Whisper of the Heart is an entrancing and heartfelt masterpiece written by Studio Ghibli co-founder Miyazaki Hayao, the creative genius behind Spirited Away, and directed by Princess Mononoke animation director, Kondo Yoshifumi .

Tsukishima Shizuku is a bit of a book-worm, spending her last summer vacation in junior high school reading and translating popular foreign music into Japanese.

With aspirations to one day become a writer, Shizuku can't help but notice that the name Amasawa Seiji appears on every one of the books she borrows from the library. Through a series of curious and magical incidents, she comes to meet Seiji and discovers he has dreams of becoming a famous violinmaker in Italy. While their lifelong goals pull them in two different directions, Shizuku and Seiji are determined to remain true to their strong feelings for one another.

'With its wonderful marriage of dreamlike flights of fancy and touching rite of passage, Whisper of the Heart could bring a tear to a glass eye. Delightfully animated with a keenly observed attention to detail, Kondo's film respectably sits amongst the studio's canon of some of the most heartfelt and technically brilliant animation ever made the world over. Inspirational.' -Midnight Eye

D Kondo Yoshifumi P Suzuki Toshio S Miyazaki Hayao WS Studio Ghibli L Japanese w/English subtitles TD 35mm/Col/1995/111mins

Kondo Yoshifumi was born in Niigata, Japan in 1950. Films: Whisper of the Heart (MIFF 2004).