I won't go to full detail as to why the film entertains me so much, I'm sure I share my opinion with the majority of the audience. So if you want an in-depth analysis of all the outstanding parts of the movie(animation, sound, setting, etc), check other reviews.
What I do want to mention, are the values and lessons in this movie, and how it has stirred my mind like no other movie has.
Now I am a keen student in sciences. I strive to discover the unknown, and I need proof to be convinced of something. So my mind is quite skeptical and always try to critic something.
I also live like the majority of the human population, living through a daily routine that guides us, that keeps us on track in life. And the movie addresses this in such a breathtaking fashion that I had to think twice about it(and I rarely do).
In the movie, both characters are just random human beings, in random places and with no connection with each other whatsoever. Had the events in the movie not happen, they will most likely never meet.
But the way the movie does the switcharound is just phenomenal. Although they switched places, the rest of the world kept moving on oblivious to it. And I think this is something we often ignore but is very significant in our world. The world is so vast that we get drowned in it, but the movie teaches us to break free sometimes, and do unorthodox things, to keep ourselves fresh.
Another aspect that struck my heart was the human memory.
(slight spoiler but not really cause it's kinda obvious after a certain point?)
Throughout the movie, we kept getting reminded how fickle the human's capability of keeping memories are(I'd argue that this is the main driver of the movie, and causes more twists along the way) The characters have a sense of longing, sense of emptiness, in their lives. They keep living their lives thinking about the blurry events, but never really remembering it.
This strikes too close to real life. We forget dreams soon after waking up. If we sleep for 1/3 of our lives, how much are we missing on?
Lastly, the supernatural part of the romance. This story is set in our world, where science is accepted worldwide as the leading solution to questions. Yet something as romantic as soul-swapping occurs in the film.
Yes, I know, it's a fictional movie, no way something like that'd happen in real life yadayadayada... I disagree. Partially, at least.
As I've mentioned, I'm a firm believer that proof > belief. But thinking twice about it, we live in a world where mysteries still roam. Some legends still lay unanswered and many people still tend to lean towards belief rather than proof in times of need(which is why major religions are still prevalent in modern history). But the idea of something like this happening? It's too romantic to completely ignore.
(TLDR)
I want to believe that our world is still full of supernatural occurrences, a world where swapping lives is possible, a world where seeing ghosts of the past under kataware-doki is possible, a world where half of a person's soul is in their kuchikamisake. I don't believe in that, but I really do want to.
But I'm sure this world exists in the mind of some people, who aren't driven by technological and scientific progress of the modern world, and still live traditionally, peacefully, and happily.
And boy am I envious of them.
