So there's been a push (by Japanese investors iirc) to do a westernized live-action remake of Your Name. Completely unnecessary but let's suppose that there's no way to stop this venture. What currently is being done (at least the rumors I've heard) and what should be done to actually capture the spirit of the movie? Spoilers below, obviously.
So as I've seen it, the current idea is that the girl is a Native American (possibly from the Southwest? I'm not sure if that's true but I've certainly seen it. Which is dumb if they follow through with other things) and the boy is from Chicago. There's a lot of problems with this. First of all, no one, absolutely no one would wish to be a Chicago boy. New York boy or LA boy? Yeah that makes sense. But not Chicago. The only way it might make sense is if the girl lives on a rez in like Northern Wisconsin but I highly doubt that's going to be the case and even then, she'd still probably not wish to be reborn in freaking Chicago. Anyway, if the guy really is from Chicago, the girl can't be from the Southwest seeing as one of the plot points is that they're close enough to be an annoying distance apart but still within a day of each other. You could fudge that a bit and a guy driving all the way to the Southwest isn't super unbelievable but it makes their first meeting a lot harder to do (though there's ways to change it).
The other thing I'm worried about here is that the writers chose Chicago because they want the boy to be like a poor inner city kid. But that's not the essence that Taki is supposed to represent. He's just an ordinary boy and changing that dynamic isn't a good thing for Taki or Mitsuha's character development. So if we're going to insist that the boy is from Chicago, he should be a regular high schooler (unless they do an age up, but I don't think that's a great idea either) from like Downer's Grove or Naperville or some other Chicago suburb (and just to be clear, I think he can be any race, what's important is that he's from a regular enough family). Like in a John Hughes film. In fact, maybe that's what inspires the wish in the first place; watching one of his movies and wanting a life like that. That actually could work even if it isn't my preferred path.
Enough about the Taki character. I both actually like the idea of the girl being Native American and really dislike it. I think it works really well for placing her in a super rural context that could fit well for Itomori. Not many jobs and a big push for economic development. The idea of a disaster being somewhat forgotten by the wider world because it happened on a rez is believable too. Plus there's room for cultural shocks and exploration which would be interesting to explore. I really don't like the magical Native American trope and you know that's why the writers want her to be Native American. So that they can do some sort of mystical ceremony and have all that woo. This is terrible for a number of reasons. One, it's just gross and kind of exploitive. But thematically, Mitsuha's family was strange to Taki but there was also a sense of familiarity. The movie in part is about reconnecting with a once common life that was now lost. Through the ceremonies and by talking with the grandmother, he was learning about how life used to be. Trying to go way deep into Native American rituals (man I hate that because it carries the implication that these things do vary widely across tribes. In fact vary is too weak of a word) misses the point because there's no potential connection to draw on. Unless the boy himself is also Native American (from the same tribe) but that seems extremely unlikely even if it is an interesting path to follow.
Getting to the bigger point, my concern really is that I don't see Hollywood understanding the themes of the original that made it good (besides loneliness but that's like the most obvious theme) and expect them to be really gimmicky. I'm not demanding realism (well, I am demanding magical realism but that's besides the point) but I do want respect. The remake shouldn't be a direct remake of the original in a new setting (because that's dumb) but it should still try to convey similar themes and feelings. I also think that they won't be able to make it pretty enough, but that's an issue with live action film making and bad cinematography in general.
So how would I do things? And why would I do them? Well to begin, let's keep them both high school seniors though I'm willing to budge on that. I'll keep the girl being Native American. Like I said, I think the core idea is good as long as it is well implemented. I'll have her be like Navajo or Hopi. The point is she's from the Southwest and lives in the Four Corners region. The boy should also be from the Southwest. Phoenix or Las Vegas seems reasonable, LA if the studio demands it. Phoenix and Las Vegas are both within like 6-7 hours (or less) to much of the Navajo nation so it's a reasonable distance, they're the regional big cities and Las Vegas especially seems like a place a rural girl might dream about living in. Neither are Tokyo equivalents but that's okay. They're also nice because both cities have relatively large Catholic and Mormon populations, which is somewhat important for my vision of the movie. Finally, I want the movie set in the Southwest both because there's some absolutely beautiful landscape shots you can do and as an homage to old westerns based of off Japanese movies like The Magnificent Seven. Let's literally westernize this movie.
Up to this point, I haven't really made big changes to the proposed remake. Just shifted the setting a bit. After this though, I'm gonna go off in a crazy direction. The grandmother should be a devout Christian. Yeah that's right. She should have a connection with her culture too but her fundamental beliefs should be Christian in nature. Why? It goes back to what I said earlier. A key part of the movie is about Taki finding something somewhat familiar (but lost) and comforting in Mistuha's family traditions. Even if he himself is not a practicing christian, having the grandmother be Christian will convey this theme a lot better than her being a just a shaman, while also being more grounded and less gross/exploitive. More specifically I think she should be Catholic or Mormon, since these are both common religions in the Southwest while also preserving some of the "weirdness" you might not get from them being more generic protestants. For the rest of this, I'll make the family mormon since that's what I know better.
