The first half of 'Your Name' is basically a light-hearted, slice-of-life romantic comedy. The setup is novel, but not revolutionary; the character dynamics are fun, but not quite unforgettable.
But then came the twist halfway through the film — and it woke the entire audience up.
The female lead died three years ago?!
So what had they been watching for the past hour?
Had the male lead been body-swapping with someone already dead?
Some viewers started feeling chills run down their spines.
Was this film about to turn into a horror story?
But seasoned Jing Yu fans quickly caught on to the brilliance of the setup.
Wait a second...
Could this be time-displaced soul-swapping?
Take Chen Yushan, for example — her mind immediately jumped to 'Steins;Gate'.
This is exactly why 'Steins;Gate' was hailed as a masterpiece in Jing Yu's past life. If you could understand that story, then you could probably wrap your head around most time-travel plots.
In 'Steins;Gate', the protagonist kept using a microwave-phone device to send his consciousness into his past self across timelines.
In the sequel, 'Steins;Gate 0', which Jing Yu never got to create in Great Zhou, the main character could only leap 48 hours per jump. But by repeating the process thousands of times, he eventually sent his mind back more than a decade.
Compared to that, a high school girl like Mitsuha Miyamizu living in the year 2013 swapping bodies across time with a middle school version of Taki Tachibana makes perfect sense.
Then, in 2016 — in this timeline — Mitsuha is already dead, but somehow her spirit is still soul-swapping with the high school-aged Taki.
For someone like Chen Yushan, who had seen multiple of Jing Yu's time-travel works, it took her less than ten seconds to piece it together.
"So… the heroine was already dead from the beginning?"
"Damn, and neither of them ever realized?"
"But seriously? Their timelines are three years apart. How could they not notice?"
"Wait — didn't the movie mention something? That people would suffer memory confusion after swapping? That they'd get dates, places, and events all jumbled up? I thought that was just a throwaway line. Turns out it was hiding this exact twist."
"So what now? She's dead — what's the point?"
"You saw the male lead digging through the records. Mitsuha was listed as one of the confirmed casualties from the meteor strike three years ago. The photos were all hers, no doubt."
"Ugh. This hurts. I already feel the stomach pain coming."
There was a low hum of murmuring in the theater, but the film pressed on.
Taki's red thread bracelet — the one he's worn since the beginning of the movie — is brought up again.
"This… I think someone gave this to me a long time ago. Somehow, I started wearing it like a charm. Who gave it to me again?"
His face showed clear confusion.
But Chen Yushan recognized that thread immediately.
"Isn't that the same ribbon Mitsuha always used to tie her hair?"
Earlier in the film, there were several close-up shots of Mitsuha's hair ribbon — its cute little patterns were burned into Chen Yushan's memory. And now the movie showed a close-up of Taki's bracelet — it was the same.
But wait... Mitsuha died three years ago. Even with soul-swapping, objects couldn't travel through time. So how did her ribbon end up with Taki?
Unless — she gave it to him before she died?
Taki had said someone gave it to him... years ago...
Three years ago.
Some sharp-eyed viewers were already putting it all together.
Could it be that before she died, Mitsuha had met the younger Taki — and given him the ribbon?
From this point on, 'Your Name' took on a bit of a mystery-thriller element.
There were legends passed down in Mitsuha's town — stories of women in her family, including her mother and grandmother, who had all experienced a strange "illness" when they were young.
They all dreamed dreams they couldn't fully remember — but somehow knew were important.
Revisiting this part now, it became clear:
The ability to soul-swap ran in Mitsuha's family. It appeared in every generation, but only lasted for a short time — and afterward, the memories of those events would fade. Even if they tried to write them down, some unseen force would erase them.
The next part of the film confirmed Chen Yushan's theory.
The last time Taki swapped into Mitsuha's body, he had been accompanying her grandmother to a sacred cave to deliver kuchikamizake — sacred rice wine chewed and fermented by mouth — as an offering.
Now, he retraced those steps.
Inside the cave, he found the bottle of kuchikamizake he had left there three years ago — now covered in dust and moss.
He remembered what her grandmother had said:
The reason he and Mitsuha could no longer swap bodies was that she had died on that very day, after delivering the offering. The connection between their souls had been severed.
So if he wanted to reach her again —
He needed to re-establish that connection.
Which meant… drinking the wine Mitsuha had made with her own mouth — fermented with the enzymes in her saliva.
Yes.
The wine she had made with rice chewed in her own mouth, then left as an offering in the cave.
The audience watched as he opened the bottle — a crystal-clear, faintly glowing liquid sparkled on screen.
Three years ago, a beautiful girl made this wine.
Now, a handsome boy was about to drink it.
Somehow… it didn't feel that weird.
Like always — when you're good-looking, you get away with everything.
If it had been some old granny's chewed rice wine, even the thought would be revolting. But here?
"He's really gonna drink it? That's even worse than sharing a bottle with someone!"
"Our boy is a certified freak… but somehow, I'm into it."
"Imagine if the old bastard Jing Yu releases 'limited-edition kuchikamizake' merch after the movie."
"Disgusting! Don't say that! You too — behave yourself. You're a girl, don't start drooling over a handsome face. Say one more thing like that, and we're done being besties."
Then…
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Taki, with impeccable drinking form, downed it all in one shot.
The world spun. The cave blurred. And just above him, etched into the cave walls, were ancient murals foretelling the comet strike on the town.
