When Marnie Was There (2014)

Ewa Wiman April 18, 2015

★ 10/10

This is a very beautiful animated film from Studio Ghibli, possibly the last one to com out of Studioe Ghibli for some time or last one ever. It is about Anna, a young girl that we learn has asthma and is feeling very alone. She is sent to relatives in the country to recuperate from severe sickness. Once there she meets another young girl, who is blond and also has beautiful blue eyes like Anna. Anna feels real connection to this girl. During the film we learn more and more about Anna and this young girl. It is a film that is both beautiful very well worth seeing.

Reno June 16, 2015

★ 9/10

> Some people're destined to meet the secret friend. From the director Hiromasa Yonebayashi of 'The Secret World of Arriety' fame. Based on the 1967 English novel of the same name and so the important characters borrowed the western names. This is what I call a fine adaptation, great transformation from the words to the motion picture. Actually, it suited for the narration from the standpoint of Japanese culture and lifestyle, especially for this anime version with the beautiful fictional coastal landscapes. Whenever I remember this film in the future, that Marsh house would be the first thing to pop out in my mind, an unforgettable landmark for sure. The movie promos were damp. The posters were not that impressive, but okay and the trailer was very ordinary. Studio Ghibli was the reason to go for it, so I expected nothing spectacular from the movie. Even while I was watching, I th…

CinemaSerf August 4, 2026

★ 7/10

I thought there something of the "Rapunzel" to this story. "Anna" is a frail twelve year old girl who has never quite fitted in, and who has been sent by her caring foster-mother from her home in the city to spend the summer in a quiet town by the sea in the hope that it may have some recuperative effect. Whilst exploring one day, she encounters an home aptly named "Marsh House" inhabited by the mysterious and solitary "Marnie". Both are shy and reluctant to come out of their shells, but are equally intrigued by the other and so slowly a bond begins to establish between the pair. We know already something of "Anna" and her complicated past, but "Marnie" is much more enigmatic and as the story unfolds there becomes something more of the fairy tale to this blonde-locked girl looking from the window of her blue room. As her holiday continues, "Anna" determines to find out more about her new…