whisper of heart - to stand by your dreams

i miss this film.

whisper of heart, often mistaken to be a miyazaki film, which is actually not. Hayao Miyazaki wasn't the director on this. His collegue Kondo, who tragically passed away some years ago, was in charge of the film. It's my fav. If not to mention 'princess mononoke'.

there're some horrible translations on the western markets which read 'strain you ear', and rubbish like that. The story was adapted from a Japanese shoujo manga with exactly the same name. The original japanese title means 'if you listen closely, you'll hear the whisper of heart'. You don't just hear rain drops tapping on your window panes, or wind brushing through leaves. Your heart listens and hears the whisper of another. Dreamers that are brave enough to stand by their dreams. Everytime I rewatch it, I feel something fresher, as if all the dust is washed away by a summer afternoon shower.

storyline:
Shizuku(our female protagonist here) is a book worm. she reads like 10 books per week and she even goes to bug the libarian during school hols just to let them open up the library for her to get more books. on screen, there is shizuku, flipping over a page, eyes scanning, the same hand that flipped the page now reached out to a bag of potato chips, 2 seconds in pausing. you can tell she's reading. and all of a sudden her eyes welled up with tears. some touching storyline she just read? She's a pretty good writer too, from reading all these books you can tell she's got some talent n passion for it. She embarks on an lyrics translation project and they're going to sing their new version of 'country road', orignally by John Denver, on some ceremony. (graduation? year's ending?) The first version she came up with was hilarious, the chorus becomes 'concrete road, blah blah Tokyo, my home'. And one day she forgets her book on the bench. when she returns to fetch it, there's a boy sitting on the bench reading her book. Nothing really strange here, except that... well, when they're parting, the boy says 'hey, you know what, you really should change the lyrics' (coz the lyrics translation sheet is stuck between the book pages and boy read it)and shizuku is so pissed by the comment she storms all the way home and even tries to vent out her anger by impersonating the way the boy says the stinging line. 'you know what? you really should change the lyrics'- shizuku, saying this with lips twisted to one side, and bang!! she slams close the refrigerator door.

meanwhile, shizuku is puzzled by the name 'amasawa seiji', which appears on many many libary cards, of books that are rarely borrowed. well, you can bet that there couldn't possibly be a bigger book worm than shizuku, but maybe you're wrong. 'he read this book earlier than i do' shizuku thinks. as if an unannonunced competition, shizuku decides to borrow more and more books to read, especially those that have never been signed out before just so that her name will appear first on the book card.

the name 'amasawa seiji', that keeps appearing on libary cards


Shizuku, pissed by Seiji's rude comments on her lyrics, vented her anger by impersonating Seiji saying 'You know what? You should probably dump those lyrics'
notice how deformed her mouth is... and later on, she slammed the fridge door.
poor fridge...



one day shizuku (out of curiosity and a spurge of 'happy' hormone I think), follows a cat and comes to a magical crafts shop-'the earth shop'. 'It's like a story right out of a book' she says. A friendly old artisan owns the shop and he shows shizuku an interesting clock. When you wind it, a wooden door opens and inside the seven dawves are moving by intricate clockwork, some hammering away and some dragging a wood log. Tick, tock. The big hand strikes twelve. A melodious tone plays and a prince appears on the 'seven'. shortly, a beautiful princess appears on the 'twelve'. The prince looks at the princess yearningly, but when the second hand runs one round, it's time for the princess to go. Sadly they part.
'It's probably made by an artisan with unrequited love', the owner of the shops says.

shizuku decides to visit the lovely earth shop again next time. but she isn't so lucky though. it's closed. while she's hovering around checking Baron(a cat figurine in the shop) is sold, guess whom she meets, the boy who says 'you'd better dump your lyrics'. and guess what's going on. The boy lives there. His grandpa runs the earth shop.

and all along, this boy is amasawa seiji. amasawa seji who says 'you'd better dump your lyrics', amasawa seiji who first notices shizuku in a libary and later secretly competes with her to see who gets to read a book first, and amasawa seiji who has the big dream of being a violin maker.

i shall not give anymore spoilers.

my fav pieces from the film- country road, seiji started playing the violin and shizuku was forced to sing, later on Seiji's grandpa and some musican friends joined them, small ensemble! It was so warm n joyful. I can never forget it.

transcribed quotes, slightly adapted from Nausicca net.
Link: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mimi/script_mimi_en.txt

