person developed by Fred because of madness and jealousy.
7. The video Camera shows the reality because through the camera Fred got caught with the murder, and the mystery man chases Fred with a video camera.

This movie is really interesting because it is a movie that you need to watch again or go into deep research to understand a thing. It is a nice horror film because they did not have to have a monster or ghost to make it scary. They used the point of view of the brain to scare the viewers. Overall, this is a must watch.

Orson Wells is pretty good at magic. This is probably the first thing that came to mind and the only thing that truly stuck in my head while watching this movie. It was the only thing I could really follow as this movie comes close to Schizopolis levels of confusing. It’s like a mix of a documentary while being a regular movie at the same time. Personally, I did think that this concept was interesting but not interesting enough to stay awake.

The movie opens with a magic trick which kicked my interest as magic is a small hobby of mine. It then proceeds to explain how everything we are going to see on screen is non-fictitious; explaining to the audience how everything is based on a true story but is done in a different way. We are then presented a series of interviews, clips, and explanations, all narrated by Orson Wells himself. The movie follows and explores the concept of “fakeness” through duplication paintings in the art world. We get many interviews of and about the great Elmyr; a painter famous for replicating the works of other famous artists. The audience is shown different interviews about replication in the art world, asking us the question “is fake art still art?” All this is told through clever editing of real-life clips and interviews to give the audience a feeling like they’re watching a regular movie as opposed to an elaborate documentary. It was very unique and interesting however I couldn’t help but be bored out of my mind.

Perhaps it was a mix of the confusing editing and Orson Wells’ voice that made this happen but I found the movie incredibly difficult to watch. I believe it was because it was edited to look and feel like a fictitious film but it had the content and details of a documentary. It was probably my own personal short attention span that made following what little of a plot I could perceive very hard to follow. I prefer watching stories that make me want to know what’s going to happen next, in this movie I was presented a lot of opinions and anecdotes about stuff I don’t really know or care about. While I do find the concept of a documentary story being told as a work of fiction, it was the subject matter that I really found boring. I am not the biggest fan of paintings, while I do appreciate their beauty and meaning, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of canvas art. Watching an almost two hour movie about fake paintings was nearly the death of me. This on top of Orson Wells’ incredibly soothing and deep voice made me miss a big part of the movie’s story. The tangent of Picasso’s life on the island is a really big blur in my memory and I can barely remember any of it aside from the way Well’s pronounced Oja’s name.

While I do enjoy the concept of the film Orson Wells’ lovingly put together, I can’t say it’s exactly something I would watch or recommend. I do acknowledge that this is largely a personal issues as a lot of what the film’s story was based around is of little interest to me. At the end of the movie, the only thing I was really thinking about was how Wells managed to pull of that coin trick wearing thick gloves; there’s no dexterity available while wearing those things.

For years I had heard about this movie. I had heard all about how everyone ends up crying at the end of the film. I had seen all those pictures of couples in that one staircase in Japan. I had heard all about how it was one of the most unique and interesting love stories ever told. After hearing about all this praise I finally gave in and tried to watch it on my own; I thought it was just okay. It wasn’t until a week before we watched this film in class that I realized I had seen a different movie entirely. My idiot brain was so proud that it was the one different thinker among all the sheep. Little did I know that upon actually watching the actual film, I would be crying just like the rest of the flock.

I had, and even until now still have a bit, apprehensions about romantic stories in anime. Romantic stories have never been my kind of thing in general. The anime I do watch are usually Shonen anime; popular action series like Dragonball and Naruto. Even though this film still follows many of the stereotypes that befall other romantic anime stories, its unique plot and premise are enough to keep even the most cynical of fans interested.

Kimi no Na wa is indeed a very unique love story. I had expected a stereotypical romance anime movie like I had seen before (including the one I had thought was Kimi no Na wa). Instead this movie breaks all expectations about typical romance anime and explores a very unique form of time travel. Taki and Mitsuha suddenly begin swapping bodies randomly while they sleep. While this initially freaks the both of them out, they finally begin to talk to one another through leaving messages on each other’s phones. They agree to acting like each other while their bodies are swapped to maintain the ruse that nothing is wrong with them. Through acting as each other, they begin to see the sides of life they have always dreamed about; Mitsuha finally begins to escape her small village and experience through Taki’s body. It is later revealed that their connection spans time as well; Mitsuha lives 3 years in the past. Mitsuha’s village and home were destroyed in a meteor crash. Taki spends the rest of the story trying to prevent Mitsuha from being killed in the past.

