When Marnie Was There (2015)

How sad is this?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Joan G. Robinson's novel "When Marnie Was There" is a favourite of mine and has long enjoyed great popularity in Britain, but I was surprised to learn that it is also known in Japan. The original novel is set in a seaside village in Norfolk, but this animated version transfers the action to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The characters become Japanese rather than English, although the names of the two main characters, Anna and Marnie, have been retained. Rather oddly, Marnie remains a blue-eyed blonde, as she was in the book: Anna is a brunette, but nevertheless has large round blue eyes. Now characters, especially female characters, in anime often look surprisingly Caucasian, even when they are supposed to be Japanese. In this case, however, Marnie is the daughter of an English father and Japanese mother. (There is also an explanation for Anna's blue eyes, but I won't say what it is as that would be to give away too much of the ending).In this version Anna is a shy, withdrawn and introverted girl, probably aged about 12, living in Sapporo with her foster-parents, with whom she has lived ever since her real parents were killed in a car crash and her grandmother died soon afterwards. Because she suffers from asthma, Anna is sent away from the city to live with Mr & Mrs Oiwa, relatives of her stepmother, in a rural seaside town. Anna has always found it difficult to make friends; she feels that all the rest of the world is inside an invisible circle and that she is on the outside. At first does not seem any happier at the seaside than she did in Sapporo, but things change when she meets Marnie, a girl living in a large house by the sea.The two girls form a close friendship, the first either has ever known, but there is something strange about Marnie, who asks Anna to keep their relationship a secret and who seems to appear and disappear mysteriously. Nobody seems to know anything about her or her family, and her house, although obviously once grand, seems dilapidated and abandoned. Anna finds herself wondering whether her new friend is real, or a ghost, or a figment of her imagination. Eventually Marnie seems to disappear for good, but Anna is befriended by another family who have recently arrived in the village, especially their daughter Sayaka, and this leads to the truth about Marnie, and about Anna's own past, eventually being revealed.When I was younger, animated movies always seemed like something specifically American; Disney seemed to have the market in full-length cartoons sewn up. In more recent decades, however, Disney seem to have abandoned the traditional hand-drawn cartoon in favour of computer animation, and their mantle has passed to Japan, particularly Studio Ghibli. The Ghibli style, however, is very different from the Disneys which I used to love as a child- less stylised, more realistic and with more subdued colours. The visual look of "When Marnie Was There" is particularly attractive; I have never been to Hokkaido, but the mountainous landscapes depicted here conjure up the same sort of sense of place which Robinson achieved with her descriptions of the very different Norfolk coast.Much as I love Robinson's book, it does have a couple of minor weaknesses. She never fully explains why Anna is allowed to take so much time off school and what becomes of her biological father after his divorce from her mother. There is perhaps something of a slackening of intensity in the third quarter of the book, between Anna's final meeting with Marnie and the denouement. In the film, however, all these matters are addressed or resolved. Anna's absence from school is explained by her health condition, and Anna's mother is only married once; the man who dies with her in the accident is Anna's father, not her stepfather. The pacing is also better, with no perceptible slackening, possibly because Sayaka, who emerges as Anna's new friend and confidante, is a more well-developed figure than Priscilla, the equivalent character in the book.On the surface, Robinson's novel is a simple tale of the friendship between two young girls, but beneath that surface it is surprisingly deep, tackling the interrelated subjects of loneliness, friendship, bereavement and parental neglect. All of these elements are covered in as much depth in the film version which, I feel, in some respects even manages to improve upon the book. With this film Studio Ghibli have succeeded in the difficult task of taking a story very much rooted in one culture, transferring it to another, very different culture (with only a few minor changes to the plot) and producing something of universal relevance. A beautiful film. 10/10

Obviously I'm one of the few who weren't impressed by this movie. It wasn't that it lacked the fantasy, magical effect; on the contrary, it was quite enjoyable, with the beautiful landscapes and the detailed scenes. However, the story kind of dragged on. I guess it's is mainly me that was bothered by that and in general, this movie is quite good. The story is interesting, though it gets confusing with the way the relationship between the two girls is developed and the fact that Anna, although agreeing that there is something "fishy" about Marnie, on the very next scene she continues on like nothing has happened. Towards the end, things get way too obvious, but at least the ending was good and satisfying, as it didn't left any case unsolved and every story got a happy closure. So, 4 out of 10.

