Studio Ghibli's cinematographer, Atsushi Okui, has given an interview on the occasion of the North American theatrical re-releases of Whisper of the Heart and The Secret World of Arrietty, both remastered in 4K. Okui, who has worked on nearly all of the studio's productions since 1993, highlights that Whisper of the Heart, despite not generating significant box office revenue, maintains a devoted fan base that even makes pilgrimages to the town where the story is set.
The art of capturing analog light in the digital age 🎞️
Okui explains that the 4K remastering process is not limited to a simple scan of the original material. For Whisper of the Heart, released in 1995, the team reviewed the frames one by one, correcting imperfections in the celluloid and adjusting the color to respect the intention of director Yoshifumi Kondo. For Arrietty, from 2010, the challenge was different: the film was already shot digitally, but the new transfer required rebalancing the lighting of the night scenes, where contrasts are fundamental to the visual narrative.
Anime pilgrims: when tourism surpasses the box office 🗺️
According to Okui, the loyalty of Whisper of the Heart fans is so high that some travel from other continents to visit the Tama district in Tokyo, which inspired the story. The curious thing is that many arrive with printed maps from the 1990s and complain that the shops no longer sell the same candies that appear in the film. No one warned them that Ghibli's magical realism does not include prices frozen since 1995.