Whisper of the Heart
Shizuku is a book-mad schoolgirl working on a Japanese translation of the lyrics to John Denver's 'Take Me Home Country Roads'. At the start of the movie she notices that every book she borrows from the library has already been booked out to someone called Seiji. On the bus to the library one day she notices a cat riding the bus alone. When it gets off at her stop she follows it to an antique shop, where she meets the owner and his grandson Seiji, the person who had been borrowing the library books. Seiji is an aspiring violin maker and wants to go to Italy to pursue his craft. Just as Shizuku starts to fall for him he gets his wish and moves to Italy, but Shizuku takes Seiji's dedication as the inspiration to write her first novel. As subject matter she chooses the adventures of 'The Baron' - a statue in the antique shop, of a top-hat wearing cat.








Language: English subtitled / English dub / Japanese
Country of Origin: Japan
Alternate Title: Mimi wo sumaseba (Japan)
Youko Honna | ... Shizuku |
Kazuo Takahashi | ... Seiji |
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi | ... The Baron |
Keiju Kobayashi | ... Seiji's grandfather |
Yorie Yamashita | ... Shiho |
Mayumi Iizuka | ... Kinuyo |
Brittany Snow Shizuku Tsukishima | ... Shizuku Tsukishima |
David Gallagher | ... Seiji |
Cary Elwes | ... The Baron |
Harold Gould | ... Nishi |
Courtney Thorne-Smith | ... Shiho |
While not a sequel, 'The Cat Returns' is a spin-off from 'Whisper of the Heart'. Unfortunately Disney recently released 'The Cat Returns' first.
Licencing rights to the movie were held up for years because of a dispute over the use of 'Take Me Home Country Roads', however the film is slated for Australian release in 2005, and the buzz is that the US release might also be this year.