I’ve never really understood the fuss around Studio Ghibli. To hear people talk about their films, you’d think they were at the cutting edge of animation and story-telling, but whenever I’ve seen their highly praised productions, all I see are standard Anime production values and glib, twee Dinseyesque storylines. But, I’m nothing if not open-minded, and so decided to give the new Blu-ray release of 1995 film Whisper of the Heart a go. And while it hasn’t convinced me that my opinion of other Ghibli titles was wrong, I have to admit that this is a pretty impressive movie.

Unlike the more popular Ghibli films, this isn’t a fantasy story, but instead a more grounded tale of teenage love, as book-obsessed high school girl Suzuku slowly falls in love with trainee violin maker Seiji (a girl who reads and a violin making teen boy? Clearly not a story that would be made by British filmmakers who think all teens are street-gang members!) and tries to live up to what she sees as his standards by trying to write a story based around a cat statue that Seiji’s grandfather owns, even as her new love prepares to move to Italy for ten years.

It’s slight stuff on paper, and perhaps on screen too, but after a bit of a faltering start that presents our lead character as a difficult-to-like self-centred brat, the film slowly comes to life, as Suzuku becomes absorbed in her fantasy world, to the neglect of her schoolwork, and is both chastised and encouraged by friends and family. Not very much happens, but the film has an undoubted charm about it. The fantasy sequences involving a cat called The Baron would later spin off to the rather less interesting The Cat Returns, but here are simply presented as short clips illustrating Suzuku’s novel in progress.

While I would still maintain that the animation here is very much in the Anime tradition and not the revolutionary stuff that some have suggested, it is undoubtedly at the top end of the style, with fluid, realistic movements and only the occasional wide-jawed, overly cartoonish shot. And it looks especially good on this new HD version.

The disc features both the English language version and – for the more anal who seem to think that an animated film can somehow be dubbed rather than simply revoiced – the original Japanese. The English cut seems to stick fairly closely to the original – there are no anglicised names used, thankfully – and retains the original Japanese rendition of John Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads (a recurring song in the film) during the closing credits.The disc contains plenty of extra content including a behind-the-scenes of the US voice over sessions.

While not perhaps for everyone, Whisper of the Heart is a genuinely charming movie, and one that will presumably resonate rather more strongly with teenage girls than ageing, cynical male critics. It might not have convinced me that I was wrong about the studio’s other films, but I have no hesitation in recommending it.

DAVID FLINT

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