Ocean Waves

A minor Studio Ghibli film, Ocean Waves is a brief but entertaining affair from the production house that gave us such classics as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

Taku Morisaki and Yutaka Matsuno are confirmed life-long friends when their high school reneges on a promise to take the senior class on a once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii. The boys are the only ones who continue a protest against the school governors that results in a dual detention.

The boys find their friendship tested when they both fall for the same girl, Rikako Muto, recently arrived from Tokyo who carries with her an air of sophistication. The boys hail from the city of Kochi, on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four major islands that comprise Japan and much of the culture clash derives from the archaic contraction that those from Shikoku and in some way inferior. Yet for all of its trappings of youthful yearnings, there is a pointed adult theme of loss permeating proceedings and as Rikako complains that the first day of her period sometimes hospitalises her due to anaemia and each of the main characters slap and punch each other (hard) during the proceedings, we know we’re not in the safe world of Pixar, even though that animating house has found a more recent mature tone.

This older Ghibli (made in 1993) is certainly not in the same league as the aforementioned classics and pointedly this was first from the stable not to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Though the soundtrack is somewhat cloying (and is a solitary musical bar away from inciting The Beatles legal team to launch an assault for ripping off Eleanor Rigby), this is a worthwhile addition to any Ghibli-ites collection.



Released on DVD on 25th January 2010 by Optimum Asia.

Written by Simon Cole.