Your Name. poster.
It's in "Your Name." At the time when it became the second highest grossing film in the history of Japanese films with more than 20 billion yen (the first place was Miyazaki's Spirited Away), critics have keenly discovered the twist behind this event. Film critic Daisuke Watanabe will "Your Name." The great success of the book is described as: "As an author of niche genres for market segments, he has gained the highest national recognition for a work that in a sense seems to be a 'return to the original point'." ”
Indeed, unlike the Ghibli animated films that have dominated the list in the past, there is no lack of deep social criticism in the themes and innocence of all ages, which have never appeared in Makoto Shinkai's works. His creative system is deeply rooted in the Japanese otaku subculture (a subculture formed with Japanese ACG works, namely animation, manga comics, and game games, which can also be called two-dimensional culture), and behind it is a vein of niche "world system" animation works and beautiful girl games (i.e., galgame). In "Your Name. Before that, although this type of film (such as the film version of various TV animations) had also entered the theater, it had never received enough scheduling rate and mainstream audience recognition.
Your Name. stills.
Compared to Makoto Shinkai's previous works, "Your Name." From the perspective of industrialization, it can be said that the progress is rapid, not only overcoming many shortcomings of independent production by small workshops, but also perfecting the polishing of art and scripts. But this ultimately failed to subvert the core of Makoto Shinkai's work, so the concept of "world system" was re-examined overnight, combined with early works such as "The Sound of Stars" and "The Other Side of the Clouds, the Agreed Place", which became the best footnote to interpret this film. Admittedly, no matter from what point of view, Your Name. " is very much in line with the basic description of the relevant world works: taking the relationship between the protagonists as the core, abandoning the portrayal of specific details such as society, politics, and economy, and directly linking the fate of the protagonist with abstract major issues such as the world crisis and the end of the world.
But if you put "Your Name." As a kind of "return" to the world series of works, although it can well sort out the context and changes of the world series works from the inside, it seems to ignore many complex and subtle changes from the outside, and it is far from enough to explain why the film has achieved such great success among the mainstream audience in Japan.
Knots.
In my opinion, "Your Name." The most important part of the whole film, and the part that Makoto Shinkai emphasizes most deliberately, is precisely the choice of the image of the production spirit (pronounced musubi, the homophone of the homophone "knot", that is, the meaning of the knot and the knot).
Makoto Shinkai has talked many times about his own creation of "Your Name." The motivation is related to the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011. The concept of "絆" (きずな kizuna bondage), which is the concept of "絆" (きずな kizuna bondage), which is precisely the concept of "び" and "び" (きずな kizuna bondage) that is the spiritual pillar of the post-disaster reconstruction of the whole society, is precisely the concept that is connected with the knot, and in this film, it refers to the entanglement and connection between people. After the Great Tohoku Earthquake, then Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued a letter of thanks to the international community for its assistance, entitled "絆" in the name of "絆". Since then, "絆" as a key word has repeatedly appeared in various official documents and mainstream media reports, and has even been elected as the Japanese "Kanji of the Year" that year.
Comparing the mainstream narrative of "how difficult it is to rejuvenate the country" after the Wenchuan earthquake, we will understand the difference between the two countries. In China, the grand narrative of the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" is still valid and sufficient to form a driving force to heal the pain and move forward courageously. But similar discourses have been fully invalidated in Japan decades ago. In the end, it can only fall on the entanglement between people who have nothing to do with any grand narrative and can be seen by raising their eyes. After the earthquake, the marriage rate in Japanese society increased (earthquake marriage), and the number of families taking family portraits increased, which also gave a glimpse of the fear of impermanence and the desire for bondage in the social psychology.
At the same time, "絆" has always been a core concept in Japanese otaku culture, which seems to be a coincidence, but it is also wrapped in a profound symptom of the times. Otaku culture connects unrelated lonely individuals with hobbies, and the absolute and unbreakable bond between people is a profound and unique emotional experience for otaku in a certain "atomized" state of existence. Therefore, in Japanese ACG works, "絆" is often written repeatedly as an important cultural symbol, condensing the imagination of otaku for an ideal relationship.
Because of this, "Your Name" is understood from the dimension of "love" alone. The relationship between the hero and heroine in "" is biased. Even if this emotion is embodied in the appearance of love, it is only because the so-called "love" happens to be one of the most distant forms of "bondage" that is most distant from the life experience of otaku and is most easily alienated, mystified, and legendary. By extension, most of the love in ACG works can essentially be reduced to the bond between the individual and the individual (and the individual who is separated from the identity politics of gender and class). That's why multiple, exclusive settings (e.g., exchanging bodies, chewing wine, knots that are used as amulets, etc.) are needed to cement the certainty and uniqueness of this bond. That is to say, the crux of the matter is not to fall in love, but to be tied to another being and thus to gain a sense of existence. This is also the psychological mechanism behind the birth of the "world system" works.
From "び" to "絆", Your Name. With a clear image, it repeats the core concept of otaku works, and uses this as a twisting point to quietly merge with the mainstream ideology and official ideology of Japanese society after the earthquake. Although otaku culture and ACG works have long been symbols of Japan's popular culture and national soft power, it is only at this moment that "Your Name." The multiple metaphors of exchanging the flesh in "The Otaku", the individual experience of the otaku can be deeply linked to the fate of the entire country, forming a certain isomorphic relationship.
For mainstream Japanese audiences, "び" or "絆" is certainly enough to evoke deep emotional resonance. For Japan's otaku, especially The generation of Makoto Shinkai, who have experienced decades of marginalization by the entire society after the Miyazaki Incident (the rape and murder of young girls that sensationalized Japan in the late 1980s, the main culprit Miyazaki Ken was an otaku), they seem to have finally been forced out of the individual, closed small universe by the surging social trend, tearing open a crack, and talking to this originally strange and unrelated world in a slightly clumsy posture. Integrated by capital, complicit with politics, or deceived by them. In the midst of a fog, I dimly saw the possibility of "making a little change" by intervening in the world as a waste of otaku wood.
In a sense, it is this subtle change that will bring Your Name. " distinguishes itself from past world-based works. In the "world system" works of the late 1990s and the beginning of this century, the male protagonists who were deeply depressed and pessimistic, who felt powerless to change society, who watched and did nothing, have been replaced by more actionable descendants. From waste wood to cash charging (referring to people who are very successful in reality and have a rich life, in contrast to the stereotype of "otaku" who only calls the wind and rain in reality but does nothing in reality in the network and game space), the new generation of male protagonist Tachibana Tachibana is not only more sunny and cheerful, but also successfully saves the town with his persistent efforts and ushers in his own happy ending.
And this happy ending, in the work, of course, relies on the miracle of reversing the change of time and space to achieve, in addition to the work, it also created a box office miracle that otaku animation has never had.
The timeline has changed again. So this time, where to go?