When Marnie Was There (2014): Joseph A. Sobora's Movie Review

Hey folks, Joseph A. Sabara here, just to kick off the new year with a new movie review this week. It's called When Marnie Was There. It's based on a novel by Joan G. Robinson, and it's also considered to be the last film to be released by Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animated film. The English version stars Haley Steinfeld, who's been best known for playing that role in the remake of True Grit. She went on to do films like Ender's Game, and of course she's now a singer. She even sang that song called Love Myself. Kiernan Shipka, Ava Akers, Vanessa Williams, singer and actress, has been in a lot of films such as Soul Food, Eraser, even the TV show Ugly Betty. Katherine O'Hara, always been best known for movies like Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and The Fly, and all the rest of the films she's been in. John C. Reilly, Grey D. Lissell, who's a voice actress, known for doing voice acting as Emily Elizabeth in Clifford the Big Red Dog, and several other shows she's been in. Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Bates, and Rene Rodriguez, you know, from Paul Clark's Mall Cop, and that TV show that's on the Disney Channel. The Japanese version stars Sara Tosuki, Kasumi Amura, Hatami Kuroki, Ryoko Monoyama, Noko Muzuhima, Susumi Teruyuma, Tohoshi Nijishi, Kosako Yoshiyuki, and Ken Yosada, and is co-written and directed by Hermasa Yonibarashi. The movie begins when a 12-year-old girl named Anna Sasaki who lives in Sapporo with her foster parents Yoriko and her husband, until one day at school, Anna had suddenly collapsed from an asthma attack, so her parents decided to take her during the summer to spend time with Yoriko's relatives, Setsu and Koyasamasa Awa, which they live in a rural seaside town that's located between Koshiro and Nambaru, where the air is perfectly clear, so that way she gets to breathe again. Anna had brought in the sketchbook just so she could start drawing a lot of pictures while she was there. Of course, both of them had brought her in inside a small car where they brought in a lot of stuff, almost crushing her, so they wound up driving her all the way downtown, into the seaside town that's already been filled with potholes and everything. But back to this, she discovers an abandoned mansion that's located across the salt march, just so she can investigate, because once she looks around, she discovers that the whole mansion seems very familiar with her, until she was trapped by a rising tide and was saved by an old fisherman named Tachi. Already being rescued with his rowboat, they went back across the water. Anna sees the house for a moment to find out that it's being under repairs, and it's been empty for a very long time. But then one night, Anna had a dream that suddenly a blonde girl, who just had her hair combed by an old woman, she woke up, finding out that the whole thing might be a dream, or what seems to be. So then on the night of the Tanabata festival, where she was already getting ready, and suddenly a fat girl actually started making fun of her, saying that she had beautiful blue eyes. She called her a fat pig, and she ran off. Once she discovers a rowboat that's across the march, she rows up just to get to the mansion, until suddenly she discovers the blonde girl that she appeared in her dreams. Her name was Marnie. So Marnie had assured that Anna, even though it was the same girl that's in her dream, she even realized that she may not be dreaming after all. So the two of them decided to keep themselves a secret, so that way they'd be able to meet each other throughout the entire week or so. During the next day, Annie and Marnie had decided to have a picnic during the sunset. By going on a rowboat, they're just rolling around, and then they went into an area so they can be able to have the picnic. They're already eating some food and drinking some juice, and they're telling them about their secrets of what Marnie was doing, and what Anna was doing and all that. But then she collapsed, until she was woken up a few hours ago. Marnie decided to invite Anna to a party at the mansion, where the house was filled with guests. Marnie decided to disguise Anna as a flower girl, which, surprisingly enough, all the guests decided to give her money. She ran off, and then one guy actually gave her a glass of wine. She drank it, and she had a disgusted look on her face because of what she tasted. So she went outside, after she discovered that Marnie was with a boy, they're dancing together already, because then after she came back, Marnie had told Anna that that was her friend, and it was her childhood friend all this time. So Marnie decided to teach Anna how to dance, and they were dancing throughout the entire night in that very beautiful scene. Then all of a sudden, the townspeople had found Anna being woken up at the post office. So then, when she returns to the mansion, it appears that the whole place was abandoned again. So one week later, she was sitting on the shore, sketching on her sketchbook. Anna suddenly meets Asako, an older woman who paints pictures, which the picture of the house turned out to be the mansion, as we know it, but then Asako comments that Anna's sketches look like the girl she really knew. Yep, it was a drawing of Marnie. So then, suddenly, Anna decided to find out some secrets about Marnie by actually going into a girl named Sakiya, who lives in a beautiful house, and that's where Sakiya actually brought in Marnie's diary, that's