(Japan 1995 111 minutes)
Director Yoshifumi Kondo; Screenplay Hayao Miyazaki, Aoi Hiragi (comic); Music Yuji Nomi; Cinematography Kitaro Koska; Voice Acting Youku Honna (Shizuku), Kazuo Takahashi (Seiji); Editing Takeshi Sayama; Art Direction Satoshi Kuroda
by Stephen Russell-Gebbett
Whisper of the Heart is a story of love between two teenage schoolchildren, a girl who dreams of being a writer and a boy who longs to be a professional violin maker. It is the first and only film by the late Yoshifumi Kondo, who was seen as heir apparent to Studio Ghibli’s Miyazaki-Takahata crown.
When it comes to the depiction of young love in film, or indeed in reality, we know the form. There are concerned parents who see the relationship as an obstacle to self-improvement and a distraction from exams. The teenagers are more often than not patronised – even, subtly, by the film-makers themselves – with the perception that their love is a phase, a hollow rite of passage, an emotional development they are neither ready for nor have true understanding of : ‘You don’t know what love is’. Those couples are forced to build a cocoon around themselves to shut the world out. They are forced to display the signs of ‘immaturity’, i.e. headstrongness and selfishness, to hold on to what they have.
Whisper of the Heart is one of the most refreshing films you are ever likely to see because it rejects all convention to treat this love with the unswerving respect that it deserves.
Kondo and scriptwriter Hayao Miyazaki put no external pressure on Shizuku and Seiji. Their parents don’t even know. We don’t feel like it’s a relationship that is being hidden but rather a journey that is personal and intimate and too fragile to share so soon. Far from acting as an obstacle the relationship flourishes as an inspiration and a spur to self-improvement. Shizuku is pushed to follow her dream when she sees the determination of her boyfriend to do the same. What is marvellous about the film is how it defines love as a strengthening of the heart and mind rather than the dissolving of individuality and clear thinking.
Because Seiji is so fearless in his pursuit of his future she too can overcome the fear and self-doubt of adolescence and discover that she can play an important role in life. She takes the old song ‘Country Roads’ and writes new lyrics for it, (renaming it ‘Concrete Roads’!) seeing that the world can be as much hers as anyone’s.
Their time together charmingly demonstrates how for them, even at a young age, love is as natural and true as hunger or thirst. If this is an impressionable age, the film implies, then love could be the perfect influence to mould their lives. An old man in an antiques shop she visits, once he has read her first draft, shows her a rock with a hidden crystal vein. He tells her that she is like the rock and that she can be polished into something that shines. Is this not, after all, what Ghibli routinely does, mine the everyday for hidden magic?
The hidden and the inner is key. Shizuku is led to Seiji when she discovers that he has been reading the same books that she has. In Jane Campion’s Bright Star Fanny and John express their love through surrogates. In other words they honour what is close to the person they love when they cannot be together. John strokes Fanny’s cat and sleeps in her old bed while Fanny kisses his letters and looks after his ailing brother. So it is in Whisper of the Heart that Shizuku falls for Seiji through these books – his love for what she loves.
The film is not carried away with their feelings. It is calm and relaxed. One could almost say detached (it is realist – earlier a boy declares his love for Shizuku only to be rejected). How often do the protagonists stand atop a school roof or a hill to overlook the city to consider their lives and their place in the wider community. Pillow shots of traffic or running water or the sustained shot of her skirt rippling against the wind speak of contentment, tranquility and contemplation. Thus the marriage proposal that concludes the film makes perfect sense. The commitment has been there all along and we could not be more certain that this isn’t a starry-eyed, ‘you’re so pretty!’ crush.
Nothing is out of place. Not one edit, not one angle or choice of music jars. It is not a perfect film, no, but it leaves you with a feeling of wholeness that is close to perfection. We are living in an era where animation is being used to bring to life wondrous and rapturous stories of how things are as well as how they might be. This is not animation that shows itself or its maker off. It is not self-regarding. In my opinion Whisper of the Heart is yet more evidence that the grand storytellers of Studio Ghibli are the greatest exponents of the animated media that we have ever seen.
This review was originally published at Checking On My Sausages.
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“In Jane Campion’s Bright Star Fanny and John express their love through surrogates. In other words they honour what is close to the person they love when they cannot be together. John strokes Fanny’s cat and sleeps in her old bed while Fanny kisses his letters and looks after his ailing brother. So it is in Whisper of the Heart that Shizuku falls for Seiji through these books – his love for what she loves.”
Superlative example, and as impassioned a review you’ve written for the series (of a film that’s fully deserving.) Your descriptive framing of ‘contentment’ and your assertion that there isn’t a single shot out of place indicates a kind of artistic perfection, which makes Kondo’s untimely loss even more tragic. Here’s a clear case where animation can even go beyond real-life filming in reas where the latter would have some irrefutable built-in advantages.
This is one of the reviews I’m most happy with, Sam. I’m glad you enjoyed it too.
I liked that you picked out ‘contentment’ because I think that is the heart of the film – reaching for and attaining contentment.
“Here’s a clear case where animation can even go beyond real-life filming in reas where the latter would have some irrefutable built-in advantages.”
Though hard to put your finger on precisely why, there are certain moods and delicacies that do seem to come more naturally in animation. Or maybe it is just the talent of the film-makers who happen to work in animation.
If you haven’t seen it I am sure you would get something from it.
Well, it’s been a couple months since this was published, but I was looking at it again and couldn’t allow it to pass by with only two comments.
This is truly a great film. I saw it for the first time a couple years ago when I was going through Miyazaki’s whole catalogue. While it doesn’t have the fantasy elements his movies normally have, director Kondo did a terrific job of translating Miyazaki’s script to the screen, and it feels very much of a piece with Mu Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. This is also probably the best Studio Ghibli film not directed by Miyazaki or Takahata. Others, like the pseudo-spin off The Cat Returns or Tales from Earthsea, just end up being kind of bland and forgettable. This one is far above all that, rightfully standing with the most true, beautiful, and moving animated films of all time. I love it.