Synopsis:

Combines the only two connected theatrically-released Ghibli films into a single feature. A big white(ish) cat will show you the way…twice!

Intentions:

Studio Ghibli has more than its fair share of masterpieces, one of my favourites is also among those lesser-known, 1995’s “Whisper of the Heart”, the only feature directed by heir-apparent Yoshifumi Kondo before his untimely demise. Adapted from the manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi, this story of budding young writer Shizuku is rare among the studio’s canon in that there are no fantasy elements (barring a few brief dream sequences) and unique in that it has a fully-fledged spinoff feature. 2002’s “The Cat Returns” (based off a later work by Hiiragi) has the earlier film’s minor character of Baron Humbert von Gikkingen (the eponymous cat) now play a major role in a new adventure that takes schoolgirl Haru into the Cat Kingdom. The aim of this edit was to see if Whisper of the Heart’s three fantasy sequences could be viably replaced by segments of The Cat Returns, to play out as the story Shizuku writes in its later sections; this is aided by the two works having some shared or similar characters, locations, and plot points, which could be interpreted as her using elements from her life as inspiration. In addition to making these similarities clearer, playing the two stories together could help enhance the contrast between the fantasy Shizuku story writes about the Baron and the reality of the actual story as told to her.

Change List:

Editing Details: • Cut out all the fantasy elements from Whisper of the Heart, this film’s version of the Baron doesn’t come to life (he is designed quite differently), a few other trims were needed for smoother transitions to The Cat Returns footage and to remove references to these scenes. The “love triangle” subplot was also removed, to help bring down the runtime, with the extra material added in this edit I don’t think its loss hurts the film. • The events of the first two thirds-worth of Whisper of the Heart play out in the first third of the edit, the majority of the time cut from this film taking place here. I actually think that spreading the remaining content over a great portion of the runtime helps the original story in one regard, as it makes the time that Shizuku and Seiji have known each other (a little over two months) feel more substantial, with the ending scene perhaps coming along as less surprising. • Streamlined The Cat Returns, Haru’s romantic troubles are only fleetingly mentioned and she no longer develops a crush on the Baron. It now appears in six main segments during and after Shizuku writing her story, plus a very short post-credits sequence. The story starts out with sepia-tinted monochrome (resembling book pages, to help differentiate it from the real-life narrative), switches to full colour when the sun sets over the square before the Baron comes to life, then returns to monochrome at the end. Exported Full HD with 5.1 audio, with both the original Japanese and Disney-produced English soundtracks. Optional full English subtitles provided. Cuts and Additions: ~22 minutes removed from “Whisper of the Heart” and ~14 minutes removed from “The Cat Returns”. 0:00:00 Added fanedit disclaimer and personal plate 0:01:11 Removed the shot with the credit for the Baron’s voice actor in Whisper of the Heart, since he no longer appears. Replaced it with one of three shots removed from the end of the film (the last night depicted), a train going by in the distance that follows on nicely from it being seen in the previous shot (top half plays in reverse, to maintain consistent direction of travel in foreground and background vehicles). 0:04:25 Removed sequence of Shizuku waking up, fade from the characters of Seiji’s name to her arriving at the school. 0:07:25 Removed last part of scene with Shizuku and her friend Y?ko on the bench (after they sing “Concrete Roads”) and first part of the following scene (before talking about studying). This removes the “love triangle” discussions. 0:09:26 Removed section between Shizuku closing the fridge and Shiho arriving home. 0:09:42 Removed section between Shiho throwing her bag on the bed and her and Shizuku preparing dinner. 0:10:15 Removed section of Shizuku being woken up, fade straight into her having breakfast. 0:10:38 Removed section between Shizuku taking the bag and arriving at the station, no longer posts letters for Shiho. 0:16:54 Added subtitle translating the World Emporium’s sign giving the proprietor’s name, since the later instance of this was in a section that has now been removed. 0:23:18 Removed section of Shizuku saying bye to her father and getting books. 0:23:45 FOR ENGLISH SOUNDTRACK Used Japanese soundtrack audio for rest of the scene to facilitate cut to next scene, it has no clashing dialogue. 0:23:48 Repeated earlier section of audio to remove start of music in a now-deleted section (following edit). 0:23:50 Removed section between Shizuku’s exclamation in the library and her asking a teacher about Amasawa’s collection. This includes her eating at the library and most of her first day of term at school, which includes more “love triangle” stuff. 0:27:23 Removed “love triangle” section concerning Y?ko and Sugimura, go from Shizuku’s friends singing to her riding the train to the Emporium. 0:44:14 Removed Shizuku going to school and more “love triangle” stuff, cut from her turning off the light to the end of the maths class and Seiji coming to see her. 0:49:30 Removed section between Shizuku walking home from school and her arriving at Y?ko’s house, including dinner and waiting at the shop. 0:51:57 Removed section where Shizuku says goodbye to Y?ko outside, cut from inside to her waving as she’s walking. 0:52:54 Inserted first segment from The Cat Returns, Haru saving Prince Lune from the truck. This is the logical place to start in my mind, right after Shizuku decides to write a story she sees the “real life” Moon/Muta and gets inspiration to feature cats. Does not replace any parts from Whisper of the Heart. 0:55:07 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, where Shizuku asks Seiji's grandfather for permission to use the Baron in her story. 0:57:53 Inserted second segment from The Cat Returns, Haru is told a tale by her mother and is met by the Cat King and his subjects. Replaces the first fantasy sequence from Whisper of the Heart and the immediate parts before and after, forward shot of her walking along the pavement (earlier side shot kept) and running down the stairs. 