I've made a deliberate effort to see as much as I can from Japan's Studio Ghibli, makers of such wonderful films as "My Neighbor Totoro", "Spirited Away" and "The Wind Rises". I always have enjoyed their animated films...though "Ocean Waves" (also known as "I Can Hear the Ocean") is a first...a film I didn't particularly enjoy. The animation is nice...but the story left me completely flat.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Taku, a high school boy who becomes infatuated with a girl who has just transferred to his small town school from Tokyo. As the film progresses, however, you wonder WHY does he like this girl so much. Often, she is self-absorbed, snobbish and kind of a jerk. As a result, the film is much more teen angsty than other Ghibli films and this is the main problem for me. The worries that the main characters had all seemed trivial and unimportant...and the characters didn't seem particularly likable as a result. And, at the end, when there was a nostalgic quality to the film you were left wondering why...why look back at this period when any sort of fondness? Overall, very nice animation...and a story that would probably appeal to man teens but which left me bored and a bit confused.

I saw Ocean Waves as a big fan of Studio Ghibli and their films. Ocean Waves is an absolute treasure, one of their most beautiful and moving works but sadly one of their most under-appreciated. The animation is stunning, not quite as sophisticated or as detailed(understandable seeing as it is a TV movie, and even then it is a million miles beyond some of the other TV movies I've sat through) above as some of their films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Castle in The Sky, but it still has the ethereal backgrounds and beautiful colouring. The score is reflective in a suitably understated sense, and the story and character relationships while purposefully and beautifully meditative are incredibly subtle and truthful, no clichés or hokeyness in sight. And you genuinely feel for the characters, so compellingly real they are. The film is perhaps too short, but with a film so beautiful, charming and subtle such as Ocean Waves, that is easy to ignore. 10/10 Bethany Cox

OCEAN WAVES is one of the lesser films from the Studio Ghibli studio, thanks in part to a more simple and straightforward story set in the contemporary world and the lack of a director of Hayao Miyazaki's calibre. The most popular Ghibli movies tend to be the brash and moving fantasy epics about saving the environment and quirky creatures and the like, whereas OCEAN WAVES is all about high school life and romance.

In many ways it's a simple two hander charting the relationship between an awkward high school student and the hot-headed girl he loves. There's plenty of arguing along the way, but the film's narration gives this a wonderfully nostalgic and wishful feel as a young man looks back over the mistakes and events of his earlier life. This gives the movie an edge and prevents it from being just a romance, a genre I generally avoid at all costs. The voice actors are very good although the quality of the animation is more basic than usual for a Ghibli movie. A slighter piece, then, but still a worthwhile one.