While studio fans Ghibli eagerly awaiting news of the next film from Hayao Miyazaki, one of the studio’s biggest films gets an official live-action sequel. For the most skeptical, the trailer is already here!
An underestimated masterpiece
Major studio of Japanese animation, studio Ghibli has produced many masterpieces over the decades. If we tend to sum up the work of the studio only to that of its most eminent artist, the legendary Hayao Miyazaki (The castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Spirited away), we unfortunately too often forget other major artists, but more discreet, like Isao Takahata (The Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of Princess Kaguya), who co-founded Studio Ghibli with the director of My Neighbor Totoro.
The 90s had also been a sign of opening for the studio, which featured directors other than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Thus, Tomomi Mochizuki has made an animated TV movie that has remained unpublished in France for a long time, I can hear the oceanand Yoshifumi Kondo staged If you listenan adaptation of the eponymous manga by Aoi Hiiragi. Released in 1995 and acclaimed by critics and the public, this film, written by Hayao Miyazaki, is a total success, and the master, about to retire after Princess Mononoke in 1997, wanted to make Kondo his successor. Unfortunately, the 47-year-old director died in 1998 of an aortic dissection (like Kentaro Miura…). A death that deeply shocked Miyazaki, who therefore ended his retirement.
If you listen recount the budding love story between Shizuku Tsukichima, a 14-year-old schoolgirl with a passion for reading, and Amasawa Seiji, a musician, who will help her realize her talent as a writer. If the universe of Yoshifumi Kondo’s film could be extended with the animated film (less successful) The Kingdom of Catsreleased in 2002 and directed by Hiroyuki Morita for Studio Ghibli, it was not strictly speaking a direct sequel, but more of a spin-off with new characters, adapting another manga by Hiiragi.
A sequel 27 years later
However, 27 years after the release of If you listenwe will finally be able to discover the continuation of the adventures of Shizuku and Seiji. Set 10 years after the events of the animated film, this live-action film will tell the reunion of the two main charactersand will pose the question of the possibility of their love story, alternating with flashbacks of their adolescence, as evidenced by the trailer below.
Directed by Yūichirō Hirakawa (The Promised Neverland, erased), this film features Nana Seino and Runa Yasuhara as Shizuku, and Tori Matsuzaka and Tsubasa Nakagawa as Seiji. We also note the presence of Yôko Honna, who lent her voice to Shizuku in If you listen from 1995and who takes care of the voice-over of the live-action film.
Be careful though: if it is indeed the sequel to If you listen, it seems that studio Ghibli is not involved in any way whatsoever in the production of this feature film. The film is produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment and distributed in Japan by Shochiku. Thereby, if Hayao Miyazaki wrote the screenplay for the animated film, it would be futile to look for his paw in this sequel. It is, however, an official sequel, considering that it is presumably an adaptation of the manga Mimi o Sumaseba: Shiawase na Jikan (If you tend the ear: happy times) by Aoi Hiiragi.
Whatever, Studio Ghibli fans will no doubt be delighted to discover the sequel to this 90s masterpiece. In the meantime, did you know that the studio’s first theme park attraction is a tribute to another Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece?