Foreshadowing with Japanese Folk Symbols in a Non-linear Story: A Timeline-based Analysis for the Narrative of Your Name (2016)

非線性故事中的日本民俗符號伏筆：《你的名字》時間軸敍事分析

張晏榕(Chang, Yen-Jung) ； 徐詩雅(Hsu, Shih-Ya)

《南藝學報》 20期 (2020/06) Pp. 139-159

摘要

Your Name, directed by Makoto Shinkai, an animated feature film released in 2016 was highly successful in box office. It is an animated feature film with non-linear narrative, something seldom seen in this genre. This study investigates the spatial-time arrangement and foreshadowing in the film based upon the timeline in narrative. It is the purpose to propose a new method of content analysis for film narrative. The result indicates that there are six main elements each of which corresponds to plot points of the plot, including four of them in relation to Japanese folk symbols. They appear in the first and the second act of the story to trigger audience's curiosity and make the story reasonable, respectively, through the functions of advanced notice and advanced mention, and gradually echo and accumulate to build up the climax of the narrative to cross over to the third act. Thus, in spite of the three story settings, the crash of a meteorite, the exchanging of body and soul, and time traveling, are rather ordinary, elements of foreshadowing originating from Japanese folk culture were interwoven with the plot to tell a compelling story. This also inspires that the possible value and contribution of local folk symbols to narrative development.

關鍵字

Your Name ； narrative ； foreshadowing ； Japanese folk symbols

並列摘要

日本新海誠導演的動畫電影《你的名字》2016年在商業市場上獲得了巨大的成功，本片特別之處在於類型中罕見的非線性敘事結構。本研究以時間軸方式分析電影中的時空安排，以及敘事中的伏筆設定，提出一種新的電影敘事文本分析方法。分析結果顯示有六個主要伏筆元素，包含四個日本民俗符號相關伏筆，對應到故事主要的情節轉折點。這些伏筆元素分別出現在故事的第一幕與第二幕，透過事先通知（advance notice）和事先提及（advance mention）兩種方式，吸引觀眾好奇心並使劇情的發展合理，之後伏筆的回應與堆積逐漸將劇情推展至高潮，跨入第三幕。因此，即使故事使用了在商業劇情電影常見的三項設定：彗星撞地球、交換靈魂與身體、時空旅行並不特別，但以日本民俗文化做為伏筆工具與劇情交織，讓本片結構成為一個扣人心弦的故事，也啟發了在地民俗符號對敘事發展的可能價值與貢獻。

並列關鍵字

你的名字 ； 敘事 ； 伏筆 ； 日本民俗符號