What went wrong with the live-action adaptation of Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば)

Warning: This is a spoiler-filled rant about some of the things that I felt were wrong with the live-action adaptation of Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば). (Update 18 October 2022: I read the original manga and this post has been updated to reflect my thoughts after reading the manga.)

Shizuku has been pursuing her dream of becoming a writer for 10 years. In the movie, she has been trying and trying, sending in story after story to writing competitions but never winning anything. Well, most people would have given up; of course, that makes for a bad story. But Shizuku holding onto her dream after 10 years could have been handled differently. For example, after graduating from junior high school, she could have been so caught up with her studies, and then finding a job, that she put writing aside and only recently remembered her dream when she heard that Seiji is releasing his first (joint) album. Or, she could have been writing and writing and failing, but then, there needs to be a reason why she never gave up. That reason never really came up in the movie, but if a proper reason was given, it would have been more believable.

Seiji's fellow celloist is supposed in love with him. The problem though, is that this celloist is someone who is at the top of her game, good enough to cut an album with Seiji and the other two fellow celloists in their quartet. A person needs a certain resolve to keep practising to reach this height. It is thus very unlikely that she would keep her feelings for Seiji hidden all this while, and only tell him when Shizuku comes visiting. Of course, she could have been afraid of losing their professional relationship if she were to be rejected. If that was the case, I don't think Shizuku's visit would matter, since the possibility of losing the professional relationship is still there. There is also no real reason for her love interest in the story. It does nothing to propel the story forward. If the director needed a reason to send Shizuku back to Japan, there are many other possibilities that are more believable. And no need to send her back crying. I mean, she could go to Italy, refresh and reaffirm her resolve after meeting Seiji, and return to Japan fresh and ready to try again. So this entire "I love Seiji" scene was basically meaningless.

There was a scene when Seiji's grandfather was trying to cheer up 25-year-old Shizuku, telling her to cup her ears and listen to her heart. That scene looked... weird. I mean, it was like the old man was talking to a child, but Shizuku is not 10 years old, she not even 15 years old. She is a 25-year-old lady now and treating her like a child is just weird. Yes, I can see the point of an elderly giving advice to the younger generation. But the way it was done was like talking down to a child, and Shizuku was an adult.

Oh, and Shizuku's ex-classmate Sugimura (in the movie, he is getting married to girlfriend Yuko) continuing to act like a teenager even when 25 years old is just outright annoying. I don't understand why the director needs to make adults act like children. Then again, he was the same director who made Emma into a 16-year-old character in the live-action adaptation of The Promised Neverland and still made her act like a 12-year-old girl. But in The Promised Neverland, Emma just looked like a naive teenager. Here, Shizuku and Sugimura are naive adults. It is not just unbelievable, but annoying and irritating and basically weakens the entire story.

 

In the first place, this live-action adaptation was more faithful in adapting the manga while trying to take some elements from the anime adaptation. For those who may not know, the anime adaptation is actually not a faithful adaptation of the manga. It took the main gist of the manga's story, and came up with a more consistent and complete story that brings together time and space, creating characters that people can empathise with and a story of growing up. The reason is because the original manga was actually not very well received when it was serialised, ending after four chapters (gone in four months, since it was published in a monthly publication back in 1989). The anime, however, was a hit. But instead of trying to build on the anime for the live-action adaptation, somehow, the producers decided to base their adaptation on the original, not-well-received manga. Yes, they did take some of the elements from the anime, not a lot, like probably only the music part, but that initial step of basing on the manga was probably the worst decision that could have been made. Why would you choose to adapt something that no one liked? So that even more people will not like your movie? 😕🤔❓❓❓

We all have dreams, and growing up, we all have dreams that we have given up on. If this movie could have made some effort to reach out to the viewers so that we can empathise with the characters and story, the story would have been so much more stronger. Instead, we are given a movie where you cannot empathise with the characters nor the story, characters act in ways that do not fit their supposed ages or background. You don't feel the uplifting message of pursuing dreams until they are realized. The anime adaptation gave more than enough hints on how to do a proper adaptation of the story. I am really amazed at how someone can mess this up in such an epic way.