‘Your Name’ Director Makoto Shinkai on Updating the Body-Swap Movie

“Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai says he always gets nervous standing in front of a crowd that’s just seen one of his films, but at Monday’s screening of his latest film for The Wrap Screening Series he seemed especially surprised to be appearing before an American audience.

The film tells the supernatural love story of two teenagers who have never met but find themselves uncontrollably swapping bodies and lives day to day.

Pond pointed out during the panel discussion America’s rich history of atrocious body-swapping films, to which Shinkai replied that it’s an even more common theme among Japanese manga comics.

“Your Name” first arrived as a novel prior to its cinematic release, and the book’s best-seller status helped fuel its box office success.