Plot
Schoolgirl Shizuku Tsukishima lives in Tokyo, Japan with her parents Asako and Seiya. She is a bookworm and is keen on writing. One evening, she looks through the checkout cards in her library books. She notices they have all been checked out by the same person - someone named Seiji Amasawa. Over the next few days, Shizuku encounters a tall, annoying boy.
Shizuku finds a cat riding a train and follows it, discovering an antique shop run by Shiro Nishi. At the shop is a cat statuette, "The Baron." The tall boy is the grandson of Nishi. Shizuku's friend Yuko Harada is interested in Sugimura, a sports-playing boy in the same class as the girls. Sugimura inadvertently upsets Yuko, as he has no idea Yuko likes him. Later, Shizuku and Sugimura have a falling out; Sugimura reveals that he likes Shizuku, but it is impossible, as Yuko is Shizuku's best friend.
Shizuku goes into depression and heads to the antique shop. While there, she sings Take Me Home, Country Roads accompanied by the tall boy and Shiro, and discovers that the tall boy and Seiji Amasawa are the same person. Shizuku and Seiji become close. However, Seiji is learning to make violins to follow his dream as a master luthier. Days after the two meet, Seiji leaves for Cremona, Italy, for a two month trial with a master violin-maker. Devastated but resolute, Shizuku wants to test her talents as well. Discussing with Yuko, she decides to pursue her writing seriously during the two months. She asks Nishi if she can write about The Baron, which once had a female companion statuette, Louise.
As Shizuku begins to tell her story while walking home, she dreams of a fantasy sequence featuring The Baron. Devoting her time to her writing, Shizuku eats snack food, stays up until 4:00 a.m., and her school grades drop. The next fantasy sequence depicts Shizuku dreaming about Louise and the arrival of the fairytale's villain. Shizuku, her older sister Shiho, and Seiya and Asako argue over Shizuku's grades. Shizuku dreams the third and last part of her story; however, it turns into a nightmare. Meanwhile, Nishi dreams about the lost love of his youth arriving at his door. As the dream finishes, Shizuku arrives at his door. With her story complete, Shizuku delivers the manuscript to Nishi.
After Nishi reads Shizuku's writing, she breaks down in tears. Consoling her with noodles, Nishi explains that Seiji needed considerably more noodles after Seiji made his first violin. Nishi reveals to Shizuku that he and his first love, Louise, were students in Germany; they discovered the cat statuettes in a cafe. The two young people and the two cat statuettes were separated during World War II.
Deciding she wants to attend high school to learn more about writing, Nishi drives Shizuku home and she tells Asako her trials are over "for now." The next morning, she discovers Seiji below on his bicycle. He has returned a day early, and decided to finish high school before going to go to Cremona to become a luthier. They ride his bike to a lookout and watch the sun rise over the city, where Seiji proposes future marriage to Shizuku and profess his love for her to which she happily accepts.
Read more about this topic: Whisper Of The Heart (film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Ends in themselves, my letters plot no change;
They carry nothing dutiable; they won’t
Aspire, astound, establish or estrange.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)