Four stars. Rated PG, and pointlessly, solely because some characters smoke
By Derrick Bang
As has become a rather quirky
custom in recent years, two of the recently announced Academy Award nominees
for Best Animated Feature prompted bewildered frowns.
No surprise, since both are all
but unknown on these shores.
After a rather clumsy attempt at traversing the flooded marsh, Anna, left, gratefully accepts some rowing tips from her new best friend, Marnie. |
Brazil’s Boy and the World has yet to achieve wide release in the States,
although a few Northern California venues are scheduled to open it later this
month. Japan’s When Marnie Was There
supposedly received “limited release” last spring, after a few festival
appearances ... but it sure never played anywhere near our neighborhood.
Fortunately, Marnie is readily available for home viewing, having been released
on DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 6. It’s definitely worth the rental — or purchase —
as it’s yet another of Studio Ghibli’s elegant fantasies, with a touching story
perfectly told via lush, hand-drawn animation.
More than anything else, Studio
Ghibli’s animators always establish a firm sense of place. Our heroine spends the bulk of her saga on the northernmost
island of Hokkaido, in a moody, wind-swept marshland that frequently floods
with the ocean tide. Grass sways gently; flowers and trees dance in the breeze;
water laps along the barren shore.
The film is based on British
author Joan G. Robinson’s 1967 novel of the same title, which until Studio
Ghibli’s interest had become almost impossible to find (along with most of her
other books). Hayao Miyazaki cited it as one of his 50 recommended children’s
books, and in late 2013 announced that his studio would bring it to the big
screen.
This wide-ranging interest in
classic children’s fiction comes as no surprise to longtime Studio Ghibli fans,
since 2010’s The Secret World of Arrietty was based on British author Mary Norton’s The
Borrowers. That film was co-scripted by Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa
Yonebayashi; the latter has directed When
Marnie Was There, and adapted it with co-scripters Keiko Niwa and Masashi
Ando.
They’ve done a lovely job.
Our young protagonist, Anna, is a
typical Studio Ghibli heroine who feels disconnected from the rest of the
world. With short hair and plain clothes, she looks more like a boy than a
girl: likely a bit of emotional defiance every bit as protectively concealing
as the plain face she displays at all times.
“Everyone else is inside: inside
some sort of invisible magic circle,” she ponders, during a moment of interior
reflection lifted directly from Robinson’s novel. “But I’m outside.”
Anna (voiced by Sara Takatsuki)
lives in Sapparo and has no friends at school; she always sits alone, making
accomplished sketches of what she observes, but disparaging such efforts and
refusing to show them to anybody who displays interest or curiosity.
She comes by her withdrawn nature
honestly; she’s an orphan who has repressed darker fears and feelings. She’s
sullen at home, leading foster mother Yoriko (Nanako Matsushima) to worry about
the girl’s health: a genuine concern, after Anna collapses during a serious
asthma attack. As a result, Anna is sent to spend the summer with her foster
mother’s sister and brother-in-law, Setsu (Toshie Negishi) and Kiyomasa (Susumu
Terajima), who live in a rural seaside town where the air is fresh and the
skies are clear.
This setting is almost antiquated:
a bucolic region isolated from modern concerns and technology. A computer or
smart phone would seem grotesquely out of place.
Anna frets, worrying that her
foster parents are “dumping” her. But Setsu and Kiyomasa ignore her petulance
and aura of quiet misery, treating her with warmth and jovial cheer. (Studio
Ghibli stories always have one or two slightly exaggerated adults on hand for
mild comic relief; Setsu and Kiyomasa fit that bill here.)
While exploring one day, Anna spots
a huge mansion across the salt marsh; after wading over for a closer look, she
finds it abandoned and empty. Setsu later explains that it once was a lavish
vacation home for “some foreigners,” but that it has remained empty for years.
Although ... maybe not. At times,
the estate seems gay and brightly illuminated, and Anna is certain that she
sees a blond-haired girl through an upper bedroom window: the same girl who
soon begins to haunt her dreams.
Then, on the night of the summer
Tanabata festival — an excuse for the Studio Ghibli animators to further
brighten their palette with opulently colored costumes and strings of lights
and lanterns — Anna finally meets this mysterious apparition. This is Marnie
(Kasumi Arimura), dressed in finery, and with a disconcerting talent for moving
and behaving in a manner that seems to skirt physical limitations.
The girls become fast friends,
each pledging to keep the other a secret. They meet more frequently, the
radiantly merry Marnie gradually drawing Anna out of herself. On a coldly
logical level, Anna knows that something is amiss, particularly when she’s
invited to join a guest-laden party at the mansion. But she’s too enchanted by
this new friendship — too mesmerized by Marnie — to risk spoiling things by asking
hard questions.
By this point, though, we’re certain that something gently
supernatural is at work. Add a spooky abandoned feed silo, howling winds and
several gloomy, storm-tossed nights, and there’s no doubt why this film has
been dubbed “Ghibli Gothic.” Substitute moors for the salt marsh, and we could
be immersed in a playful riff on Wuthering
Heights.
Savvy viewers likely will
anticipate the “big reveal,” or at least get close; Yonebayashi and his
co-scripters drop all sorts of hints. But the film isn’t driven solely by this
central mystery; we also yearn to see Anna emerge from her self-imposed
emotional prison, a subtle transformation akin to a slowly blooming flower.
As a result, Anna cautiously
opens herself to the wider world. She meets Hisako (Hitomi Kuroki), an older
woman who paints watercolor pictures of the marshland, and seems to know the
area’s history. And when a new family moves into the mansion — which somehow
doesn’t conflict with Marnie’s nighttime presence — Anna is unable to ignore
the uninhibited overtures of their young daughter, Sayaka (Hana Sugisaki).
Particularly when the curious
Sayaka finds Marnie’s diary, hidden in a drawer.
Yonebayashi gives his film a
languid, thoughtful pace, as befits its gentle narrative. But I fear it’ll
resonate almost solely with adolescent girls; young boys likely will sniff
contemptuously and abandon ship within minutes. (Their loss.)
The film has been dubbed for
American release by an all-new cast that includes Hailee Steinfeld (Anna),
Geena Davis (Yoriko), John C. Reilly, Ellen Burstyn and Kathy Bates. Such
high-caliber talent notwithstanding, it’s a mistake, as always has been the case with American dubs of Studio Ghibli films.
The original Japanese voice
actors possess a delicate, reflective cadence that mirrors the films
themselves; their American counterparts are, by comparison, loud, harsh and
overstated. The dubbing simply doesn’t “fit” the atmosphere, and in fact works
against the mood that Yonebayashi and the animators worked so hard to achieve.
So, if these comments have
prompted a rental, be sure to watch the film in its original Japanese, with
English subtitles. The latter aren’t always perfect; as one example, the
subtitles give the frequent response hai
all sorts of translations, apparently based on context, when the actual meaning
— okay — would fit all circumstances.
But since the narrative is driven by tone and visual storytelling as much as
through dialog, it’s easy to get the essential broad strokes.
When Marnie Was There is more melancholic than most
Studio Ghibli productions, but certainly no less absorbing or rewarding. The
storyline is constructed as carefully as the verdant setting and stunning
animation: definitely a worthy Oscar contender.
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