already been hidden inside the mansion, that includes the accounts of the party with the flower girl, but several of the pages have been missing, so that's when they're trying to keep some secrets that's happening, because part of this might be either Anna's imagination, or it just all of a sudden turned out to be real. So of course, the next day, Marnie had finally appeared, they wound up talking about their secrets, Anna talks about her secret about, since she is with her foster parents, that they're actually having some money problems, and they're trying harder to actually pay for her, while Marnie, however, was talking about how her parents had left her, suddenly she wants to stay in with the housemaids and the nanny, who wants to physically be abusing her, completely, so now we know what Anna felt about what was it like, the way Marnie's been treated. So, Sakuya has found the missing pages from Marnie's diary, but then Anna decided to talk about that later, and Anna and Marnie wound up going all the way up to the silo, where she was being frightened, and already, because it was raining that day, so the two actually stayed behind, you know, they covered themselves, just so they can get away from the noise that she's been hearing, and then when Anna had woke up, she found out that Marnie was gone, so she tries to find her throughout the entire land, until she collapsed, already with a high fever, as they found her, and so she winds up in bed for a little while, she had a dream about what Marnie did, and that's when we begin to find out the real truth about Marnie, which I'm not going to give it away. And this was a wonderful, beautiful, and very sad story, that's based on the Joan G. Robertson novel, and I gotta say, Ghibli did a great job adapting it, because the animation, just like all the other Studio Ghibli films, including ones that Hayao Miyazaki had directed, was strikingly, visually, beautiful, and definitely out of this world, because with that kind of animation, it's like you're living in a fantasy world, without a doubt, and I've been a big fan of his work ever since, yeah, I know I mentioned this in The Secret World of Variety, and all the rest of the other films he did, but you already know that. It's very sad too, because this was indeed the final film that Studio Ghibli has ever released, even after Miyazaki's retirement, which I know he's been saying that a lot, but this time I think he really mean it, although I've been hearing a lot of reports that he might be back once again, but I don't know if that's ever gonna happen, but either way, you know, since they just released The Tale of Princess Kaguya before this, they were trying to figure out what film they were gonna release last, because they were under a hiatus for a while, and I haven't seen that film yet though, but it's already available on Blu-ray and DVD. I just saw the Japanese version with English subtitles, so I didn't see the English dubbed version yet, but I'll check it out again, maybe when I buy the Blu-ray and DVD, since it's already available, and for when Marty was there. But back to this, I thought it had a great story about what was it like if a young girl like Anna had once up staying over during the summer at the Seaside Town, and suddenly discovers a mansion that has a little girl inside, a beautiful blonde girl named Marnie, and together they wind up going around, hanging around together. Yeah, actually doing all these fun activities by going on a picnic, you know, rowing on the rowboats, actually going inside the mansion, doing exactly what she's been doing when she was young, something that you never thought you would see, even though it was sort of part of Anna's imagination, or what seems to be, but I gotta say, having to experience that was just one true fantasy, especially when you have to find out the mysteries behind it. It had a wonderful score by Takasuku Morimatsu, I think I said it right, I don't know. He did a great job with the score. There was a singer named Priscilla Ahn, who sang that one song, I believe at the end credits, called Fine on the Outside. I never thought I would hear that. And yeah, I love the chemistry between the two, I thought it worked. It's definitely a true meaning of what was it like, and this actually did happen. I thought Marnie was just the most beautiful, blonde, young girl that I've ever saw. Definitely helped Anna out, having discovered what was happening. It worked. I love all the other characters, too, including Anna's aunts, an uncle named Setsu and Koyasamasa. Yeah, they go around bickering and all this other stuff, they're just hanging around. That was cool. Seems like they were great together. And I just love the look of the movie. I love the mysteries that they have to solve in order to get to it. I just really love this film so much. But yeah, I'm glad I put this on my list of the best movies of 2015, because this is the film that everybody needs to watch, no matter what. Because considering this is the final film from them, it did a very good job. But yet, it did have some solid voice acting from the cast, and I know the English dub versions would definitely have that, too. So it matches the dialogue, and it worked. But anyway, I truly recommend this movie for those who love Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, and all these Japanese animated films that you just love so much. Because this is one true fantasy that you'll never forget. So I give When Marnie Was There five stars. I'm Joseph A. Saburo, and I'll see you later. Bye!