concrete roads

Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba) (1995)
4 Stars
Written by Hayao Miyazaki

Hi. It's been a while. But, having just picked up and watched the crowning jewel, and possibly last member, of my DVD collection, I thought I'd write something about it.

As you may already know, Whisper of the Heart is my favorite animated movie. This is largely for personal reasons, not the least of which is that the story is about a kid who wants to be a writer but doesn't know if she has what it takes. Actually, I think the reason why Studio Ghibli movies are consistently better than their American counterparts is that they're personal. Like Disney movies, they are sentimental: romantic, heartwarming, backwards-looking, fantastical. But, unlike Disney movies, they are also introspective, poetic, and, in this case, borderline inspirational.

Not that they're substantively deep — Miyazaki has a conventional, highly-Westernized view of the world that comes through in all his work. I mean, the theme song of this movie was written by John Denver and sung by Olivia Newton-John. It is a straight coming-of-age story.

It is this Western(-Virginian) outlook in a typical Japanese setting that makes the work resonate for this American. Just when I'm about to laugh at the Japanese obsession for school exams, I recall the article I read today about new standardized tests for high school diplomas. Living in Oakland, it's no stretch to imagine the concrete hills and apartments of West Tokyo. On the other hand, this movie would've been forgettable if it weren't firmly grounded in mid-nineties, middle-class Tokyo. I can relate, not so much because my life is like the protagonist's, but because she lives in a recognizably real world.

As the work ages, it runs the risk of meta-nostalgia: the characters are nostalgic for country roads and Victorian Europe, while living in a world of library book lending cards, click-advance pencils, people waiting outside because they don't have a cellphone, and mailing letters - all soon to be subject to nostalgia themselves. Add to that the death of its young director after only one movie, the imminent retirement of Miyazaki, and the passing of the Second Golden Age of Disney, and I fear this might be canonized in a way that would invite comparisons with The Little Mermaid and Nausicaä.

We're so used to Disney product that we have to remind ourselves that animation is not inherently restricted to Sci-Fi/Fantasy Blockbusters. Whisper is a small film. Smaller than Bambi; smaller than The Iron Giant, Lilo & Stitch, or even Grave of the Fireflies or Totoro. Like its protagonists, it's got nothing but craftsmanship and heart. My favorite kind of movie.