Trailer
Genres
Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Drama, Family
Summary
Anna, a young girl living in Sapporo, Japan is having trouble fitting in. Due to her sudden asthma attacks, a doctor suggests that Anna should move somewhere more relaxing, away from the city. After moving to the countryside with her aunt and uncle, separated from her mother, she spends her time walking around the area and sketching. She finds herself drawn to an abandoned house across the water, which can only be walked to during low tide. It is there that she meets Marnie. Although she finds Marnie to be the first kid her age that she gets along with, there is something mysterious about her. Marnie even tells Anna to keep her a secret from the town. Anna has trouble remembering things, and even blacks out. How are these things related to Marnie? Just who is this strange girl?
Thoughts
To start with, When Marnie Was There was an absolutely stunning masterpiece. Studio Ghibli never fails to please its audiences with it's amazing storytelling techniques and gorgeous animations. Though the film started off slowly, I guarantee it will leave you in tears by the end. I loved how I could really connect with the main character, Anna, and get a sense of how isolated she feels from those around her. This is evident when she stated the following, “In this world, there’s an invisible magic circle. There's inside, and there's outside.” From this quote, the audience can clearly see where Anna stands in this "invisible magic circle" and we can really empathize with her as she watches her classmates play together at recess while she sits alone and sketches. This is expected as we know that Anna is a foster child who lost her parents at a young age.
Like most of Studio Ghibli's films, the story unravels as the main character goes to a new place. We follow Anna as she moves to the countryside to get away from the city for a while and have some time to reconnect with herself. As the audience we come to learn quite early on in the film that Anna is suffering from depression. She simply hates herself and feels isolated from the world around her. She wants to have friends but whenever she tries to make friends she always ends up 'scaring' them away. Like when she tried to make friends with the countryside girls at the lantern festival, she ended up insulting one of the girls and hurting her feelings instead. Likewise, the film focuses on Anna making her first friend. She meets Marnie at a large mansion across the water where she sketches. Marnie seems strange at first and a bit mysterious, but despite that they become great friends. What I love about the friendship between Marnie and Anna is that they don't have to know everything about each other to be friends. They accept and support each other. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I love how the filmmakers use this bone-chilling technique of adding in mystery to the movie. The feeling of being at the edge of your seat and wanting to know more as the mystery slowly unravels. As the movie progressed, Anna had to solve the mystery of who Marnie really was. During this process we see Anna trying to piece together all the clues, but at the same time we see Anna piecing herself together and really finding out who she really is as a person as well. By the end of the movie, Anna comes to love herself and we get to see the profound character development of Anna and Marnie.
Nonetheless, the movie definitely demonstrated some powerful techniques involving mystery and meaningful lessons as well. It was a refreshing change for a Studio Ghibli film to follow the story of an isolated character trying to find her place in the world by unlocking the mysteries her past and trying new things. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who knows someone with depression or suffers from it themselves as it really helped me confront a friend who had depression. When a person has depression, they can feel similar to how Anna felt at the beginning of the movie. She felt lost, isolated, alone, and different from everyone else. She lacked self-confidence and energy to keep trying to make new friends, but with the help of Marnie, she learned to love herself in the end and really break away from her past. Overall, it was an excellent film!
Like most of Studio Ghibli's films, the story unravels as the main character goes to a new place. We follow Anna as she moves to the countryside to get away from the city for a while and have some time to reconnect with herself. As the audience we come to learn quite early on in the film that Anna is suffering from depression. She simply hates herself and feels isolated from the world around her. She wants to have friends but whenever she tries to make friends she always ends up 'scaring' them away. Like when she tried to make friends with the countryside girls at the lantern festival, she ended up insulting one of the girls and hurting her feelings instead. Likewise, the film focuses on Anna making her first friend. She meets Marnie at a large mansion across the water where she sketches. Marnie seems strange at first and a bit mysterious, but despite that they become great friends. What I love about the friendship between Marnie and Anna is that they don't have to know everything about each other to be friends. They accept and support each other. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I love how the filmmakers use this bone-chilling technique of adding in mystery to the movie. The feeling of being at the edge of your seat and wanting to know more as the mystery slowly unravels. As the movie progressed, Anna had to solve the mystery of who Marnie really was. During this process we see Anna trying to piece together all the clues, but at the same time we see Anna piecing herself together and really finding out who she really is as a person as well. By the end of the movie, Anna comes to love herself and we get to see the profound character development of Anna and Marnie.
Nonetheless, the movie definitely demonstrated some powerful techniques involving mystery and meaningful lessons as well. It was a refreshing change for a Studio Ghibli film to follow the story of an isolated character trying to find her place in the world by unlocking the mysteries her past and trying new things. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who knows someone with depression or suffers from it themselves as it really helped me confront a friend who had depression. When a person has depression, they can feel similar to how Anna felt at the beginning of the movie. She felt lost, isolated, alone, and different from everyone else. She lacked self-confidence and energy to keep trying to make new friends, but with the help of Marnie, she learned to love herself in the end and really break away from her past. Overall, it was an excellent film!
What is Redemption?
Redemption is the act of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt. When Marnie Was There has a profound amount of redemption as we see Anna's character develop throughout the film as well as Marnie's character as well.
