Whisper Of The Heart

Studio Ghibli, with Miyazaki listed in the writing credits, you know this is going to be a quality film.

This is not an out and out Miyazaki film.  It has all the hallmarks of Ghibli, a coming of age story, a hint of magic, Disney sponsored dubbing, painstaking attention to detail in the set dressing.  Lets start with that last point, like a Raymond Briggs picture book, the attention to detail, filling each room with a great reality.  You could almost take any indoor shot and see exactly what it's like in a house in Japan.  A great document of the way life is lived.  The film is full of rich visuals end to end.

Now onto the story.  Sure, there's no dragons or trolls in this one, it's story may be reminiscent of an "after school special", but this has credible people, not a polished Nickleodeon Beverly Hills kid falling for someone from the wrong side of the tracks and saying no to tobacco.  The heroine is a high school bookworm, starting to become a writer.  While reading she finds all the books she is reading have been read by a boy at the school, and she starts feeling a connection with him and builds up a romantic ideal, which is soon shattered.  I won't say more, but it's an optimistic journey, and a hopeful ending.

As always we watched the Japanese audio with translation sub titles, as opposed to using the closed caption/hearing impaired subtitles which follow the audio of the dub.  Disney are doing great dubs on Miyazaki films, but they do alter phrases both to suit US modes of speech and to get better lip syncing.