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https://scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2026685/animated-movie-your-name-has-conquered-japan-and-director-now-seeks Film & TV
Animated movie Your Name has conquered Japan, and director now seeks global success
It’s Japan’s biggest box office hit of 2016, with receipts of US$126 million – and distribution rights have been sold to more than 80 countries including Hong Kong
It’s Japan’s biggest box office hit of 2016, with receipts of US$126 million – and distribution rights have been sold to more than 80 countries including Hong Kong
Makoto Shinkai’s animated hit Your Name has conquered Japan. Now the director hopes the world will fall for its charms.
“It is a unique film and has been a unique sensation,” said Shinkai, speaking before his film screened yesterday at the 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea.
“It’s hard for us to believe that it’s been viewed by more than 10 million people in Japan – mostly the young generation – and hopefully we can see the same result around the world.”
Your Name is a touching fantasy-romance set around the lives of two high school students who swap bodies when they dream, and who try to alter history.
It has topped the box office charts in Japan for the past six weeks, with a total take coming into the weekend of US$126 million, according to industry figures. That’s moved the film past Shin Godzilla as the number one box office hit in Japan this year.
Shinkai believes the film has tapped into emotions still raw in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami disasters of 2011 which claimed an estimated 16,000 lives.
“They took away the lives of so many people and they changed everyone in Japan,” said Shinkai.
“The wish afterwards was that we could all live longer, and so this film’s biggest motivation was to reflect these dreams of the Japanese nation. Life means so much more to us now.”
Shinkai’s film has now passed the US$119 million made by The Wind Rises (2013), the last full-length production directed by the now-retired animation master Hayao Miyazaki.
Miyazaki was responsible for the Oscar-winning Spirited Away (2001), the film that remains Japan’s all-time biggest earner with around US$290 million in global box office takings.
Since the 75-year-old Miyazaki left his director’s chair in 2013, fans across the globe have been waiting for a successor to emerge.
Japanese actors Mone Kamishiraishi (left), Ryunosuke Kamiki and Japanese director Makoto Shinkai, before the first screening of Your Name at the 21st Busan International Film Festival. Photo: EPA
The 43-year-old Shinkai certainly fits the bill, having found previous acclaim – although on a far smaller scale – with the likes of the romantic fantasy Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011).
“I am always being compared to Mr Miyazaki but at this stage of my career I am still learning about how I can connect with the audience, especially the young audience – and I think I have a long way to go,” said Shinkai.
Your Name is the first non-Miyazaki animation to top the US$100 million barrier in Japan and its distribution rights have been sold to more than 80 countries.
Festivals such as BIFF are testing the international waters for Shinkai’s production before its global release.
Your Name has tapped a nerve in Japan.
Tickets to the three screenings of Your Name in Busan sold out in minutes, according to festival organisers.
Your Name has been a cultural sensation in Japan. The story was lifted from the pages of a successful manga novel of the same name written by Shinkai, and fans flocked to take selfies at the locations that were re-imaged in the film, in the director’s small hometown of Koumi in Nagano prefecture. Other scenes were shot in Gifu prefecture and in Tokyo.
BIFF will screen around 300 films during its 10-day run, which continues until Saturday.
Your Name is tentatively scheduled to open in Hong Kong on November 11