At the beginning of the film, we see the protagonist, Anna, as a reclusive and introverted person struggling to find the confidence to fit in with others and love herself. However, as the movie progresses we see Anna's character develop into a confident person that can put others before herself. We also see her become more enthusiastic in her everyday life. She becomes excited to help her Aunt pick tomatoes, and go sketching in the field by the marsh. She starts to look forward to and cherish each day without even realizing that she's slowly breaking away from her depression. She learns to make friends and reconnect with her family as well.
Marnie plays a big role in Anna's development. Once Anna meets Marnie, everything changes. When Anna is with Marnie, she feels as if she can do anything: she feels confident in herself and loved. Marnie teaches Anna to value and love herself and she motivates Anna to strive forward in her everyday life. Anna also learns to forgive herself for the mistakes she's made in the past involving shutting herself off from her peers and especially her foster mother. She also forgave herself for being mean to the countryside girls. She apologized to them and even became friends with them towards the end of the film. Anna's character developed so much throughout the course of the movie and it was really refreshing to see her become so happy, confident and content!
At the beginning of the film, we see the protagonist, Anna, as a reclusive and introverted person struggling to find the confidence to fit in with others and love herself. However, as the movie progresses we see Anna's character develop into a confident person that can put others before herself. We also see her become more enthusiastic in her everyday life. She becomes excited to help her Aunt pick tomatoes, and go sketching in the field by the marsh. She starts to look forward to and cherish each day without even realizing that she's slowly breaking away from her depression. She learns to make friends and reconnect with her family as well.
Marnie plays a big role in Anna's development. Once Anna meets Marnie, everything changes. When Anna is with Marnie, she feels as if she can do anything: she feels confident in herself and loved. Marnie teaches Anna to value and love herself and she motivates Anna to strive forward in her everyday life. Anna also learns to forgive herself for the mistakes she's made in the past involving shutting herself off from her peers and especially her foster mother. She also forgave herself for being mean to the countryside girls. She apologized to them and even became friends with them towards the end of the film. Anna's character developed so much throughout the course of the movie and it was really refreshing to see her become so happy, confident and content!
Were All Characters Redeemed?
SPOILER ALERT! As we (the audience) come to understand, Marnie isn’t a regular girl, and the mystery of who Marnie is and what happened to her occupies most of the movie besides Anna's character development. It’s pretty obvious from early on in the film that there’s something unusual about the marsh house that Anna comes across where Marnie lives. For example, there are sometimes extravagant parties happening there, with people in old-fashioned clothing. Also, sometimes the marsh house appears as though it’s been deserted for years. An attentive viewer will start to figure out what’s going on pretty quickly. I'd also like to add that there are a lot of scenes between Anna and Marnie in which are somewhat dream-like or too good to be true. And whenever Anna and Marnie are together, Anna usually wakes up somewhere (i.e. at home, in bed, or by the lake, etc.) as if she was never with Marnie. To Anna there was definitely something uncanny about it, something familiar that she couldn't grasp, and she begins to have visions/dreams of a young girl with blonde hair, waving at her from the window aka Marnie. At the end of the movie, we find out that Marnie is, in fact, Anna's grandmother's ghost. In this sequence the film takes a major plot twist which leaves the audience astonished.
Now, I don't want to cover the entire movie here, so I'll just get to the point. Anna's grandmother had a daughter (Anna's biological mother) at a young age and when her husband died in an accident, Marnie and her daughter barely spoke to each other anymore. They blamed each other for his death and essentially grew apart from each other causing the daughter to move away. Once the daughter grew older and had a child of her own, named Anna, Marnie got to reunite with her daughter and even look after Anna. Unfortunately, after a car accident, Anna's biological parents passed away leaving Marnie to look after Anna. However, Marnie passed away soon after that as well due to old age leaving Anna up for adoption. Basically, Marnie never got the chance to apologize to her daughter after they reunited, so the only way Marnie could forgive/redeem herself was to look after Anna. The movie also follows the story of Marnie's ghost reconnecting with Anna in order to help her unlock her past and discover who she really is. It may seem complicated, however, once you watch the movie, it will all be easy to grasp and make sense. All this aside, what makes Marnie so incredible is how she changes Anna's perspective of life. Overall, there is a profound, and eventful redemption theme in this film involving the relationships between Anna and Marnie as well as Anna forgiving herself and discovering who she really is.
Now, I don't want to cover the entire movie here, so I'll just get to the point. Anna's grandmother had a daughter (Anna's biological mother) at a young age and when her husband died in an accident, Marnie and her daughter barely spoke to each other anymore. They blamed each other for his death and essentially grew apart from each other causing the daughter to move away. Once the daughter grew older and had a child of her own, named Anna, Marnie got to reunite with her daughter and even look after Anna. Unfortunately, after a car accident, Anna's biological parents passed away leaving Marnie to look after Anna. However, Marnie passed away soon after that as well due to old age leaving Anna up for adoption. Basically, Marnie never got the chance to apologize to her daughter after they reunited, so the only way Marnie could forgive/redeem herself was to look after Anna. The movie also follows the story of Marnie's ghost reconnecting with Anna in order to help her unlock her past and discover who she really is. It may seem complicated, however, once you watch the movie, it will all be easy to grasp and make sense. All this aside, what makes Marnie so incredible is how she changes Anna's perspective of life. Overall, there is a profound, and eventful redemption theme in this film involving the relationships between Anna and Marnie as well as Anna forgiving herself and discovering who she really is.