Downstairs
Seiji: Oh... All done?[ shizuku was looking at Baron, the cat figurine upstairs]
Shizuku: Y-yeah, thanks. Say, that... Are you by any chance making a violin?
Seiji: Eh? Yeah.
Shizuku: May I see?
Seiji: Mmm.
Seiji: It goes together this way.
Shizuku: Did you make this all yourself? By hand?
Seiji: Of course I did.
Shizuku: I can't believe it!
Seiji: The shape of the violin was set 300 years ago. Since then, the skill of the craftsman has determined how good the sound is.
Shizuku: Did you make all these too? [there're lots of violins hung from the celing top]
Seiji: You've gotta be kidding... There's a violin-making class that meets here too, you know.
Shizuku: But one of them is yours, right?
Seiji: Mmm.
Shizuku: Come on, which one.
Seiji: That one!
Shizuku: Ohhhh... This one? It's amazing, that you can make them so well. It's just like magic.
Seiji: You know, you can toss off embarassing things like that pretty often.
Shizuku: Oh? What's wrong with that? It's how I really feel.
Seiji: Anyone can make one like this. They're still no good at all.
Shizuku: Hey, I bet you play the violin.
Seiji: Well, kinda.Shizuku: Please let me hear! Even just a little.
Seiji: Hey now...
Shizuku: Please Please Pleeeease!
Seiji: Fine! But in return, you sing!
Shizuku: Huh? I-I can't! I'm tone deaf!
Seiji: That oughta be just about right.[He tunes up]
Seiji: Sing, will ya? It's the one you know.

'country road' starts to play, shizuku's uplifting voice fills up the whole room.

in which seiji plays the violin and shizuku sings 'country road', in her own lyrics




some production notes
There's one flying scene(3D) in the movie(in shizuku's fantasy world), which is done by Miyazaki. It's a highly technically challenging part as there're tens of layers stacked on top of each other. The images come from original art work by the japanese artist inoue, a fantasy genre based artist. His website http://iblard.com/english/

the violin palying scene took hundreds of reshots in oder to synchronise the finger movements and the background music.

guess who wrote shizuku's lyrics for 'country road'? miyazaki des. HAHAHAHA

fan pages
1. from Naussica
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mimi/

2. from pathea
http://www.pathea.com [under ghibli studio section]

3. from wingsee
http://www.wingsee.com/ghibli/whisper/

minako narita

Does the title sound as if minako narita's dead. nooooooooo, 'munch scream'
long been planning to write a review on one of my fav. manga artist -minako, who has actually disappeared from the japanese manga world for several years now. , that is, ever since she finished her last work-natural and in an interview she said she would probably spend her savings travelling around the world, wa't the next time she'll ever pick up her pens again is a mystery or is she making a come back at all i wonder. if you search the net for her name, whether english, chinese or japanese, there are few sites left dedicated to her. How ironic if you realize that the websites dedicated to her virtually 'flourished' in her prime time, probably during the publicaiton of 'cipher' and 'alexandrite'- which is a sequal to 'cipher' but does not receive equally popular review as cipher. so she's forgotten in some sense but i'm pretty sure people who truly appreciate her contributions to the manga art world will never ever forget her uniqueness in the commonly miscomprehended shoujo world- some think it's just girlish love stories. minako narita will make u think twice. and whether her work should be categorized into 'shoujo manga' is debatable - at least i oppose it. and it's kind of sad or should i say i feel a great discontenment that she's the only one of that 'one of a kind' and take a look at the current market, (i'm not criticising them, in fact i like some of the current manga works as well, such as death note-but it's getting more n more boring) , it's flooded with common world-saviour-super-power-highschool love story -samurais and what not content based manga books, i really miss minako. her stories are as close to a real person's life as can be, interweaved with intriguing cultural elements(she collects all kinds of ethnic costumes), eccentric, interesting and brave characters(but no super power!) and a flowing story line that takes you through someone else's life, and you feel your own rite of passage. papable, real and intimate.

when did i start reading her books? i'm not sure. the first book i read was 'Alexandrite' and why did I buy it? I can't remember! following that, I read 'Cipher' because alexandrite is a sequal to cipher. and later on i read 'natural'.

her characters are never japanese and settings seldom japan, laughs. that's why it's interesting I guess because she loves to depict other cultures that are rarely known. cipher and siva are american but their grandma indian. alexandrite is half greek half american and michael is from Peru. all these characters have one thing in common - they're challenged by their own unique identity and they seek the truth, break the chains and set their minds free. that's a thread you can easily follow in almost all her works. there're stories behind those great cultures, rich with colours, rich with courageous giants that marked them on the map, and above all rich with spirits even though countless strifes have almost brought the country down into debris. that's why her characters feel proud, confident because they know they're from lands where people live life proud and free. they feel the legend in their blood.

'Alexandrite' is probably the one exclusively devoted to the idea of 'self identity'. - how alex sought after his own Greek father and the story behind the precious family gem - Alexandirte (Alex is named after it). and it's a special gem that changes colours

here're some brief notes on the gem
-discovered in 1831, named after Alexander II of Russia
-mystical properties of alexandrite: reinforces self-esteem, assits one in centering the self(does Minako know this when she was working on the book?? It rings a bell)
-changes colour from green/or even bluish green, almost violet(day light) to red(incandescent light), u won't believe your eyes first time u see it!! (as it IS indeed the case for poor Alex!! It is Siva - Alex's roommate, who told him the special properties of this gem)

