Whisper of the Heart
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Movie Reviews of Whisper of the Heart
Movie Review: Whisper of the Heart - A Slice of Life Experience - Slow Paced but AWESOME for that very reason!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok first off if you are after a faced paced action packed white knuckles thrill ride viewing experience this is NOT your kind of movie. For the most part this movie offers its viewers what is for the most part an amazingly accurate picture of what it is like to be a family in Japan. The movie treats you as if you are a silent onlooker as this young ladies life unfolds before you. There are few if any fast cuts and action sequences designed to fast forward you into a basic understanding of what motivates the characters. Great time and effort was taken to allow the complexities of each character to unfold before you. As the movie played on I actually had the sense that I was being allowed to get to know each character. Another thing that makes this movie special is each character was crafted with amazing subtelty and attention to detail making feel real. The attention to detail and slow pace of character development in Whisper of the Heart made me want to invest myself in loving each character for the unique perspectives, joys and pains and insights they brought to the overall work. This is not the movie for someone who needs an action sequence every 4 minutes to stay interested and connected to the movie. This movie is for someone who enjoys people, love and the most awesome cultural aspects of Japan.
I was impressed also with the quality of the animation. The sheens on the wood surfaces as light shines on them in rooms was awesome. The attention to detail in the look and feel of the fathers library workplace was astounding. As the young lady decended the stairs I could almost the crisp air heavy with the unique smell books have when collected together. The train stations and appropriate signage were also well detailed. True attention to detail during animation can be seen by looking out of the windows as the train goes from place to place. The scenery changes, the support poles for the trains electric power lines pass by as expected. It is not the same three to seven buildings passing by in cheap animation seen on the Flintstones and Jetsons for example.
This is a love story between a adulescent young man and woman both on track to enter high school in Japan. I will say nothing more about the plot because; I do not want to spoil it for others. This is an awesome movie. It is slow in pace but if you care about cultural details and want to get a sense of what life in Japan is like this is a great beginning on your journey toward understanding and human enlightenment. There is One VERY unrealistic plot point in this movie I feel compelled to point out. At one point the high school aged young lady flirts with the idea of not entering or completing high school. Her grades drop off to a point that is totally worrisome and her parents eventually become very mellow and supportive of her plans. Unfortunately most typical parents in Japan do not reach with passive love when their childs grades fall and they express a desire not to continue school. In Japan the entire culture is geared to seek perfection in all things. In Japan school, college and job life is a never ending competition and everyone and I mean everyone is taught from birth to take the important competitions in life seriously. Few parents would behave as the young ladies parents did when her grades fell and she announced she would not be attending high school. That said this movie is worth owning. It is sweet light and wonderful and might leave a tear in your eye at its ending.
PS hope you like the song Country Road's because you will be hearing it enough times during the DVD!
Movie Review: AN UNFORGETTABLE, HEARTWARMING, COMING OF AGE FILM FROM STUDIO GHIBLI!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Whisper of the heart is one of the most sensitive, heartwarming and beautiful films ever made. Based on a shojo manga by Aoi Hiiragi, Written and produced by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, whisper of the heart is a tale of self discovery and coming of age of a high school girl Shizuku who is not sure what she wants in life. A series of dramatic events bring her closer to a guy Seiji from her own school. Together they embark on a journey which will help them find their inner potentials, realize their dreams and also love for each other. Also featured in the movie is an old man who runs an antique shop stocked with amazing treasures, including a magnificient porcelain figurine "the baron" (also featured in "The cat returns). Both of these characters play an important role in the film. Though "The cat returns" is kind of follow up to "whisper" yet for some reason it was released on dvd before "whisper".
Rarely is a film as honest and realistic as whisper of the heart and that's what makes it amazingly special, charming and successful. Within its thin plot and realistic settings, whisper has its magic moments which are downright uplifting and strike a chord somewhere deep inside. The film itself is a breath of fresh air.
