Whisper of the Heart

Shizuku, a fourteen-year-old girl, lives with her father (Yasunari), an older brother, her mother (Asako), and also has an older sister (Shiho).

Shizuku (who loves to read) finds out that somebody named Seiji has borrowed the same books from the library that she has borrowed.

She has also been busy writing new lyrics to the song "Country Roads." She meets with her friend who tells her she has received a love letter from someone in a different class.

She forgets her book and goes back to get it, but finds some guy reading it. He even makes fun of her lyrics. Her older sister gets home and the two don't get along very well, with her older sister bossing Shizuku around.

Shizuku has to take her father's bento to him at the library. She gets on a train and ends up being joined by a cat with one purple ear. It gets off at the same train station as she does and she follows it for a considerable distance.

She follows it all the way to a fascinating store.

Once inside the store, she finds what appears to be the statue of a cat. The owner of the store appears and makes a repair to a magnificent old clock. It has moving dwarf-figure inside it, a fairy that appears at the top and other wonders.

There are also the to-be-expected romantic problems, especially involving Shizuku's friend and the boy she's interested in but doesn't have a clue about what's going on. It gets worse because he's in love with Shizuku. She tells him she's not interested in him that way, though.

She goes back to the store but it's closed. The one guy she got mad at earlier shows up and it turns out his grandfather is the one who owns the store. She looks at a statue of a cat called The Baron.

She finds out that the boy makes violins and can even play the violin. One of the best parts of the entire film is when Shizuku is singing "Country Roads", the boy is playing the violin and they end up being joined by his grandfather and two other men in a jam session.

When the song is finished she finds out the boys name is Seiji, the same one who had been checking out the same library books she had been reading. Later at school he tells her that he will soon be leaving for Italy to study violin-making and will not be going to high school after all.

Shizuku gets very depressed, especially since Seiji (in her opinion) is better at everything than she is, so she decides to write a story. She has a wonderful talk with Seiji's grandfather who gives her some excellent advice.

Then there's a section where she imagines the Baron showing her a variety of quite fascinating things. She then goes to the library to do some research to help her write her story and Seiji later joins her. He tells her he's leaving the next day and will be gone for two months. (If he passes the initial examinations, he may end up returning to study in Italy for ten years.)

Then there's another section of the story she is working on, this time with the Baron explaining his origin.

Things begin to get bad, though, when Shizuku begins staying up till four in the morning writing and not paying attention in class. Her mother gets called in by the school and she finds out that her daughter's schoolwork has gone down considerably. Her sister gets on her case strongly, but her parents are more understanding.

When she finishes the story she takes it to Seiji's grandfather who reads it and tells her that its great; it just needs some tightening up, that's all. Seiji gets back from his trip to Italy and he proposes to her (for when they get older, of course).

Soundtrack to the movie