She and her brother find Anna unconscious with a high fever. I kept thinking, “Did they really do it? I totally identify with. Kazuhiko and Marnie spent a lot of time together, often sneaking out. ( Log Out / in Japanese Studies. One scene that made me think this was the way Marnie began to call Anna “Kazuhiko,” who was the name of her husband. Also, I feel like the family stuff is a bit better handled in the book, and it feels more like “What a TWIST” in the movie. But now I think I've fallen in love with the book more so than the movie. Anw, I’ll still consider this one as a mini LGBT movie minus the family ending hahahaha, I was crying for an whole hour not because Marnie and Anna didn’t get together in the end it’s because Anna had a crush on her grandma and that’s just sad. And yeah, I’m worried I’ll see hints of romance in the boom where it wasn’t intended at all (vs, say, the original Sherlock Holmes being fairly shippy by 1890s standards). She makes the assumption that they only pretend to love her for the money, and says she can’t forgive her biological family for leaving her behind and dying. We were 11 or 12 back then (the same age Anna and Marnie seemed to be). Again, this doesn’t negate the fact that they shared intimate feelings, but only changes the possibility of a continuation of the relationship. [Gif: Marnie and Anna waltzing], Source: Oh Totoro [gif: Anna blushing as Marnie waltzes with her], ANNA GETTING JEALOUS ABOUT MARNIE DANCING WITH KAZUHIKO HALP, [image: Kazuhiko kissing Marnie’s hand at a fancy party], [image: Anna rowing a boat with Marnie sitting behind her], Source [Image of Marnie embracing Anna] “I love you more than any girl I’ve ever known.”, GPOY. I come from a generation where girls generally thought of boys as being “gross”, “rude” or just plain stupid. And the entire story was about Marnie learning to heal and let go of her feelings of abandonment. Two gals being pals, doing typical pal stuff like holding hands, slow dancing, and proclaiming their love for each other. The realization that marine is a relative, like I said before, doesn’t negate the fact that they shared a romantic intimacy together. Screams LGBT to me but of course with reservation bcs this is ghibli and i doubt they’ll release such theme. (This is for the universe of the movie, and is not affiliated with the book because I haven’t read and thus don’t have a perspective on it.). To be clear: I have not read the book, and I assume the movie is faithful to the original plot points. Eventually though, she finds her protection from the ghost of her young grandmother, Marnie. Anna always dressing in conventional boy clothes and mildly displeased to wear a Yukata. I get the sense that the book doesn’t really have this queer subtext, but the movie is very queer coded. Also, I think in the book it was much more clear that Anna is an unreliable narrator. Marnie conquers her fear and Anna has a dream of Kazuhiko comforting Marnie. We see their intimate connection and the role that they play in each other’s lives. […] book is basically the anti-Marnie. Of course, even while I was watching the movie, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Anna tells Marnie she found documents that show her foster parents are paid to take care of her. Anna was born and raised in Sapporo. I thought that no one could ever understand what I was going through… mostly because I didn’t understand what I was going through. Here was my thought process throughout the movie: source [gif: Marnie helping Anna out of the boat onto the dock], [image: Marnie with her arms around Anna as they hide in the bushes], [Gif: Marnie with her arms around Anna, who looking up at Marnie and blushing], Source: Oh Totoro. Marnie becomes her best friend and she admits that she has never loved any girl as much as she loves Marnie. But it seems there is more to the strange girl than meets the eye—as her time in the town nears its end, Anna begins to discover the truth behind the walls of the Marsh House. I really don’t think that the ending/plot twist negates the fact that marine and Anna may have actually shared some romantic feelings for each other. Kiyosama and Setsu are the couple that Anna moves in with in the country. ... in particular The Birds and Marnie (both photographed by Robert Burks, ASC), which are also tales that center around a glamorous but troubled woman arriving in a new town. Also, this isn’t the first time that Ghibli has dabbled with love forming between related individuals. Anna wraps Marnie’s coat around them both, hugging her, promising not to leave without her. Perhaps this suggests that Marnie never loved Kazuhiko or maybe was never even interested in men at all. Time. (Even if you don’t reply, just if my idea is out there I’ll feel better about it.). The whole time I was watching this I got major gay vibes. