Nothing new, another spoiler review
Welcome to the countryside! The air is clean, the grass is green; community is tightly-knit in this open expanse where the appreciation of nature is commonplace, its hospitality free of charge. Abounding in agriculture, the sprouts of familial love fully grown. A place to escape the suffocating crowded town where inclusivity is hard-earned, such that loneliness befriends kids in the outer sphere. Simultaneously, a haven to recuperate, where one can breathe life from the energy stored in all that's around us, connecting us to our definite homes.
Sounds like many other Studio Ghibli stories, huh. Undeniably, When Marnie Was There is not an exception of having the staple nostalgic Ghibli air making up the atmospheric elements of the film. Very much grounded and light, it felt most reminiscent to older creations of the studio such as Totoro and Only Yesterday. However, what separates it from many others in the catalogue, to me personally, is its use of a contemporary aspect in storytelling execution blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, made more bewildering due to the absolutely normal-looking setting where only the mansion was even a bit incongruous; but that's really not enough to set up an environment that is in itself leaning on fantastical. Because of that imbalance dancing together with harmony, When Marnie Was There was--especially in my first watch--a full-blown fever dream.
The story goes as follows: young and sick Sasaki Anna who lost her parents and therefore living together with foster ones experiences struggles relatable to many children of our generation: the foreboding darkness of the future resulting from being outcast made less escapable by introversion, the loneliness that comes with it, stacked further from awareness of one's physical ails pushing their inner thoughts to conclude that one is a burden deserving this suffering. She uses art--specifically visual art in the form of drawing--to capture life as she sees it from the outside.
This is an important point to note as we progress the movie with doubt of our sight's visual perceptions.
After a doctor's recommendation, Anna's surrogate parents sent her to live with relatives in the countryside for the time being. Passed around and moved from place to place once again. In the countryside she spends the time in remote tranquility idly by, until she stumbles upon the majesty of the Marsh House where she eventually discovers and interacts with a mysterious Marnie who blatantly expresses her earnest longing for Anna whom she never even met before in that point in the story. Together they get to know more about each other as they dance around the gardens barefoot in the moonlight, partake in late day picnics, and rowing wooden boats to and fro.
Already questions emerge like an array of jacks-in-the-box upon Marnie's appearance in the previously old abandoned mansion. Overtime, as weird occurrences interject between their interactions such as their sudden departures like a fading of the dream, one continues to stare at the movie in bewilderment (I'm looking at you, silo scene). And it is not only until the very end, in Marnie's reveal as Anna's grandmother, that things immediately gather around in a one big "OHHHHHHHHHHH" moment born from its immense recontextualization of Anna and Marnie's bonding in present time. Prior to that, we coincide with Anna's confusion at this mysterious turn of events amidst the ordinary wetlands of Hokkaido.
Marnie's childhood and her drive to shatter generational trauma by striving to become a great parent despite her lapses and exhaustion, her bonding with the infant Anna until she leaves this world for the next, was to say the least, heartbreaking.
And I'd just like to mention how grateful I am of the existence of fictional stories. It is inseparable with an individual's reality, and depending on recent circumstances, experiencing one would be akin to the awe in seeing up-close all the stars aligning. And even in the domain of the story itself, the reveal clicked all the right buttons and completed all the puzzle pieces so satisfyingly.
I watched this movie back in the week where we heard my grandmother from a city hours away, with travel heavily halted as it was the peak of the pandemic, was hospitalized, and I just chose a Ghibli film on my list to distract myself with the comfort of staple nostalgia. It was a blind decision; I knew nothing about this. But fate had it appropriate for me to meet this piece, and it truly made for an unforgettable experience. When Marnie Was There allowed me to connect with my grandmother miles away in the form of memories--warm, gentle memories. Scent, sight, all of my sensory mechanisms were heightened to their utmost such that I was essentially reliving the past inside her home. Thus manifests the power of fiction, allowing one to create a world and transport itself into it, time and place neither an obstacle of preclusion.
Although the voice acting direction definitely needs improvement as I cannot deny it fluctuated the atmosphere of critical moments a few times, it is not enough of an impediment in embracing any ailing mortal with familial love. The sound design spouses the visual makeup seamlessly like key to a lock in virtualizing an environment wherein the viewer could physically bask in the setting of the movie, complete with its constituents, as if we are wrapped in a full-body green screen but with it directly influencing all of our senses to live in that virtual world. At least, that was the degree of resonance that I felt. The director's aim towards psychological healing through the help of the environment extends even beyond the characters on the screen; I, the viewer outside the screen, was myself healed by the environment. Portrayed so vividly, I could not help but succumb to my yearning of the peaceful countryside away from the toxins of the city I've lived in all my life (which, although I do not hate, still does not stop me from wishing for a change of pace), and drown in the relaxing spa massage of nostalgia and longing. In technical qualities, it did not fall short.
And it is just the way in which the story was told, filled with so much fun and beauty from pleasant animation adorning the author's message of a loved one's presence being everywhere. The use of nature and its ubiquity is in accordance with the existence of people. Despite the clutches of death stopping their heart from beating, in the realm of the mind's subjectivity, they never cease to be. The mind is so powerful so as to be capable of conjuring the abstract and putting it into the jar of concreteness. We as humans gifted with mental capacities are able to be creators of virtually anything we could think of. The many mediums of art unlock our potential to do so. I reiterate once again Anna's talent in drawing. Despite her asthma and depression, with the help of the environment stirring up her memories of Marnie, Anna was able to tap into her enhanced imagination to be together with her grandmother once again. Of course, these were all metaphorical in basically telling us about connecting with people we deem special and the genuine love our families hold for us, but in the context of the film, it still adds to the coherence of its storytelling.
I cannot stress its creativity in adopting such message and turning it into something more beautiful than it is. It made for a more inspiring tale. When Marnie "was" there turned, for Anna, when Marnie "is" there beside her, as she goes through a journey to connect the past together with the present.
An additional note, "Fine On the Outside" was a perfect sendoff. The soundtrack actually became my number one playlist on Spotify Wrapped back in 2021. Bless Muramatsu Takatsugu for those enchanting compositions I could always fall back to when the waves start crashing. All hits, no misses, my good sir.
When Marnie Was There film converges souls long separated by life and death in unification through memories, reviving what has laid to rest, in elaborate attempts to de-nourish the roots of the scars permeating all around a young, lonely girl through the revitalizing vigor the love of a caring family member holds by bestowing upon the resurrected a chance to transmit the beauty of life to the living in the form of innocent youth. When Marnie Was There is a reconnection, with people and the environment, calming the chaos running rampant within from the frustrations of loneliness and general ails. A healing movie I'm glad to have rewatched.
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