Whisper of the Heart
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Movie Reviews of Whisper of the Heart
Movie Review: I like Miyazaki movies
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not the most exciting one, but it is a nice story, innocent and encouraging and giving somewhat an idea of Japanese life, even though I think they like to use European elements as well..
My personal favorites are Howl's moving castle, Nausicaa and Spirited away. After these, this one is a nice one too.
Movie Review: Whisper of the Heart
Summary: 5 Stars
Great movie with amazing sounds and music that you'll love. It's ONE of the FIRST MIYAZAKI MOVIES. The price was great. It was chaper here than instore or other places. The dvd came within 3 days, which was very fast and suprising since I chose the standard shipping.Movie Review: The true feminine spirit & the antidote to hollywood
Summary: 5 Stars
Hard to believe, but there are places on earth where people are making movies that do not have the standard doses of hollywood toxins. Films that don't play to the lowest common denominator of esthetics and attention span, without shallow sentimentality or arrogant brutality, without the requisite nihilism of postmodern sophistry. This movie is the antidote to all that, and it came from one cluster of brave people who live in Japan: the Ghibli studio. Be forewarned, once you taste the real thing - and Whisper of the Heart is a prime example - you may not be able to go back to the schlock that Hollywood dishes out. Which will pretty much keep you out of the cinema in the U.S. Sadly, the total output of Miyazaki and Ghibli is maybe a dozen films, not all yet translated to English - but at least they HAVE made the magnificent films they have.
I put this film in the top 10 of any cinema I've ever seen. Story, music, design, every aspect is just right, an absolute work of Art. As with all Ghibli productions, in the first 5 minutes you'll forget it's animated. This film succeeds at encapsulating something that's essential and priceless for literally anyone, child or adult. I'd challenge anyone not to fall at least a little bit in love with Shizuku, or rather, the true feminine spirit she represents.
An additional benefit of watching this film is that you'll have some new, more interesting words to the old John Denver song. Trivia: the tall fellow who plays the tambourine is modeled after the landscape artist Inoue Naohisa, whose art created the fantasy sequences in the film.
Movie Review: Very Pleased
Summary: 5 Stars
I Have to admit this is one of the greatest movies I have seen in a while. Overall a AWESOME DVD! A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Movie Review: A fantasy about reality...
Summary: 5 Stars
Like chocolate milk and pancake batter, utter realism and animation rarely mix. Cartoons, completely unrestrained by the laws of physics, usually depict fanciful, imaginary, or surreal worlds and creatures that real fleshy human beings can relate to only indirectly or analogously. Talking lions, anthropomorphic toasters, ants with eyebrows, singing lawn furniture. That's the stuff of animation. "Kid's stuff," at least for many living in the United States. But, across the Pacific, one of Japan's greatest animation houses, Studio Ghibli, has continually broken this tradition by incorporating human characters so believable and lifelike they could already exist two doors down. "Whisper of the Heart" contains realism so tangible it could work as a live action movie.
Apart from a few scenes, the entire plot of this animated film takes place within the human realm. The heroine, Shizuku Tsukishima, a junior high school student in a middle class Japanese family, faces the perennial coming of age question: "what should I do with my life?" Her easily distracted squirrelish mind often wanders through fairy tales and imaginary stories. She follows tangents and roads less traveled, a habit that induces her to follow a stray cat, Muta, from a public train to an antique store. Once there she discovers an enigmatic sculpture of a well dressed cat. Its eyes radiate like fiery nebulas. The store's proprietor, Shirou Nishi, refers to it as "The Baron." Something about this statuesque cat catches Shizuku's attention and she decides to write a fairy tale narrated by The Baron. For a few minutes the movie shifts out of reality to depict pieces of this story. But reality quickly, and harshly, returns.
Along the way Shizuku gets haunted by a name: Seiji Amasawa. This person has already checked out nearly every book she has from the library. Examining the old style checkout cards - now extinct from computerized libraries - reveals this startling pattern. She begins to fantasize about the mysteriously reoccurring name. By this point her friends have taken an interest in boys, which also piques her own interest. One friend has a stultifying crush on a somewhat brutish baseball player who wouldn't notice a flaming brick thrown at his face. Shizuku tries to set them up but falls flat into a humiliating "whoops!" moment. The evasive name of Seiji wafts in the background.
When Shizuku discovers the identity of Seiji Amasawa, she's disappointed and a fight ensues. Nonetheless, the two build a relationship based on the ineffable stuff that all relationships are built on. Then Seiji, in pursuit of his life's ambition, decides to move to Cremona, Italy. This throws Shizuku into an emotional abyss. She seeks the solace of her friends. The same ones that previously sought relationship advice from her. Shizuku's own flowering fairy tale confronts reality. Will this relationship work? How can it?
Allegories of lost love permeate the story. An old clock, restored by Nishi, depicts a Prince staring longingly at his true love who only appears at twelve o'clock. Nishi himself dreams about the return of his long lost love, Louise. Even in his old age he still hopes. The lonely figure of the Baron parallels this tragedy. A companion piece, a well-dressed female cat also named Louise, disappeared along with Nishi's Louise of the flesh. Life interferes with love. And, despite the ending, life appears ready to deliver a blow to Seiji and Shizuku. Arguably, the ending remains open to interpretation. The constant refrain of "Country Roads," made famous by John Denver but sung here by Olivia Newton-John, hearkens those who have gone astray or wandered off to return home "where they belong" (at least in the minds of the amorously abandoned). Eerily, Shizuku and Seiji's story could end up mirroring Nishi's and Louise's.
"Whisper of the Heart" is one of Studio Ghibli's most poignant and beautiful films. Adults will probably identify with its themes more than children or teenagers. It searches for magic in reality rather than in fantasy, but it challenges these dreams with the vicissitudes of workaday life. It also makes us reflect on the whispers of our own hearts that tell us what we may have lost or may potentially be in the process of losing.