I found out about this Japanese cartoon movie, from Studio Ghibli, mainly because of its inclusion in the Oscar nominations, I was always going to watch this, both to see if I agree with this accolade, and as a fan of many films from the studio. Basically shy 12-year-old Anna Sasaki (Hailee Steinfeld) lives with her foster parents, Yoriko (Geena Davis) and her husband, in Sapporo, she is distant and unhappy, for health reasons she is sent to spend the summer with Yoriko's relatives, Setsu (Grey Griffin) and Kiyomasa Oiwa (John C. Reilly), in a rural seaside town. While there, Anna is fascinated by an abandoned mansion, dilapidated and overgrown, across the marsh, she wonders why it seems familiar to her, it has been empty for a long time, but Anna has visions of the house looking well and people residing in it. One night, following an argument, Anna runs away, she finds a boat and rows across to the mansion, there she is greeted by beautiful, good-natured blonde girl Marnie (Kiernan Shipka), Anna tells her about her dreams, but Marnie assures her she is not dreaming now, they agree to keep meeting in secret, but the next day, when Anna plans to see Marnie, the mansion has returned to its abandoned and dilapidated state. A week later, while sketching, Anna meets older woman Hisako (Vanessa Williams) who paints pictures of the mansion and marsh, she comments that Anna's sketches look like a girl she used to know when she was young, and she used to live in the mansion, which is being renovated for someone moving in. Anna returns to the mansion, she meets a girl named Sayaka (Ava Acres), she discovers Marnie's diary in a drawer, it includes text about a party Anna may have been part of, several pages of the diary are missing. The next day, Marnie reappears and talks to Anna about her parents always travelling abroad, her nanny and two maids and their physical and psychological abuse, Anna wants to help her confront her fear of the silo, where she used to be threatened of being locked in, Anna falls asleep, and is upset to find Marnie has abandoned her in the silo. Meanwhile, Sayaka and her brother finds the missing diary pages, including mention of the silo, they find Anna there in a feverish state, during which she dreams of confronting Marnie, who apologises for leaving her, and telling her she can no longer see her, Marnie begs Anna for forgiveness, Anna vows to remember Marnie as she is swept away by the tide. Anna recovers from her fever, Sayaka shows her the missing pages and a painting Hisako gave to Marnie, Hisako tells them Marnie's story. Marnie married Kazuhiko, who died from an illness, they had a daughter named Emily, Marnie was committed to a psychiatric hospital and Emily was sent to boarding school, when Marnie was released Emily was upset for her abandoning her, she ran away and had a daughter of her own, she and her husband were killed in a car accident, Marnie raised her granddaughter until her death, the girl was put in foster care. It is the end of summer, Yoriko is taking Anna home, she gives Anna a photograph of the mansion that belonged to her grandmother, she realises she is the daughter of Emily and Marnie's granddaughter, this revelation brings Anna closure of her identity, she bids her friends of the town goodbye, and sees the mansion and Marnie one last time as she is taken back home. Also starring Catherine O'Hara as the Elderly Lady, Ellen Burstyn as Nanny and Kathy Bates as Mrs. Kadoya. The cast dubbing the voices into English are all chosen well, it is a fairly simple story of a pubescent tomboy girl unknowingly going back in time to meet the younger version of her relative, it is perhaps more realistic than previous films from the studio, no magical and fantasy elements as such, it hasn't got quite the same charm as these other films, but the animation is fantastic, overall its not a bad animated drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Worth watching!

It is not very manly to say that but honestly I cried a bit while watching it. This movie is very good because the animations are astonishing, the music is very good and fit perfectly in the moment, the main characters feel true, and by that I mean they fit perfectly into their world, and the story is just perfect. BUT if you are going to watch this movie be prepared to feel like crap for 2 to 3 hours after watching it because it is not a light movie and you understand it in the first 30 minutes.Tl;Dr You must watch this movie at least once in your life but be prepared to feel like crap.