Evening all, today I bring to you one of my favourite films from Studio Ghibli, the beautiful Whisper of the Heart or Mimi wo Sumaseba
Whisper of the Heart is a family favourite in our house. The kids love the bright colours, and the missus enjoys the story. I just love it because it's amazing and has really stood the test of time.
The story features the rather jolly and vibrant Shizuku Tsukishima. A young girl who loves to read and write poetry in her free time, which is an awful lot of time as she devotes her studying time to this hobby 🙃
As Shizuku is going over one of her books one night, she looks at the checkout card and she notices that the books she is borrowing from the school library have a frequent other borrower, a young boy by the name of Seiji Amasawa.
This piques the interest and curiosity of Shizuku, who takes it upon herself to search for this mystery boy, hoping to find a friend who has the same love of literature as herself.
Year of release: 1995
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Genre: Drama and Romance
Film run time: 1 hour and 51 minutes
Age rating: U
My rating: 9/10
Shizuku meets an interesting big white cat while riding the train. The cat is chilled and looks to be just having an easy ride, but definitely looks like a frequent train traveller.
Shizuku decides to follow the cat to see what it does. After following the cat on a little journey, Shizuku stumbles upon a beautiful little antique shop with a stunning cat statue inside that piques her curiosity.
Shizuku finds out that the statue is named ' The Baron' and that he is part of a set. The owner of the antiques shop, Shirou Nishi, tells Shizuku the story of The Baron and his missing partner, who have been separated for a very long number of years.
Shizuku meets Seiji Amasawa by chance after leaving her notebook on a bench and finds him very rude and unpleasant after he admits to having read her notebook and calling a song she wrote corny. She doesn't know that the boy she met is the Seiji Amasawa from her library checkout cards though.
As the story progresses, the two of them start to form a friendship that grows, with Seiji telling Shizuku about his dream that he wishes to fulfill. Seiji is a violin craftsman and wants to travel to Italy and learn from a master violin crafter. He hopes to one day become a master craftsman himself.
Upon hearing this, Shizuku feels inadequate as she still doesn't know what to do when she graduates, thus leading her on a path of self-discovery.
Don't take sweets off of strangers and get in creepy old men's vans kids
If you haven't seen the film before, yes this picture looks creeppppppy as heck, but I promise you it's not creepy at all.
After writing so much I thought adding some humour in might help alleviate my aching brain 🤡
As Shizuku and Seiji's relationship grows, Shizuku finds the determination to work towards a goal. She is determined to become a writer and bring the world joy through her writing.
The film as a whole is beautiful, a lovely story of friendship, growing up and love. Yes there are plot holes and some serious character development and backstory issues, but overall they don't take anything away from the beauty of Whisper of the Heart.
The art style is the lovely style that we are used to seeing from Studio Ghibli films, with some absolutely stunning background visuals. The art and skill on display throughout the film are beautiful, and make me rather jealous of the artists' skills.
Such a beautiful story and ties in really well with another film from Studio Ghibli, The Cat Returns, another household favourite of the family.
Now let's have a look at the musical parts of this beautiful film, and I can happily tell you that it does not disappoint, presenting to us with some lovely pieces throughout the film.
Now I will give you the musical showpiece of the film, Country Road, originally b Olivia Newton-John, but re done for the film.
In English:
In Japanese:
Both pieces are beautiful and I love them!
Here's a trailer that will show those of you who haven't seen Whisper of the Heart, just how lovely it really is:
Images from imbd
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