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February 10, 2005
Whisper of the Heart
Whisper of the Heart is a quiet, realistic film from Studio Ghibli, more in the style of Only Yesterday than the studio's action packed fantasies like Laputa. There is not much in the way of plot to the movie, it's more of a character study as we watch the main characters interact and grow with each other.
The story centers on Shizuku TSUKISHIMA, a 14 year old growing up in the suburbs of modern Toyko. She is bookworm who wants to write when she grows up. Over her summer break she discovers that all the library books she has been reading have been checked out before her by someone named Seiji AMASAWA. Through a series of semi-magical accidents, she meets Seiji and finds out he is another student at her junior high. He wants to be a violin maker and is going to try for an apprenticeship in Italy. Struck by the example of someone working so hard to fullfil his dream, Shizuku sets herself a challenge to write a real story. This will prove to herself and the rest that she can achieve her dreams of being a writer. We only see a little bit of the story she writes, while the movie focuses on the typical adolescent struggles to prove that one has some talent or ability that make one a worthwhile or lovable person. In that sense, it is probably closer in themes and spirit to Kiki than any other Ghibli film.
This is one of the few Ghibli films not directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata. Instead this was directed by Yoshifumi KONDO and was partially done to showcase the new generation of animators coming up at Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki did have a hand in the movie by writing the screenplay (based on a shojo manga by Aoi HIIRAGI) and the storyboards and serving as executive producer.
Only the short (two minutes total) fantasy sequences where Shizuku is imagining her story were directed by Miyazaki. The artist who did the incredibly intricate backgrounds for these sequences was Naohisa INOUE. He was an established artist who invited Miyazaki to come to a gallery show of his fantasy artwork. His work has been influenced by Miyazaki's movies and he puts flying island in the sky that he calls "laputas". Miyazaki was impressed enough to buy one of his pieces for the Studio Ghibli offices, then later asked him to come work with them on the movie.
Ghibli (and Miyazaki and Takahata) had been criticized for only making movies which idealized the idea of country life and the countryside (inaka). So one of the reasons for choosing this story was as a reply to this criticism; to show they could make a movie set only in the urban and suburban life of modern Tokyo, yet still preserve the Ghibli sense of magic and joy in the story. Ironically, (as Ryo pointed out on the Miyazaki mailing list), the "new town" that Shizuku lives in is the one which was built on top of the tanukis' forest from Ponpoko. The opening panarama of the new city at night in Whispers is the same as the closing scene in Ponpoko.
Ryo also pointed out that part of the motivation for this movie was that Miyazaki "felt that children living in the modern day Japan need their own story" as opposed to the nostalgic movies like Totoro which look back to an idyllic country life. In Miyazaki's own words (translated by Ryo) "'For Shizuku, who grew up in the newly founded residential area in the city, the green earth or mountain momma has little to do with her. After many struggles, she reaches the conclusion that for her, this scenery with convenience stores and fast food restaurants is her 'home', and she has no choice but to live here with her feet down to earth."
One of the key elements of the movie is the old John Denver song Country Roads. The movie opens with Olivia Newton-John singing it (her version was a hit in Japan in the 1970s), and throughout the movie Shizuku struggles to write new Japanese lyrics to the song. At one point she does a parody of it called Concrete Roads which describes her city life. Ironically, her spoof is closer to her real life than the cliched images of country life that she keeps trying to use. The movie closes with her new version of the song, but now it is more about her life and her experiences growing up than about country life. Shizuku has finally begun to find her voice as a writer.
Family oriented production studios rarely get the recognition they deserve but Studio Ghibli definitely should. They have been putting out amazing works like Nausicaa, Laputa and Totoro that have not found their equal a decade after their release. They have literally blown away the animation world with their sensational winds. Included in this team are Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yoshifumi Kondo and a few others.
1. Nausicaa: The Valley of Wind (1984)
Nausicaa the princess of a small nation, lives in a world devastated by a holocaust called the Seven Days of Fire. She tries to stop other warring nations from destroying themselves and from destroying the only means by which their world can be saved from the spread of polluted wastelands.
2. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Pazu rescues an unconscious girl descending from the night sky with a glowing pendant around her neck. He helps the girl, Sheeta, to escape from the air pirates and the military who are obsessed with Laputa, a legendary kingdom on a floating island in the sky with which Sheeta is suspected of being connected.
3. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Totoro is a forest spirit that little Mei, and later her older sister Satsuki, encounter in a giant camphor tree near their new home in the countryside. Although their father, a university professor, is with them when they move, their mother is in the hospital, recovering from some unnamed illness. When Mei hears that her mother's condition may be worsening, she resolves to visit her all by herself. When everyone realizes she's missing, only Totoro knows how to find her!
4. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Alternately known as Tombstone for Fireflies, Grave is a very somber film about the struggle of two children to survive during World War II. Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are left to fend for themselves when their mother passes away from severe burns inflicted by the American fire-bombing of their town. Their father is serving in the Japanese navy, but the children have not heard from him in a long time, so Seita and Setsuko try staying with a distant relative. However, Seita doesn't get along well with this relative and decides to leave, taking Setsuko with him, to live on their own.
5. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Kiki is a 13-year old witch. When a witch turns 13, it is traditional for her to move away from home to spend a year in another city or town where there is no witch already living, so that she can learn to be independant and practice her trade. This is Kiki's story of the beginning of her year away from home. She and her black cat Jiji run into a little trouble at first, but they soon make friends in their new city by the sea.
6. Only Yesterday (1991)
Only Yesterday revolves around Taeko, a single woman working a desk job in Tokyo in 1982, taking a vacation in the countryside with the family of her sister in-law. During her vacation, Taeko finds herself looking back at her time as a young schoolgirl growing up in 1966. The film flips back and forth between the two time periods with a lot of nostalgia and beautiful country scenery as Taeko sorts out her flashbacks and tries to make some tough decisions about her future.
7. Porco Rosso (1992)
Porco Rosso (the Japanese title Kurenai no Buta literally means The Crimson Pig) was first planned as a 30-45 minutes in-flight movie on Japan Airlines. It's been described as a movie which tired businessmen on international flights can enjoy even with their minds dulled due to lack of oxygen. As Miyazaki's imagination took off, it became a feature-length movie about an Italian Air Force pilot who left the service due to the rise of fascism. He became a bounty hunter, assuming the name Porco Rosso.
8. Ocean Waves (1993)
Ocean Waves is the official English title (from Japan) for a film more commonly known as I Can Hear the Sea (the literal meaning of the Japanese title). Set in Kochi (on the island of Shikoku), Umi tells the story of a love triangle that develops between two good friends and the new girl in school who transferred from Tokyo. The new girl, Rikako, is at first arrogant and distant, but eventually makes friends.
9. Pom Poko (1994)
In Pom Poko (the Japanese title literally means Heisei-era Raccoon War Pom Poko), Tanuki (animals native to Asia which look like raccoons) living in the forest near a government construction project, are being threatened by the destruction of their habitat. Banding together and seeking help from other tribes of Tanuki, they live up to their traditionally mischievous reputation by changing their shape and trying to sabotage the construction effort. When this fails, they stage one last great illusion, hoping to alert the city folk to the natural wonders being bulldozed to make room for yet another Tokyo suburb, before it's too late...
10. On Your Mark (MTV) (1995)
This music film, directed by Miyazaki for the Japanese pop music artists Chage & Aska, is by many accounts the seed of an idea for a film in its own right.
11. Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Mimi wo Sumaseba, which literally means If You Listen Closely, tells the story of Shizuku, a junior-high school student who is struggling to find out who she is. The movie takes you on a journey through her imagination and daily life as she makes decisions that will ultimately decide her future.
12. Princess Mononoke (1997)
Set during the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) of Japan, Mononoke Hime is a story about a mystic fight between the Animal Gods of the forest and humans. On the side of the Animal Gods is San (Mononoke Hime), a human girl raised by the wolf god Moro. On the side of the humans is Lady Eboshi, building a kingdom for oppressed people by cutting down the forest for her iron-making operation. In the middle of this fierce fighting for survival, Ashitaka, an Emishi boy, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting just becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost...
13. Spirited Away
Miyazaki's newest Movie !!!
Posted by dimitri at February 10, 2005 11:41 PM