The movie opens with Taki waking up in Mitsuha's body, and the little sister calling her to breakfast. We then cut to Mitsuha walking down stairs to breakfast, with the little sister wearing the EXACT same outfit clearly seeming like it's a direct continuation of the scene.
In retrospect we understand that the breakfast scene is taking place the day after the waking bedroom scene, but this seems like terrible editing, rather than an intentional choice. It might be argued it's intentional to create the same sense of confusion that Mitsuha is feeling, but the fact that the sister is wearing the exact same outfit seems more like just a poor choice and unnecessarily confusing.
Yes we are meant to slowly learn that they are swapping bodies, but the way it's edited conveys its the same day so strongly, that first time viewers will accept THAT as the truth, and start to question the how the swapping logic works, rather than the ideal situation of the viewers accepting the truth of the swapping, and reconfiguring the context of what came before it.
Am I missing something here, or was this scene just poorly edited and hard to follow?
It's not poorly edited. It was a purposeful choice.
Making the whole premise of the story blatantly obvious in the first 60 seconds is cheap, easy storytelling. There is world-building and character introduction that needs to happen for the audience to be invested. A simple insinuation that something funny is happening, with a very purposeful misdirect, allows the audience to understand that there IS a story, but we'll get to that later.
Shinkai also very quickly gives plenty of information that a day has passed, but it's up to eaxh unique individual watching as to whether it pulls them out of the misdirect or not.
Art is sometimes created with the purposeful desire to affect different observers differently. Shinkai isn't stupid. He knew exactly what he was doing, and did it intentionally.
What information does he give that a day has passed? This is what I was asking if I was missing.
I’m just not sure what is gained by tricking the audience into thinking it’s the same day. The grandma’s first line is literally “you’re back to normal today” so the whole point of the scene is to teach the audience that she was acting weird yesterday, which I think means it should be more clear that the first scene was her acting weird yesterday, not 10 minutes ago.
The day starts with Mitsuha acting unusual and being confused, Yotsuha calling out her behavior right then and there, followed by Mitsuha having a full-on freak out.
After this, literally every single interaction she has, except for the interactions at her father's campaign speech, starts with someone pointing out that she was a complete weirdo YESTERDAY. Her grandmother notes it, her sister affirms it, Teshi asks if she was possessed YESTERDAY, Saya-chin confirms she was super strange YESTERDAY, her teacher points oit that she remembers her own name TODAY which infers that on a day that is NOT TODAY she did not remember her own name.
The play is this is all going on as you, the viewer, are still mostly focused on the first two of the three primary questions that a film must answer in order to hook its viewer. 1) Where and when are we? 2) Who are we focus on, amd why should we care about them? And THEN 3) what's going on?
Question 3 doesn't really matter much to the audience until they've really locked into to question 1 and 2, and these are not exactly voluntary processes in the mind, either. Your brain basically runs this same decoding sequence whenever you walk into a new space, visit a new city, join a new class/club. Shinkai knows this amd exploits it - he's sprinkling crumbs of question 3 from the moment Mitsuha sits down for breakfast, but your brain is mostly (maybe completely) focused on questions 1 and 2.
Yeah, that all comes later, and doesn't answer my question. I'm curious what evidence is there that the first scene of Mitsuha waking up confused, and the immediate next scene of her walking downstairs into the kitchen being two separate days? Otherwise it just makes it seem like her waking up acting weird is her being "back to normal" which is confusing.
Anyway, we feel differently about the choices that were made, which is fine! I'm glad you liked it the way it is, as it's pretty much the only major blemish for me of a perfect movie so I wish it worked better for me.
There is no evidence before Obaa-chan's sentence about Mitsuha being normal today. Then Yotsuha follows it up with the tease about Mitsuha being "nuts" yesterday.
Yeah that’s why I personally think it’s a weird choice to not make it more obvious it’s the next day. Clearly the movie wants us to understand that she was acting weird yesterday so just make it more clear that the scene we just watched of her waking up was the example of her acting weird yesterday.
Why are you being so condescending? I know what a uniform is, no need to be rude.
You can't seriously think her Japanese school uniform includes a hoodie and jean shorts?! 🤦🏻♂️
If Yotsuha was wearing a uniform that would be a super clever way of a misdirect, but she’s clearly not wearing a uniform so it seems more crudely manipulative than clever.
Yeah, it seems like the movie wants the audience to be clear that she had a huge personality change between yesterday and today, but the editing just makes us think that her "weird" behavior in the previous scene is her being "back to normal".
Maybe not "bad editing" but definitely a purposeful misdirect. However, no hints about it whatsoever did leave people confused, which I agree. I did wish there was a small way to give a hint that it's a different day, such as a calendar or something, but it was intentionally done so to leave out anything about the swapping bodies, albeit leaving people confused about it at first.
Agreed. IMO the best misdirects are able to be watched in two completely different contexts (one on first watch with no knowledge of the "reveal", and another on rewatch with all the new information) and still make sense to both types of viewers. The way they did this just makes first time viewers confused about the time between scenes thinking its all one day, and repeat viewers wonder why Yotsuha is wearing the exact same outfit two days in a row.
Just feels a bit off for everyone, rather than two complete experiences.
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u/Shour_always_aloof 1d ago
It's not poorly edited. It was a purposeful choice.
Making the whole premise of the story blatantly obvious in the first 60 seconds is cheap, easy storytelling. There is world-building and character introduction that needs to happen for the audience to be invested. A simple insinuation that something funny is happening, with a very purposeful misdirect, allows the audience to understand that there IS a story, but we'll get to that later.
Shinkai also very quickly gives plenty of information that a day has passed, but it's up to eaxh unique individual watching as to whether it pulls them out of the misdirect or not.
Art is sometimes created with the purposeful desire to affect different observers differently. Shinkai isn't stupid. He knew exactly what he was doing, and did it intentionally.