So let's go more into "Mitsuha's" family. Basic dynamic is the same. Two kids, dead mother, raised by grandmother, estranged from dad etc. Like I said, we'll have the grandmother being a devout Mormon (which isn't uncommon in these desert towns in the Navajo Nation, like 25% of the population is at least nominally associated with the church) and she does make sure her granddaughters attend church. This doesn't really have the same weight as being the shrine priestesses of the local Shinto shrine but there's really not an American equivalent to that. Anyway, there's still something here for Mitsuha to be teased about by her peers and make her feel different (even if it isn't anywhere near as public or embarrassing as making spit sake). Though none of this is in the movie, in the original, her dad was a folklorist studying Shinto traditions (or something like that) which is how he ended up at the Shrine, met her mom and so on. That's also partially why the grandmother was so upset about him leaving the shrine. There's a lot of weird history about anthropologists/folklorists marrying the people they study, so let's sidestep that entirely using the mormon angle. Make him a (part?) Navajo (or Hopi or I guess even one of the great basin tribes or whatever) man who grew up in like Provo or Salt Lake City, served a mission to the equivalent of the Farmington, NM mission in the 90s and maybe even had this small town in one of his areas. He really starts connecting with his heritage around then, studies economics and maybe law with the intent of making life better on the rez, meets the mother (again?) somewhere and ends up moving to this town. Things then proceed as in the original, except this time the conflict is between him and the grandmother abandoning religion (or at least Mormonism, maybe he gets big into the Native American Church or traditional religion) entirely rather than abandoning the shrine. Anyway, he's still the mayor.
So anyway, she's living in this small desert town and pretty miserable. One day (possibly after a fight with her grandmother) she makes the same wish about wanting to be a boy in the city (again, either Phoenix or Las Vegas, if she name drops a city). No need to change that up.
"Taki's" situation can stay pretty much the same. He has his friends, he has a job, life isn't amazing but it's not terrible (and this really needs to be emphasized, Taki comes from an ordinary background). He has a crush on a coworker but isn't great with girls. All normal things that translate well across the Pacific. It's America, so he probably has a drivers license and terrible starter car. He likely lives in the suburbs (so Henderson or Mesa) but that doesn't need to be clarified. He likes to draw.
First half of the movie can basically be the same. I'm going to assume the twist stays the same too. Which I know, it doesn't make that much sense that they never figured it out but I can suspend my disbelief. The part that's hard to translate, but essential, is the idea of musubi and the whole thing with offering the sake to the shrine god. If there's a similar Navajo (or Hopi or Zuni or other Puebloan, I'm agnostic on the identity of the family, if not the location) concept that can be represented respectfully, then that could work well. If not, well maybe they are visiting the mother's grave (have it be the anniversary of her death or even better, like her birthday) and the grandmother talks about eternities and how God sees all time or something. Or maybe she goes full high priest group (RIP) and talks about how all spirit is matter and there is intelligence in all things. The point is that it introduces this idea of connections crossing time and space, like musubi. What's missing though is a reason for the characters to lose their memory (it was easy in the original movie since there's a cost for crossing into the underworld and Taki didn't pay it) and well, no physical connection via the sake. The second isn't strictly necessary, the first could be handled with a discussion on sacrifice maybe?
Anyway, after that pivotal scene things can once again proceed like in the film (I mean, the general story and pacing of the original film is solid. The things that need to be handled differently are dressings). Do some gorgeous shots of the desert and mountains as whatever disaster strikes does. Taki gets obsessed and maybe over winter break/spring break whatever he does a car trip with a friend and the former crush out to the Navajo Nation to try to find Mitsuha and that's when he learns the truth. Maybe he prays at the gravesite or something, gets his chance to fix things and once again, the movie mostly proceeds as before (though his friends probably don't abandon him, maybe they wait in Flagstaff until he calls them to come pick him up). One thing that would be hard is redoing Mitsuha's Tokyo trip. Maybe she borrows a friend's car? Maybe she has her own car? It's a long journey to Phoenix, let alone Las Vegas and there's no train to meet on. So there has to be some other way for them to just barely meet and then be forced apart. I haven't figure that out yet.
One of the best scenes in the original movie is when Taki drinks the sake and we see Mistuha's life in a different animation style. I'm not sure the best way to capture this. Probably something animated, in a style inspired by Southwestern art (maybe inspired by Navajo sandpainting? Those are supposed to be thought of as dynamic, even alive anyway. With permission of course, actual sand paintings are a religious rite and so if such a scene is inspired by them, I'd want the same flaws that go into commercial sandpaintings to be in the scene. Just using the color scheme and general tone would probably work out better. Getting a guest animator from one of the relevant nations to direct this scene would be awesome too). Animated segments in live action movies can be fantastic if done right (for example, the tale of the three brothers is probably the best part of the Deathly Hallows movie). But yeah, this is one scene that I think the remake will do poorly and so I want it right in my version.
The last hard part to do is the ending, just because it's so beautiful. It's not hard to imagine that they end up in the same city but getting all the key shots done right is so important. Also the differences in public transportation between Japan and the USA (especially outside of like New York) makes it more difficult. This is more doable than some of the more culturally specific stuff mentioned earlier.
One final note. I know I want respectful Christian imagery throughout the film, but I don't want it turning into some feel good Christian film either. It's not a story about Taki or Mitsuha (or Mitsuha's dad) coming to faith. That's not the point and I don't want a scene near the end (or elsewhere) that's about that. It's part of the setting, the feeling of the story but its not the story itself. I just wish Hollywood was able to thread that needle and not have to pick an extreme.
So what do I want? A beautifully shot remake that's an homage to old Westerns and to the original film, that is respectful and makes adaptions were needed without losing what's important. What do I expect we'll get? Bad jokes, ugly cinematography and a lack of nuance about the themes that made the original so great. Alas.
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