Mimi wo sumaseba (1995)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Yoshifumi Kondo

Writers:

Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay)
Aoi Hîragi (comic) ...

Release Date:

15 July 1995 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Music | Romance

Tagline:

Suki na hito ga dekimashita!

Plot:

A young girl finds that all the books she chooses in the library have been previously checked out by the same boy...

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Book | Violin | Writing | Library

Cast

Youko Honna	...	Shizuku Tsukishima (voice)
Kazuo Takahashi	...	Seiji Amasawa (voice)
Takashi Tachibana	...	Seiya Tsukishima (voice)
Shigeru Muroi	...	Asako Tsukishima (voice)
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi	...	The Baron (voice)
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Shiro Nishi (voice)
Yorie Yamashita	...	Shiho Tsukishima (voice)
Maiko Kayama	...	Yuko Harada (voice)
Yoshimi Nakajima	...	Sugimura (voice)
Minami Takayama	...	Kosaka-sensei (voice)
Mayumi Iizuka	...	Kinuyo (voice)
Mai Chiba	...	(voice)
Satoru Takahashi	...	(voice)
Akiko Sakaguchi	...	(voice)
Hiromi Yasuda	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

If You Listen Closely (informal literal English title)
Whisper of the Heart (International: English title)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:G | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Australia:PG | South Korea:All | Chile:TE | Finland:K-3 | France:U | Germany:o.Al. | UK:U

Company:

Tokuma Shoten

Trivia:

The backgrounds, clouds, and flying islands (they are called "laputa") in the Flying sequence were painted by an artist named INOUE Naohisa. He is a former high school art teacher, who continued painting pictures of "Iblard" on his own. When he had his exhibition, he sent an invitation to Miyazaki, since Inoue was a huge fan of Miyazaki anime. Of course, he didn't expect anything, but Miyazaki showed up, and he bought one painting (which is now on the wall of the cafeteria at Ghibli). The painting is called "Upward Draft", and looks exactly like the fantasy scene in "Mimi" . Then, Miyazaki asked him, "Can you work on our next film?". Inoue also worked in "Mimi" as a voice actor. He did one of Mr. Nishi's friends, who joined the "Country Road" jam session (he's the tall one).

Goofs:

Continuity: It is not clear whether this is a mistake or a hint that the Baron is alive, but in every scene that the Baron is shown, he looks different than the time before (position of hands, cane and hat).

Quotes:

[sees Shizuku asleep]
Yasunari Tsukishima: Look at her, my little warrior.

Movie Connections:

References Tonari no Totoro (1988)

Soundtrack:

Take Me Home, Country Roads

Whisper of the Heart

Whisper of the Heart by Kondou is the most endearing, personal, magical, and majestically warming Anime based Reality I've seen in a while. It's up there with Grave of the Fireflies, and Barefoot Gen--even though this film's contents is more in the line of soul mates, aspirations, personal treasures, unrequited love, and John Denver.

Disney bought the rights for it, so for those whore lacking--be patient, although you can always get a Jpn DVD version that contains English Sub, just be sure that your DVD plays that certain region.

A great anime for those who seeks solace and inspiration, nothing more nor less. Sure it lacks violence, guns, nudity, fast cars, robots--and amongst others that can render a film to the point of being excessive, brutal, and profane--but with love, destiny, personal adventures, and a sensuous story--you couldn't go wrong with this lovely thing.

I cannot emphasize it anymore than that--watch it with a love one.