Whisper of the heart, though slow in pace, draws you in from the very beginning and refuses to let you go. Its a heartwarming tale which makes you feel nostalgic and helps you relive the adolescence. Except for the Shizuku's dreamy fantasy sequence, the film relies heavily on dialogues and simple and real situations. The locales and the backgrounds shown in the film are as beautiful and breathtaking as in any other ghibli film. Open spaces, beautiful countryside, deep blue sky with summer clouds, a bicycle ride atop the hill, there are numerous things and moments in the film that set the mood just right, leaving the viewer spellbound and satisfied. After a while you forget completely that you are watching an animated film. Music plays an important role in the film and is soft and relaxing though we do get lots of those silent moments too for which ghibli films are famous. Also featured in the film is John Denver's song "country roads" which makes the perfect backdrop for the film. Not to mention here, the royalty disputes which arised later, making it difficult for the movie to see an American release.
Be it character development, animation or background art of the film, attention to details is simply stunning.The incredibly detailed backgrounds of the fantasy sequences were done by Naohisa Inoue who was an established artist and a long time Miyazaki fan. Impressed by his fantasy work, Miyazaki himself invited him to work on the film. Whisper of the heart dvd released by Buena Vista in Japan includes a special documentary showcasing the dreamy artwork of the film.
Director Yoshifumi Kondo had worked on many ghibli films such as Kiki's delivery service, Grave of the fireflies and Pom poko etc, as an animator. Hayao Miyazaki, who was looking for new breed of directors for ghibli, recognised Kondo's talent in no time and gave him a chance to direct this movie. Unfortunately, whisper of the heart remains to be the first and the only film directed by Yoshifumi Kondo. Just after the release of whisper, Kondo succumbed to aneurysm. It is evident from whisper of the heart how immensely talented and sensitive director Kondo was.
Films like whisper of the heart are very rare and come once in a lifetime. Watching a film like this is an experience to behold and cherish forever.
Movie Review: Ernst Lubitsch is reborn
Summary: 5 Stars
Most action movies are pure fluff, relying on clichés, special effects, and bravado to win over the mostly male audiences that keep them in the pipeline. They are junk food. They provide the illusion of satisfying us but they are not nutritious or filling at all. But then there are those action movies which are so solid, well-written, well-acted, well-paced, and well-done that we don't even think of them as action movies. They are the action movie gourmet meals. Think of Lawrence of Arabia or even Full Metal Jacket. Movies like that are outside the traditional action realm, and tend to have much wider appeal. They are entertaining and smart.
Likewise, the action movie's female counterpart, the romance movie, tends to be fluff, relying on overwrought acting and writing, schmaltzy music, and clichés. Even rarer than the "good" action movie is the good romance movie. A movie that realistically depicts love and interpersonal relationships without relying on any clichés or overwrought acting or writing. City Lights is one example of this, the works of Ernst Lubitsch are another. Think of his movie The Shop Around the Corner. It's a love story that works by depicting real "moments" (as critics like to call them). Instead of being a hammy soap opera, these movies work by touching us on a real level. You don't cringe watching these, you don't say to yourself "Who talks like that?" and you don't hear schmaltzy music all of the time to let you know what emotion you are supposed to be feeling.
I'm bringing all this up to make the point to any guy who is reading this that "Yes, there are good romance movies you will like." Whisper of the Heart is a movie like that, and BOY is it a good one. You've heard of the rare romance movie that both men and women like equally, this is one of them. Guys will like it because it isn't junk food. Comparing this movie to typical romance garbage like Up Close and Personal is like comparing a piece of filet mignon to a Slim Jim. People talk like real people, they have real problems that 14-year-olds have, and they relate to their family like real 14-year-olds do.
This movie should be easy to find on DVD and for once I do not hesitate to say "watch it dubbed." Miyazaki himself says that his movies should be seen in the language of the viewer, and not subtitled, so that you can devote your full attention to the image on the screen and not to reading subtitles (I make the exception for Princess Mononoke which IMO has a inferior dub). It was written by Miyazaki but directed by another very talented man who unfortunately died not long after making this, his only film. The influence of Miyazaki shows in this film, although the animation style is a little different, and the style of the backgrounds is *very* different. I do not know what process was used, but I'd say they based all of the backgrounds on real photographs. The lighting in them is so well that some of them could easily pass for photographs on an NTSC display unless you look at them long and closely. The pacing in this film is also very well-done. Too many directors hurry through pacing, they don't want there to be any silences because they don't know how to use silence. This director does.