razzle dazzle





Alex- very interesting character. he's virtually a 'rechargeable battery'. forever energetic when he's awake and when battery runs flat, he falls asleep instantly, no matter what time or place. Alex and Siva were roommates when they attended Univ of Columbia. and he had a black belt for karate and also in the school team for judo. and in fact he had a difficult time deciding which one to drop later coz it was getting too big for good. and he even did part time modelling. i can never forget that weird interview. out of around 100 people Alex was chosen for the modelling job. when he went into the room, there was a lady sitted casually on a chair, legs crossed. and around her, there were 4 or 5 people making noises and dancing jumping as if mad. the questions asked were even more bizzare. well, maybe not the questions, but Alex's answers. Alex had a small whistle that was tied to a string and worn around the neck. and the woman being intrigued by it, asked him what it was used for. guess what he said? 'there's no bell on my bike so i blow this whistle whenever i am about to bump into pedestrians.' 'do you like to dance?' 'yes, absolutely!' then those funny clowns who were dancing around throughout the entire interview shouted 'woooooooow! your dream must be becoming a dancer!' Whohoaa!!' and they cheered, rocked their body, made faces etc. Alex was pissed for a while and he shouted 'No! I don't wanna be a dancer. I wanna be a karate master!' - that was the end of the interview. Once the door was closed after Alex made his exit, those 'clowns' stopped their ridiculous performance and each of them laid out a card on the table - 'kings and queens' , meaning they all thought Alex was the right one. I never knew they use poker cards to vote. well, that's one weird interview. and Alex was often joked for looking girlish (he was pretty looking and had long black hair in streaks of tight neat curls) and nobody would bully him of course , remember his black belt for karate! there're lots of other interesting characters(side-dishes i call them, haha), such as Ambrosia, his girlfriend who grew up with him, and a Japanese guy who planned lots of fun activities(secret 'Santa'- he asked Ambrosia to draw a name from a black box, inside all of the strips had Alex's name written on them, so it's cheating, that's a very romantic X'mas btw. Alex asked his distant cousin to play violin for Ambrosia) and of course there you have Siva and Cipher making guest appearances here n there. In the end, Alex met his true father in Greece. He didn't really abandon Alex and his mum. Due to political strife(yes he's a politican...) it was impossible for him to return at that time and his dad even went for Alex's final karate tournament. there're so many episodes of stories if you write a novel out of it, it'll be equally thick and solid.

and moving on to 'Natural'. The story is deeper and also darker. Michael(an angel's name) was adopted by Lizi's(I can't recall the Japanese name) father who worked in Peru. (and the whole family can speak the language). reason for adoption, well, it only became clearer later into the plot. that michael was involved in some street gang gun fire and his parents were scared that it would ruin his future so they consented to send him out of the country altogether. the main body is not about gangs in Peru though! (if yes i'll drop the book) Michael left Peru and went to Japan with Lizi's father(daughter n mum already in Japan coz Lizi needed to school there), after a really brief introduction, became a formal member of the family. See it's so brief that Lizi was shocked that she had a brother in a flash of a second. The relationship b/w Lizi and Michael was hazy throughout the book but it's definitely much more than sister-brother love. As a foreinger in this new country, Michael tried to be quiet, obedient, trying hard to find his own niche. and all along he avoided 'team'(street gang gave him v. bad memory. he shot someone in order to protect a friend) and he prayed every night in order to clear his sins. He avoided 'team' because his control buttom would be off whenever he gets too intimate with his friends. If someone provokes his friend (out of bad intention obviously), he might just go a bit out of his way. Only Lizi understood him. Both sisiter n brother were avid NBA fans and Michael was excellent basketball player. ( he never smiled when he first came into the family. one day Lizi brought him to the neighbourhood and they played basketball together, that was the first time Michael smiled.) Although he was excellent he avoided joining the school team. the team leader was so pissed (he bugged him persistently...) and he just couldn't understand why Michael wouldn't join them. Later Lizi gave him a very abstract picture. that everyone has two angels, one by each side. the right wing allures you and the left wing pulls you back. Michael was scared his 'button' would be switched on by the right.

Michael[right]


some eccentric figures.
Simen- top seed in archery. loves to bully Michael. he's heir to their family business- guess what it is, a shrine. He's going to be a 'priest' in a sense, because I can't find a proper word for that exclusive Japanese term. Once he asked Michael what animal he would be if reincarnated. I forgot what Michael said. But Simen, he wanted to age like an eagle. Those eagles that roam the northern sky. He showed Michael a very pretty feather, pure white with a strong stem. Eagles aren't borne with those feathers. only when they age does their tail feather turn white, that blends with the snow as they fly.

Michael's friend(I forgot his name...) - loves to collect all kinds of stuff, from bugs specimen to sushi combo. his mum was scared of his room because eerie features were strewn around. once his poor mum tried to clean up his room, she spotted a huge black bug soaked in formaldehye and scream!!!!! one joke, a bunch of guys were discussing about their watches. 'what brand is yours?' 'G-shock' 'Rolex' &$%4, etc etc. when it came to this guy... , he wore a sundial... and 'whatt time is it' ---two streams of tears rolling down his eyes. It's a cloudy day...

Michael never saw snow before. when he did see it, he was so excited he buried his face in the snow piled ground and laughed at his art work- a sculpted mask in the snow.

there're lots of other quotes. such as 'one's room is his private world' what you would put on your desk or hang up on the walls all reflect your innermost desires.

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