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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Whisper of the Heart by Aoi Hiiragi Whisper of the Heart remains Studio Ghibli’s most moving outlier. The first and only film from Miyazaki protégé Yoshifumi Kondo stands among the studio’s best works. T wenty five years after its release in Japan, Studio Ghibli’s first theatrical film not directed by either of its co-founders, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, stands among its very best. Based on the 1989 manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi, Whisper of the Heart is every bit as soulful and thoughtful as the work of director Yoshifumi Kondo’s mentors. It’s said that Kondo would have been their successor, but tragically the animator died from illness in 1998. Written for the screen by Miyazaki, the film observes teenage girl Shizuku (Yoko Gonna) living in Tama Hills in Tokyo. When we meet her, an unknown boy Seiji has taken out 3 of the same books as her, and her imagination begins to whir – what is Seiji like? The curiosity spurs her on to look for him, and she soon finds his grandfather Shiro’s shop, and with it inspiration to start creating her own work. From its opening, Whisper of the Heart’s romantic view of the city at night already strikes a different tone to previous Ghibli films, which often concern man’s encroachment on nature’s territory. Swooning cuts of blimps, pylons and other evidence of human connection overtake views of forests and open landscapes, with soundscapes of cicadas, trains and cars mixed with classical and electronic notes from composer Yuji Nomi (a mentee of Ryuchi Sakamato). This all feels immediately distinct from every Ghibli film that came before it, perhaps with the exception of Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday. It could be said that’s part of why it has particular favour among Ghibli enthusiasts; it has a quiet and humanist interest in the ecosystem of the city, how people connect and move around, and how art connects them. Read Next: Only Yesterday is a masterful reflection on youth’s impermanence. Unlike Only Yesterday, however, Kondo focuses on cramped urban spaces over that film’s more spacious middle class, rural living. He could even be said to romanticise them, as Kondo packs every space with the smallest, lived-in details; human habitats imbued with as much wonder as the more fantastical Ghibli films. Most important is the expression of a deep appreciation for all kinds of creativity – whether written or played or crafted, all are equally worthy and expressive, like the clock face in Shiro’s shop. There’s also song. Shizuku works on translating John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ into Japanese for her classmates to perform. That translation is (initially) the focus of much of its musings about creativity, and a pivotal part of the film’s standout set piece, a singalong with Seiji and others. The moment is an emotional turning point for Shizuku, deciding she wants to more directly share her feelings through artistic expression of her own. Like Kiki or Taeko before her, Shizuku is immensely relatable, worried that she hasn’t got the talent to create. But the film assures that there is something there that she need only recognise and polish. Whisper of the Heart is about how young people make sense of the world, learning to create as well as the agency they need to do so, something Shizuku’s father and Seiji’s grandfather both recognise. It’s not even about solving something entirely, it’s simply about finding the beginning of their path, less a typical coming-of-age story than it is a tale of self-actualisation. The particulars about Shizuku’s book aren’t important, nor the roughness of her prose – as Shiro puts it, that glimpse of an unpolished jewel of talent is valuable in itself. It’s worth mentioning the literal translation of the film’s title Mimi o Sumaseba, meaning ”If you listen closely”. Through its loving detail and close attention to character, Kondo and Miyazaki determine that it doesn’t matter what form that talent takes. As the title suggests, all you have to do is find it. Whisper Of The Heart. During summer vacation, a schoolgirl named Shizuku, who longs to discover her true talents, observes an ordinary-looking cat riding by himself on the train. Intrigued, she decides to follow him. This chance encounter leads her to the mysterious Seiji, a boy who is determined to follow his dreams, and the Baron, a magical cat figurine who helps her listen to the whispers in her heart. Soon, Shizuku's exciting adventures carry her far beyond the boundaries of her imagination. Whisper of the Heart by Aoi Hiiragi. Whisper of the Heart: Blu-ray + DVD Review. Japanese Theatrical Release : July 15, 1995 / Running Time : 111 Minutes / Rating : G. Director : Yoshifumi Kondo / Writers : Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay & storyboard); Aoi Hiiragi (original manga) English Voice Cast : Brittany Snow (Shizuku Tsukishima), David Gallagher (Seiji Amasawa), James B. Sikking (Seiya Tsukishima), Jean Smart (Asako Tsukishima), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Shiho Tsukishima), Harold Gould (Shiro Nishi), Ashley Tisdale (Yuko Harada), Martin Spanjers (Sugimura), Mika Boorem (Kinuyo), Cary Elwes (The Baron Humbert von Jikkingen) Japanese Voice Cast : Youko Honna (Shizuku Tsukishima), Kazuo Takahashi (Seiji Amasawa), Keiju Kobayashi (Shiro Nishi), Yorie Yamashita (Shiho Tsukishima), Shigeru Muroi (Asako Tsukishima), Takashi Tachibana (Seiya Tsukishima), Shigeru Tsuyuguchi (The Baron Humbert von Jikkingen), Minami Takayama (Kousaka-sensei), Mayumi Iizuka (Kinuyo) Songs : Olivia Newton-John - "Take Me Home, Country Roads", Yoko Honna - "Country Road" Buy Whisper of the Heart from Amazon.com: Blu-ray + DVD � 2-Disc DVD. In the summer of 1995, all eyes at Disney were on Pocahontas . The film was arriving on the heels of the record-smashing hit The Lion King to huge expectations. With this, the studio confirmed June as the preferred month for releasing their latest animated movie to theaters, a tradition they'd hang on to through the end of the '90s. Meanwhile in Japan, Studio Ghibli had long favored the month of July. The 1995 movie Whisper of the Heart became their fifth July release in seven years (opening a week before Pocahontas got there). To this day, the company continues to like that timing, employing it on almost every new film. Though arriving on schedule in the middle of summer, Whisper of the Heart differed from past Ghibli output in a number of ways. It was only the studio's second film made without one of the studio's two creative heads, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, directing. Whisper marked the feature directorial debut of Yoshifumi Kond�, an animation director, character designer, and supervising or just plain old animator on previous Ghibli efforts including Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies and Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service . Miyazaki is credited with the screenplay and storyboards, which he adapted from Aoi Hiiragi's 1989 manga of the same name, known locally as Mimi o Sumaseba (literally If You Listen Closely ). Despite his involvement, Whisper is almost altogether void of Miyazaki's signature fantasy. This is perhaps Ghibli's most down-to-earth production. The film centers on Tsukishima Shizuku (voiced by Brittany Snow in Disney's oh-so-2005 English dub), a 14-year-old girl aiming to read twenty books over summer break. Her parents and older sister (Courtney Thorne-Smith) would prefer she spend a little more time preparing for her upcoming high school entrance exams. One day, a cat wanders onto a train and sits down next to Shizuku. The fat, quiet feline doesn't say anything or pay notice to anyone, but Shizuku decides to follow him and winds up at an antique shop whose offerings inspire her. Shizuku later discovers that the friendly shopkeeper's grandson Seiji (David Gallagher) is the same Seiji whose name has appeared in all of the books she's borrowed from the library. Shizuku has romantic feelings for her fellow bibliophile, but not the boy her best friend (Ashley Tisdale) has been crushing on, who has secretly been interested in Shizuku. Alas, Seiji is about to go off to become an apprentice violin maker, a calling that could keep him distant for ten years. Meanwhile, Shizuku pours all of her passion into writing a story around The Baron, a captivating cat statue inside Seiji's grandfather's shop. She has also, for some reason, been working on new lyrics for John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads", a song both she and this film seem strangely enamored with. Whisper is thin and leisurely for its 111-minute runtime and rather juvenile for a film carrying Miyazaki's name. Most of Miyazaki's films focus on a girl protagonist on the cusp of teendom and accordingly they assume the world view of such a character. But whereas his works typically have fans of both genders and all ages, this one seems to more narrowly target preteen Japanese girls with its reddened cheeks and intersecting crushes. Still, there is a lot to admire about this film, from its flavorful depictions of contemporary adolescence and family life to its appealing portrayals of reading and writing as suitable creative outlets. Those themes and the looming responsibility of high school preparation give off a faint air of didacticism, but fortunately it does not overpower the seemingly chief objective to capture the thrills and feelings of an exciting young age. Studio Ghibli hoped that director Kond� could become a successor to Miyazaki and Takahata, but this would be the only film he completed before his 1998 death at age 47 due to a ruptured aneurysm attributed to excessive work, an incident that led Miyazaki to announce retirement but settle on a more relaxed pace.

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