What I enjoyed the most was certainly the plot. I expected a very stereotypical anime romance anime with a boy and girl meeting and eventually falling in love. This is probably the first anime movie I’ve seen where the girl and boy only truly meet towards the ending. The way the plot strings together multiple seemingly convoluted ideas but still tells them in a comprehensive manner. Perhaps it was my expectations that really made it incredibly enjoyable for me. I truly enjoyed watching the way the two characters met one another. The way the characters got to know one another was enjoyable and a first for me as well. It was the first time in a romance movie I’ve seen characters get to know each other through journal entries on their phones.

The animation is beautiful as well. It blended together classic hand-drawn animation and 3D animation to make every frame of the film look like a painting. Overall the movie was extremely enjoyable for me; probably because I had so many expectations broken. By the end of the film I was left crying over the same staircase I made fun of for so many years.  

One of my favourite horror authors, Junji Ito, has a very popular series called Tomie. The manga features an anthology of stories all centered around a girl named Tomie. The girl haunts many different men, capturing them in a madness that drives them to kill all those who come between them and their love, Tomie. Eventually all those suffering from her madness are driven to kill Tomie, beginning a never-ending cycle of haunting. The Lost Highway’s plot and atmosphere really reminded me of Junji Ito’s series. It’s probably why I enjoyed watching this movie so much.   

The Lost Highway is a story about murder and insanity. The plot focuses on two main characters who struggle with desire and a beautiful girl. The story sounds simple but in truth it is told in a very convoluted way. The story begins by following Fred, a jazz club saxophonist who has a very weird tension problem with his wife. As the story progresses weird things begin to happen to the couple’s house as video tapes of them sleeping begin showing up on their doorstep. The matter of Fred’s sanity begins to come into question as the video tapes begin to become more and more surreal. Eventually one of the tapes shows Fred standing over his wife’s corpse and we find him in jail, like us, trying to differentiate hallucinations from reality. Just as I was beginning to rationalize the strangeness of the events as hallucinations, Fred is replaced in his cell with another man. This second man is Pete, a young auto mechanic. We then follow his story as he gets released from Fred’s jail cell. We see his relationship with a local mob boss, Mr. Eddy. Here we learn that Pete works special jobs for Mr. Eddy; fixing his prized Benz for him when it begins to wear out. The problems begin to arise when Pete begins an affair with Mr. Eddy’s girlfriend, who looks identical to Pete’s wife. When the two plan an escape from the city together, both Fred and Pete’s lives slowly begin to merge together, leaving the audience to question whose story it is we are actually watching. The story ends with the audience questioning who the girl really knew and whether it was Fred’s hallucinations or a supernatural series of events.

I would say my favorite part of this film was the first third of the movie; the scenes involving Fred and his wife. For whatever reason, every interaction they have has a high amount of tension between the two characters. I always felt the need to either look away or cover my eyes whenever the two would talk. Even if it was over what their plans for the night were, the way they paused between replies or the way the sounds created eeriness just made my skin crawl. The way they moved around the house and the way they just looked at each other was highly unsettling. Every single thing from their scenes together helped create this feeling of tension reminiscent of a Hitchcock film. Every scene with them feels like a time bomb is about to go off but we never know much time is left on the clock. I was a little disappointed by the time their act wrapped up, however. I felt the payoff of Fred watching a clip of his dead wife didn’t satisfy all the build up the film had been working towards. Nonetheless, I still very much enjoyed that part of the movie.

I also enjoyed in particular speculating about how the two main characters were connected through their mutual girlfriend. As I mentioned previously, her and the story greatly reminded me of Junji Ito’s manga work. I first thought the story was about parallel universes slowly blending together with the common link between both worlds being the girl. All the supernatural events helped create a very out-of-world atmosphere that made me enjoy the film very much. Even though the film was based on very down-to-earth themes and topics, the creepy supernatural side still made it feel out of this world.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. The only problems I had while watching this movie was a disappointing payoff in the first act and its extremely long run time. Other than these nitpicks, the film is a tense viewing experience always leaving the audience wanting more.  

As a part of the group responsible for leading the post-viewing discussion of David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997), this reflection essay was initially just going to be a reiteration of the points in our presentation, but I did not want to take the swift but lazy approach. Instead, I wanted to look back and see if some of the ideas suggested by both my fellow group members and the class regarding the elements that make what Lost Highway is are “right” or “wrong”, for the lack of more specific terms to describe them.

IDEA # 1: In one interview from David Lynch, he mentioned how the film overall has no meaning.

