Studio Ghibli's 'Whisper of the Heart' Resurfaces as a Guardian Review Highlights Miyazaki's Early Ideas on Art and Creativity

A review published by The Guardian's culture section revisits Whisper of the Heart, a 1995 Studio Ghibli film based on a screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki, describing it as a lesser-known entry in the studio's catalogue that nonetheless engages with themes the director would return to in later, more celebrated films.

According to the review, the film follows Shizuku, an aspiring schoolgirl writer voiced by Yōko Honna, as she navigates the early stages of adulthood. The Guardian notes that the story functions as what it calls "an earnest pep talk on how to commit to the artistic life," a theme the reviewer says Miyazaki would later revisit with greater sophistication in 2013's The Wind Rises and 2023's The Boy and the Heron.

The review states that the film is not as nuanced in its treatment of the relationship between imagination and reality as Miyazaki's later, more acclaimed works, though it credits the film with an inventive use of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which the reviewer describes as a soundtrack favorite of the 2010s. Per the review, Shizuku performs the song for a school event, writing satirical Japanese lyrics that poke fun at Tokyo's "concrete roads."

The Guardian's account describes the film's romantic plot as unfolding alongside Shizuku's literary development. She reportedly notices that the name Seiji Amasawa repeatedly appears on library borrowing lists she checks, which the review says feels like a sign of fate pointing her toward a romantic match. The narrative is further advanced, according to the review, when a cat described as "curmudgeonly" leads her to a curio shop near the library in a manner she perceives as resembling a scene from a story.

The review situates the 1995 film within Miyazaki's broader body of work, suggesting that while it lacks the artistic complexity of his later films, it demonstrates that questions about creative responsibility and commitment to art were present in his screenwriting from an early stage in his career.