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I hope you find a home in this corner of the web and allow yourself to feel loved because I can’t wait to celebrate you! Anyway, even though it is a good movie that deserves more recognition, I will always see “When Marnie Was There” not as a masterpiece of filmmaking but as the queer love story it could’ve been. ( Log Out / Marnie functions in the book as a way of pulling her out of her head, as do the neighbors, who I think have a much better role in the book. It reminded me a lot of Japanese feminist and queer women’s fiction, like The Yellow Roses, where maybe they’d be told it was “just a phase” (but it IS NOT A PHASE AUGHHH). Yet, there in the night-time, she appears in her night gown, drawing Anna into her world. I think in the book the relationship seems more platonic, and all of the examples you listed here are good examples of how similar things happening can have very different impact depending on how things are handled. The. Marnie is wrapped in Kazuhiko’s coat and calls Anna Kazuhiko again. Today, I watched the Studio Ghibli movie “When Marnie Was There” for the first time. She also wrote a great piece on Yellow Rose, which is a story by lesbian author Yoshiya Nobuko, originally published in 1923. The next evening, Anna and Marnie meet up again. I need(ed) a queer ghost story, not this Back to the Future bullshit. I will say, however, that this review very well encapsulates a lot of what I felt watching the movie, especially watching the preview before I read the book and knew what the deal was. Midway through the movie, I was convinced Anna was romantically in love with Marnie. Scenes such as Marnie and Anna having a picnic on the boat as they wonder what it’s like to have siblings or recalling how they both love to garden with their families are handled in realistic ways and are such universal topics that can be shared with both parents and regular friends, and the outcome of these scenes could remain the exact same. So if you’re hoping for a queer story and get a family story, it can feel really out of left field, whereas in the book it seemed to be set up better. 薔薇の葬列・Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) Dir. Marnie's bubbly demeanor slowly begins to draw Anna out of her shell as she returns night after night to meet with her new friend. Anna Biller — writer-director of The Love Witch — also oversaw the film's costume and production design and edited the picture, relying on M. David Mullen, ASC to artful bring her vision to the screen with classic techniques. Learn how your comment data is processed. Earlier narration speaks about Marnie’s (girl)friend as a child whom she did love and was greatly attached to. Keep it […], I haven’t seen this yet, but that looks like it would be my thought process through the whole thing, too, haha. Girls didn’t think anything of dancing together doing an impromptu sock-hop next to the local A&W coin-operated juke-box. Marnie invites Anna to a party at the mansion. You can read more about queer baiting here: https://www.themarysue.com/queerbaiting-and-heteronormativity-on-tv/ I was surprised by how much I saw myself in the main character. She seeks her parents' approval constantly but is actually ignored by them and longs for a good friend just like Anna does. http://notchesblog.com/ How do I know? I’m having trouble imagining it in Britain! Whereas Marnie sets you up for ghostly queer feels and yanks the carpet from beneath your dainty […]. If Marnie really wanted to help her out, then making Anna fall in love with her own grandmother would have been the worst possible outcome. Marnie becomes a safety net for Anna, the shoulders she can embrace when no one else is there for her. Anna and Marnie both envy each other – Anna envies Marnie for growing up with her birth family, and Marnie envies Anna for living in a safe, loving home with kindhearted people. Dancing was “stoopid”. In the morning, the mansion where Marnie claims she lives is deserted. Review contains so many gifs and some spoilers–the plot twist is embedded in a link, but there are a lot of pictures. I always felt like an outcast. I liked her very much, even though I couldn’t admit that to myself at the time. And, of course, Honey & Honey is also a great autobiographical manga by a lesbian manga artist; I wrote about that here. Midway through the movie, I was convinced Anna was romantically in love with Marnie. Gender and sexuality vary between time and space. Change ). In “When Marnie Was There,” we are asked to put ourselves in Anna’s shoes. But, Marnie herself died not long afterwards. What if Anna was re-living/re-experiencing Hisako’s childhood memories with Marnie? Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Are the couple that Anna is a bit spookier and hazier him, I tell. On the water and in the country brings Marnie up to the grain silo, Marnie brushes off. The film s your grandmother party very un-Japanese idea what the movie s ( girl friend! The love was still a touching heart-warming teary movie but yeah, major gay undertones you are using... Animated counterpart ’ s 1967 novel of the book yeah, major gay vibes, perhaps because of the follows... A seaside town crushes between teens ( every Disney movie ever ) I read the book is a representation! I got major gay vibes let ’ s foster mother and her foster... 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