By drinking that wine, he had reconnected with Mitsuha — the girl who had died in the past.
A flood of stunning, oil-painting-like images flashed on screen.
Memories of Mitsuha filled Taki's mind.
That festival day — the day the meteor hit — those were her final memories.
He saw it all: the vibrant celebrations, the crashing meteor, and finally…
He woke up.
In her body.
On that very morning.
The movie's core plotline had now become clear:
He had traveled into the past — to change it. To save the girl who had died three years ago.
"Steins; Gate," Chen Yushan whispered, almost involuntarily.
Yes — it was the same core concept.
In 'Steins;Gate', the protagonist's goal from the second half onward was simple: defy fate and save the already-dead Kurisu Makise.
Similar setup, different execution — but the déjà vu was undeniable.
In the Great Zhou version of 'Your Name', Jing Yu also made a few changes to the supporting characters.
For one, Mitsuha's friend — the son of the power company's chairman — got a character overhaul.
In the original film, he believed Mitsuha's warning about the meteor way too easily, and even helped blow up the town's power station because of it. A bit much.
Jing Yu found that part absurd — no one with a working brain would do that over a casual comment.
So he rewrote the character to be a devout follower of the Miyamizu Shrine, from a local family with deep historical ties. That way, his trust in Mitsuha's "divine messages" made more sense — possibly one of the few people who knew about the hereditary secret in her family.
Even if the film didn't explain it in detail, it left enough hints for the audience to fill in the gaps. Unlike the original film, which made the friends look like total idiots.
Back to the story.
As the sun set that day — the same day Taki was trying to save Mitsuha — she awakened in his body… and saw her hometown, destroyed, three years later.
The narrative then flashed back to the day she died.
Because she didn't want Taki to go on a date with his crush, she'd taken the train to the city to see him.
"Even though I can't remember his face... even though everything feels like a dream... if I see him, I'll know."
She did manage to spot him at a subway station near his home.
She called out to him — unaware that he was only a middle schooler at the time.
"Taki… It's me."
"Who… are you?"
"You don't remember? S-sorry…"
The light in her eyes dimmed like a falling star.
He didn't recognize her at all.
She felt crushed — she thought she meant nothing to him. She couldn't recall his face clearly, yet when she saw him in real life, she knew.
But he… treated her like a stranger.
Heartbroken, she was pushed off the train by the crowd — but just before disappearing into the masses, she handed him the ribbon from her hair.
And finally, the movie said its title out loud.
When Taki asked her for her name, she responded:
"Mitsuha. My name is Mitsuha."
That was how Taki got the ribbon.
That subway scene — where both of them looked at each other, yet misunderstood everything — was the moment the film made Mitsuha's feelings absolutely clear.
Soft background music rose.
And as the sun fully set, their souls, separated by three years, crossed paths again atop the crater where the town used to be. Though they couldn't see each other, they could hear each other.
And then, finally — as twilight hit —
They saw one another.
This was the most inexplicable part of the film. Mitsuha's grandmother had said that during twilight — the "magic hour" — time flows differently. That was when soul-swapping could happen, and boundaries blurred.
So now, Mitsuha from three years ago and Taki from the present could finally speak face-to-face.
No need for a scientific explanation — none would satisfy. Anyone hung up on logic should probably be in a library reading about astrophysics, not in a movie theater.
But for most viewers?
So long as the foreshadowing was planted early on, it worked.
And Jing Yu had indeed dropped three subtle hints earlier in the film. Not overt, but enough to make sense in hindsight.
So this was how they met — across time and death, under a twilight sky.
This screenplay… it was masterful. Like hidden threads stretching across miles, finally pulled taut.
This was why you couldn't just blindly copy a manga. Jing Yu knew some parts of the original wouldn't work. So he rewrote them — fixed plot holes that were heavily criticized in the past.
At this point in the film…
A girl who had died.
A boy who wanted desperately to see her again.
And their first meeting — which could also be their last.
Under a sky painted in the colors of a dream.
To change the fate of Mitsuha and the people of her town, she needed to evacuate everyone in time.
And both of them knew —
This was their final soul-swap.
After this, they would forget everything — faces, voices, memories… even names.
Two people who loved and saved each other, becoming strangers on a planet too vast for paths to cross again.
As twilight faded, they decided to write their names on each other's hands — a final tether to hold on to.
But just as Mitsuha lifted her pen…
Time was up.
The pen dropped to the ground.
She vanished.
The theater went silent.
The audience felt the writer's cruelty.
You bastard. We know the names would've been erased anyway.
But still — at least let her write it!
This was their final connection — their bond!
Damn it.
Taki scrambled to pick up the pen, trying to write her name himself.
But…
He couldn't remember.
The girl he loved, the one he risked everything to save…
He couldn't remember her name.
Her face, her voice, her memory — all slipping away.
The music surged.
The scene cut.
Taki stood alone atop the crater, staring at the wreckage of the town below.
"Who… was it? Why did I come here?"
"I came… to see her. I wanted her to live."
"Who was it? Someone important… someone I must not forget."
"Who… was it?"
"Who?"
"Who…"
The theme song of 'Your Name' played.
Taki's expression — lost in anguish, not even knowing why he hurt — filled the screen.
And in the theater, the audience all felt it:
That all-too-familiar stomach ache.
Because if there's anything more painful than a romance where one person dies...
It's a love where the other person forgets everything — even the name.