0:59:23 Cut dialogue after Haru sits on her bed, references her being late getting up that morning, an event we no longer see. Repeated a short section of video to cover her mouth moving. 1:03:01 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, where Shizuku is reading non-fiction at the library. Audio cut in slightly later than image, just before Shizuku’s father speaks, to cover Whisper of the Heart music from a now-deleted scene. 1:06:08 Inserted third segment from The Cat Returns, Haru waking up to the end of her and Muta being snatched away with the Baron and Toto in pursuit. Replaces the second fantasy sequence from Whisper of the Heart, where the Baron talks about Luisa/Louise. 1:08:17 Removed section where Haru’s friend asks for her to cover her cleaning duties. 1:08:25 Removed section of Haru’s friend watching the table tennis game and Haru dropping the bin. 1:10:48 Corrected translation of “Kakkoii?” from “He is?” to “Cool?”, hear the word pop up elsewhere and checked it up. 1:16:15 Cut from monochrome to full colour and the setting sun glints in the window. 1:26:30 Replaced the final shot of the Baron and Toto following the trail of the cats with two repurposed from a now-deleted scene that took place later on. The sparkles are now seen over bodies of water which are revealed to be the paw-shaped pools, showing that the Baron and Toto have followed her to the Cat Kingdom. 1:26:37 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, cutting the shot of Shizuku writing as this would conflict with the new story featured in this edit. 1:34:46 Inserted fourth segment from The Cat Returns, Haru waking up in the Cat Kingdom to the end of the disappointing entertainments during dinner. Replaces the third fantasy sequence from Whisper of the Heart, where Shizuku is running through the dark landscape to find a stone. 1:35:30 Removed section of the Baron and Toto arriving at the Cat Kingdom as I didn’t want to break from Haru and Muta at this point, a couple of shots repurposed in previous segment. 1:44:06 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, no cuts required but audio from yelling cat in previous segment fades out for a few seconds. 1:47:58 Inserted fifth segment from The Cat Returns, from Haru seeing a mystery guest at the dinner to her returning home: removed the Cat King’s outburst, the reaction and the mysterious stranger arriving and talking to the King before asking Haru to dance. This replaces three shots to convey the passage of time after Seiji’s grandfather turns the page while reading Shizuku’s story, the second (train in the distance) was repurposed earlier, the first (traffic) and third (plane) are used later. These were to convey the passage of time during the reading. 1:48:05 Removed exchange where Haru protests that she cannot dance as this seems to imply that she doesn’t recognise the stranger, music (soundtrack version of Waltz Katzen Blut remixed to 5.1, to facilitate removal of all dialogue during dance) starts over her taking his paw. 1:48:11 Shortened shot of musicians, cut to accordionist already playing. 1:48:55 Removed section with dialogue, inserted extracted sounds from Haru during the dance 1:48:58 Removed responding dialogue, inserted extracted sounds from the Cat King during the dance 1:49:02 Faded from soundtrack Waltz to normal audio, the discordant noise fitting with the Cat King interrupting. 1:49:06 FOR ENGLISH SOUNDTRACK Faded to Japanese audio for remainder of shot, without background chatter, to facilitate removal of the following shot of Haru. 1:49:08 Removed shot of Haru. 1:49:26 Removed shot of Haru opening her mouth in surprise. 1:49:31 Muted Haru exclaiming, which implied that only now does she realise who the stranger is. 1:54:38 Added translation of “Nani?” to “What?”, meaning probably clear but thought it worth including anyway. 1:56:43 Trimmed end of wide shot and start of close up to best blend music sections (next item). 1:56:40 Removed a section of the music in the middle of the running up the steps sequence to facilitate the removal of four close up shots (next item), later part starts here with extracted footsteps sound inserted. Same in both Japanese and English soundtracks. 1:56:45 Removed four shots close up shots of Haru and the Baron, the last one with Haru blushing. 2:08:24 Removed section where Haru thinks that skydiving without a parachute is cool. 2:09:47 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, the wide shot as Seiji’s grandfather comes to tell Shizuku what he thinks of her story. 2:12:55 Cut section of dialogue where Haru remarks that the real events are like what happened in her story and Seiji’s grandfather agreeing. This was based on the Japanese soundtrack, the English one didn’t duplicate this exactly so I had to extract the dialogue, cut a couple of non-essential phrases out and slightly rearrange the rest. 2:16:39 Inserted repurposed first shot of the three removed at 1:47:58. 2:16:44 Inserted repurposed third shot of the three removed at 1:47:58. 2:16:46 Inserted sixth segment from The Cat Returns, Haru saying goodbye on the rooftop. Doesn’t replace anything from Whisper of the Heart. 2:17:34 Removed section where Haru says that she thinks she has a crush on the Baron. 2:18:31 Fade back to sepia-tinted monochrome on the pull-out shot. 2:18:39 Returned to Whisper of the Heart, plays out as normal through to the end credits. 2:28:14 Added a brief post-credits scene using footage from The Cat Returns. Haru telling her mother about her special blend of tea, calling back to the Baron making a similar comment both here and in the original film, but I think it quite-nicely sums up the philosophy of fanediting too. Used Japanese audio for English soundtrack at start until the dialogue starts, less residual noise. 2:28:18 Corrected translation from “It’s my special blend.” To “It’s Haru’s special blend.” I am sure that I hear her speaking her name.

Additional Notes:

This is not an attempt to replace what I consider a near-perfect film and another excellent one, but I think it helps aid comparison between the two. A major subplot has been removed from Whisper of the Heart to bring the runtime down to a reasonable 2 ½ hours, I may experiment later to see if more of the original (about another 20 minutes worth) could be retained while remaining enjoyable to others than myself, maybe turn the two films into an 8-episode miniseries!

Other Sources:

"Waltz Katzen Blut" from soundtrack

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to Darth Kermit and mnkykungfu for previewing and giving honest feedback, the film would have run 170 minutes otherwise.