Ocean Waves Review
I was unsure of what to write for this website. I tried out a couple of different themes and styles for an article, but having said I’d write something about four weeks ago I hurried up and settled on a standard review. Being in the middle or near the end of three or four current shows I thought I’d wait to write a round up of them in a few weeks and instead critique a film I saw recently.
‘Ocean Waves [Umi ga Kikoeru/I Can Hear the Sea]’ is a lesser known Studio Ghibli production and as such was only released on DVD in the UK this January despite originally airing in 1993. The film was made for television and direction was passed over to non Ghibli director, Tomomi Mochizuki. The production was designed as an experiment for the younger staff to produce high quality animation quickly and cheaply, but the project over-ran and exceeded budget. Tomomi himself was already committed to directing the ‘Here is Greenwood’ OAV series with another studio, but because of his passion for the Ocean Waves novel he worked on both titles at the same time and was hospitalized during production suffering from stress after overworking.
Based on the novel by Saeko Himuro, Ocean Waves is a coming of age drama concerning the story of two friends and a new transfer student at their school. The protagonist, Taku, narrates most of the story on a flight home from university. He attends high school in a small seaside town with his best friend Yutaka. When beautiful female classmate, Rikako, transfers to their school Yutaka is asked to show her around school and the local area and soon he falls for her. Later, on their school trip to Hawaii, Rikako borrows a large sum of money from Taku under false pretences. She uses the money to travel to Tokyo to see her estranged father, whilst Taku ends up accompanying her. During the trip Rikako realises new things about herself and her current attitudes. Before they leave high school to attend different colleges and universities the friends fall out over various disagreements. Their differences are only resolved when they return to town a year later for a class reunion. Read more »
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