Ah, yes! This is quite honestly one of my pet peeves with any film director. Every time I hear them saying that the film has no meaning, I just take it with a grain of salt because I really do not believe that filmmakers just make whatever scenes or story for no reason at all. If anything, it kind of defeats the very purpose of creating a movie in the first place. Besides, I researched into that interview, and I believe what we have just read was generally misinterpreted. What he meant to say was that the film’s overtly abstract scenes make it open to any interpretation, not necessarily no meaning¹.

IDEA # 2: The whole story is a projection of the storyteller’s convoluted and confused mind.

                In the days before the presentation, this interpretation came out of my mind when I needed to contribute something for the discussion, and it was a difficult task of thinking of any potential theories or meanings that could be hidden throughout the movie. In a Eureka moment, I came to the realization that maybe this is how David Lynch, or any filmmaker was thinking when they were fleshing out any ideas for a film plot, and maybe the struggle of brainstorming a story is what Lost Highway wants to show. It blew my mind at first, but then again, given the nature of David Lynch’s works, it is full of ambiguity, but a video interview of Lynch that I found on YouTube seemingly provided a clue where at the beginning he discussed how his initial ideas for the film were “horrible.” It is also noteworthy how he has some difficulty in forming coherent sentences, somewhat just like the movie’s flow, but that might just a funny coincidence.

IDEA # 3: The O.J. Simpson Trial served as one of the film’s inspirations, and memory is a central theme.

                Prior to learning about the film’s context, I was not too familiar with the trial, and as far as I know, a lot of people who have witnessed it remain quite divisive on the final verdict that he is not guilty. Truly, that ambivalence in belief manifested itself in the characterization of Fred Madison who denied being Renee’s murderer and for hating video cameras since he wants to “remember things his own way.” In retrospect, that line alone should have given away Fred’s credibility as him telling the truth. What if Pete’s storyline was indeed Fred’s own way of recalling events? However, it still could not make sense because the plotlines of both Fred and Pete are so intertwined that it chronologically is pointless. Either way, though, it is quite compelling how people like us and Fred see the “truth,” if that even is the right word given the situation.

Sincerely [confused],

JoMar Fernandez, a.k.a. JMCthefilmystan

Sources used:

1. Szebin, Frederick & Biodrowski, Steve (April 1997). “David Lynch on Lost Highway”. Cinefantastique. Vol. 28 no. 10. Frederick S. Clarke. pp. 32–41.

Written by Moosh Reyes | 161690

Watching F For Fake as the last movie for this class was definitely one that was worth the wait. I am a big fan of magic and the art of misdirection, especially in movies! The biggest movie I’ve watched that really mastered the art of misdirection before F for Fake would have been Now You See Me. F For Fake, however, totally changed my perspective as compared to the usual movies about magic that tries to mystify and shock its audiences.

F for Fake is a movie that isn’t a movie and a documentary that isn’t a documentary. Orson Welles is somehow able to piece together a work of art through the magical editing that he and his team pull off. The editing is then accompanied with Orson Welles’ story telling abilities which he shows as the narrator. F for Fake started out as a documentary film for the art forger, Elmyr de Hory and some of the shots in the film show it. Most of these shots (of course) focus on Elmyr de Hory talking with the people in Ibiza and looking at paintings he had made. My favorite part of this film would most probably be the fact that I thought this was a genuine movie that had fictional characters. That’s how well I found editing and how well Orson Welles was able to fit pieces together.

Moving on to characters, I believe that each character truly portrayed a remarkable aspect of the theme of fakeness. Orson Welles is the first person who perpetuates this fakeness by guiding the audience through the movie and establishing himself as a trustworthy source for the whole movie. This is true for most of the movie until the last 15-20 minutes when he and Oja Kodar give a fake story about Picasso and de Hory feuding over paintings that Picasso painted for Oja. Oja presents the role of one who knows the truth and yet continues to help Orson with misdirecting the audience with what is truth and what is fake. Next, we have Elmyr de Hory. His character is more diverse in the sense that he believed that his art works were real. They were, after all, made by him. The problem with his work was that it looked similar to other artist’s and was therefore accused as fake. Lastly, there is Clifford Irving. His character is the
one that outs the fakers and continues to be a faker himself. His character is one that, in my opinion, seems to be the most hypocritical out of all the four major characters. With the first three, they are aware of what is real for them and what is fake. These characters are able to work along these lines and distinguish what is right and what is wrong. Irving, on the other hand, continues to call others out on their fakery while he tries to make profits with his own.

F for Fake is a work of art in its own way as are Elmyr de Hory’s art works. It isn’t necessarily trying to copy other movies but it is trying to take what is familiar to most and making it unfamiliar to them. This is the wonderful magic that Orson Welles is able to do with his film. I have yet to see another film like this one.