Whisper of the heart
link to my video essay
From the first glance you could describe the movie as a sweet movie that you can watch whenever you're feeling blue.
It's a movie about an teenage girl named shizuku who likes writing and reading crosses paths with another boy her age and starts to admire his certainty about what he wants to do with his life and how hard he works on becoming a violin maker despite his parents disapproval.
So she starts to channel those feelings and decides that she will attempt to write a fictional story that she wanted to write a long time ago putting behind the fear expressing herself.
In the end, they reunite and express how they feel and how they are encouraged through each others progress and achievements.
A sweet movie that tells us that we can meet our goals in the end.
But what if the movie was trying to tell us something more
Something that represents how shizuku's life is actually really hard and isn't as upbeat as it may seem in the end
How you may ask, let me tell you may opinion.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family
If we really took a close look at shizuku's family we would find some hidden signs in each character that were there to be analyzed
Let’s start with the mother
The mother is seen in many situations where she obviously has a social persona and a home persona.
If you analyze every scene that she appears in inside their house you find her distracted, requires others help and rarely seen in the movie giving any assurance to any of the characters.
She was finishing her master’s degree so the whole family’s needs were held on pause while everyone’s attention was solely on her goal.
From letting the oldest sister take full responsibility of the housework and neglecting her desire to connect with her mother to shizuku who she didn’t care about throughout the movie.
In a scene where shizuku runs after having an unpleasant day at school her mom was busy talking to the neighbors and letting her run away without trying to understand what was going on with her.
When she didn’t have to wake up for her lecture she didn’t bother to wake shizuku up and finally when she was informed that shizuku's grades were getting worse, she didn’t try to understand what was going on with her and left it to her father and sister to handle it.
The sister
The sister was what holding the family together, She had the feeling of being responsible for other people's well-being and she tried to run away from her family once she had the chance.
She always had lack of communication with her sister and when she did it was always in the form of criticism.
This all refers to the probability that shuzuku was raised in a dysfunctional family.
To show how shizuku truly cared about her sister when she finds out that her sister is moving out and gets this nightmare where she is running and searching for the emerald and once she finds it it appears to be a dead bird which symbolize metaphorical death or departure and to distract herself the first thing she did was to remember seiji through the book she had
shizuku
When it came to her character you can find shizku fitting all the characteristics of what is called “the lost child”
Inside, she felt like she is fragile, confused, not good enough and retreats into her own world.
Although on the outside she seems like she is perfectly calm, lite &sweet and can handle anything.
Those characteristics give the family that halo of being fine and healthy.
When it came to how the outside world would perceive the lost child the results were fascinating
Literally the signs were that you would find that the person perceived as creative and artistic, avoidant of conflict and lost in books.
So what does the lost child really wants and how can the lost child actually satisfy the desire to be heard.
Well the answer is exactly what shizuku went through
All that she really wanted was to be able to express herself but was really terrified of the outcome of doing so to face rejection from people that she truly cared about and to have to deal with the aftermath of all of those variables.
So what is the outcome to that avoidance?
It so simple, it’s that she escapes by spending a lot of time daydreaming to create all the connections that she desires and being absolutely sure of the reaction.
To be able to try and have people always cheering for her progress.
What am I trying to propose here is what if neither seiji nor his grandfather actually exist and these characters are shizuku 's coping mechanism with the current state of her family.
shizuku has always been distant from her family, she always read books and stays outside her house as much as possible.
Any art work she presented she always tried to show the flaw in it before anyone else does, searching for the validation that she never received.
So what a flexible mind like a writer's mind would do? she would create a fairy tale where she is the lead role.
She imagines a world that she goes to to find people who are similar to her.
And it is represented in the magical antiques store that provided her with all the exciting and new ideas and stories.
The new world is summarized in two main characters the first is seiji which represents the flame in shizuku's life.
The trigger that made her feel worthy again he is the one who noticed the small things about her like how much she reads, how well she sang and how she could be a professional writer one day.
she needed the feeling that she mattered to someone .
Seiji was the thing that moved shizuku forward and motivated her to push through the days because after having the books as a coping mechanism she needed something more something that has more depth and she can be the lead in it.
The second character is the grandfather who represents warmth and validation.
Any kid in the early teenage years will seek for guidance and advice.
She created this character not only to give her validation but also to have special memories with him
Memories that he doesn't even share with his own grandson.
He encouraged her when she needed it and he validated her emotions when she was vulnerable.
Dialogue
When it comes to the dialogue a few sentences really stood out in the movie
The first was the part that she added in the song which went like this:
I dreamed of living alone but fearless,
Secret longing to be courageous,
loneliness kept bottled up inside,
just reveal your brave face they’ll
never know you lied
Which clearly shows how she doesn't mind being alone if that means that she will truly be free and happy.
And you find that clear in her new world/ where everyone supports her and let her express her true self.
And to emphasize this phrase you find her friends read it in the beginning of the movie as well.
Imagery and symbolism
The movie had some eye catching imagery that made you feel like you don't want to miss any part of the movie.
(The cat) or moon represents change and connection
The cat is what made shizuku discover the road and by following it she found the new and welcoming environment that she needed.
When she felt like she wasn't her old self and began to talk to moon she found Seiji in front of her and changed how she felt about herself by providing for her the place where she can be herself without being embarrassed or apologetic and to be able to think and express herself.
And when shizuku was in a state where she felt like she needed to improve but she didn't know how to do so once she decided to change her ways and to concentrate on writing her novel the cat appears announcing that it's time for another change in shizuku's personality.
Lastly when the cat rested by her side when she was sad and afraid of judgment when she gave her story to the grandfather to read and she changed by accepting that like anything else in life she needs to practice and to be able to own what she created even if it's not perfect and to move forward to improve it as well.
After seiji returns from his training unexpectedly one day earlier and as she just earned the ability to be flexible and understood that everything needs time to flourish, they reunite again to be able to declare her new attitude towards herself and to make peace with her mind/ and to understand how important those characters were in her attempt to cope with life/ helping her decide what is the next step and she decides that she becomes stronger, free from the fear of loneliness and live life like she truly wants
fearlessly.