Movie Review: Not your typical Ghibli film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great, though somewhat different, Studio Ghibli film. Make no mistake about it, this is a teenage love story, there's very little fantasy and no real action to speak of. It is still a very well told and heartfelt film though, and definitely has Ghibli's impressive storytelling written all over it.
The film tends to be pretty slow paced, but actually feels more realistic as a result. It is this sense of realism that is the movies greatest strength I've found. The characters and their behavior, their lives and how they live, and just about everything else has a sense of realism that you don't often get from this genre. So many movies/shows in this genre seem to have some kind of hook, but this film doesn't rely on one. Yeah, you have the minor fantasy sequences, but those aren't really a hook so much as a result of Shizuku's imagination. You'll know what I mean when you view it if you haven't.
It's great to see the relationship form, and then to witness how it effects Shizuku's life and how they deal with the hurdles placed before them. This relationship is really the focus of the story, and it only benefits from the sense of realism I mentioned previously.
The dub is pretty well done, though Seiji's performances was hit or miss. Overall he did a good job, but there were a few scenes where the delivery was a bit lacking. Cary Elwes pulls off a perfect sounding Baron yet again, even though his role in this film is significantly less than in "The Cat Returns". Brittany Snow played a great Shizuku and pulls off the scenes with singing wonderfully; she has a great singing voice. The use of "Country Roads" was actually pretty well done I thought, and it didn't feel strange at all; I mean, after watching this film I actually have the song stuck in my head now.
Despite the films age I did not feel that it suffered from it. The animation was terrific and the imagery didn't really make it feel dated. The artwork was great and is a testament to Ghibli that they can animate a plain modern city and still manage to impress the audience with the visuals. Their eye for detail is also strongly presented in this film, as you see the characters act or move in a manner that is more realistic, but many other studios wouldn't bother animating. Ghiblis attention to subtle details is one of the things that sets them apart. Seeing these subtleties and movements in a more familiar setting only makes their appearance that much more noticeable.
In the end this is yet another Ghibli great. For fans of their more unique films, this might be a bit of a disappointment though. This isn't a fantasy film, or sci-fi, nor does it have any action or a vital life or death plot to it. It's a love story through and through, but it's also a very well told love story with impressive storytelling to back it up.
Movie Review: Charming Story - Outstanding Animation - Good Family Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in the suburbs of Tokyo, "Whisper of the Heart" is a story of finding ones place in the real world and of finding one's first true love. The teenage main character, Shizuku, wants to be a writer and is seeking her place in the world. While she is a voracious reader, she reads only fantasy which tends to skew her world view. After meeting a hansome boy, Seiji, who both infuriates and intrigues her, Shizuku sets a personal goal. Because Seiji knows he wants to study violin making in Italy and is going there for a short apprenticeship to see if he has the skills, Shizuku sets a goal of writing a story by the time he returns in order to know conclusively if she should be a writer. During the course of Whisper of the Heart, she learns that life and love is not as easy as in a storybook but that with hard work, one may find true love and happiness in real life as well as in stories. A subplot is Shizuku's relationship with Seiji's Grandfather who serves as the voice of wisdom and experience. He teaches her that many beautiful things are hidden and may only be exposed with hard work. He also teaches that life does not always give a happy ending.
Other than the scene showing Shizuku's writing, the story has none of the strange characters, magic, or fantastic settings of other Studio Ghibli U.S. releases. (In my opinion, some of their best real-life style stories such as "Omoide Poro Poro" do not translate well into American culture or the American market.) The animation is fantastic, which I attribute to the detail Studio Ghibli includes. This is the film which gave rise to "The Cat's Return" and several of the characters are found in both (the Baron, Muuta).
Regardless of the subject matter, I was easily caught up in the story and found it quite compelling. My wife and I often set the language to Japanese with subtitles (my Japanese is abysmal) and as we found with "Kiki's Delivery Service," the translation of the Japanese dialog is better than what was written for the English version. Those with some knowledge of Japanese culture will notice some other facets of that culture which underlie the story. These include studying for the High School admission tests and the "Goodbyes" of long-time classmates following junior high school. I found this to be a good family movie and highly recommend it, particularly to anyone with teenage daughters.