Director: Tomomi Mochizuki
Screenplay: Keiko Niwa
Based on the novel by Saeko Himuro
Voice Cast: Nobuo Tobita as Taku Morisaki; Toshihiko Seki as Yutaka Matsuno; Youko Sakamoto as Rikako Mutou; Ai Satou as Taku's mother; Hikaru Midorikawa as Tadashi Yamao; Jun-ichi Kanemaru as Okada; Kae Araki as Yumi Kohama
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
Ocean Waves is an obscurity in Studio Ghibli's catalogue, an experiment in producing an animated television movie, broadcast on Nippon TV, for a young adult audience. Involving neither Hayao Miyazaki nor Isao Takahata, this was instead helmed by a young figure at the time named Tomomi Mochizuki, meant to have been a quickly made and cheap production which allowed the staff to cut their teeth. It naturally went over budget and time, to the point that Mochizukihimself even developed a peptic ulcer as a result of the stress1. It was a title few likely knew of in the West until decades later.
Ocean Waves is, however, a gem, and it holds tightly a trait that, for the reputation as Japan's Disney, Studio Ghibli was a lot more willing to tackle a lot of adult content, even if you did not take into consideration a title like Grave of the Fireflies (1988). Ocean Waves is a high school drama, set in Kōchi of the Kōchi Prefecture where two students, in a prologue bonding after being the two willing to fully protest a school trip being cancelled, become interested in a transfer student. The two boys Taku and Yutaka are intrigued by Rikako, a city girl moved to their region from Tokyo and transferring into the school, who keeps her distance throughout her school life as the narrative moves forth gracefully. At only seventy plus minutes, the drama is slow burn, the biggest event being as we learn that Rikako, her parents having divorced, is as much emotionally effected by this as she is uncomfortable with where she had been forced to moved with her mother. Said event, even in a film which briefly has a trip to Hawaii for the school, is her secret plan to go to Tokyo to met her father, Taku out of the two boys the one being drawn the closest to her despite Yutaka having the open crush on her.
Knowing the origins, the film does not feel like a compromise in terms of production. One of the studio's more grounded films, it looks beautiful in terms of evoking this type of high school drama. What is unexpected, whilst played as a romantic drama with a happy conclusion, is that Ocean Waves gets quite grave in a lot of its story at the least likely of moments. I would not expect Disney, their apparent equivalent, to tackle this material like this, just from the open references to alcohol consumption. Not just the later scene as adults at a class reunion, where people confess crushes finally and one character gets ridiculously soused, but even a minor touch involving coke and hinted at alcohol in a hotel room involving the characters as young adults, not to get drunk but explicit in substance taking in a moment of needed help for one of them in a solace.
This is also in terms of characters not being always likable, where other narratives would avoid anything that made characters not always wise and make them idealised. In a lot of ways, Rikako is not an idea person, who looks down on Kōchi and is deliberately anti-social, only for her story of having been pulled from her home and friends to be more poignant; that, and when challenged by girls in her class about not helping in the school festival, for them to have an almost hive mind nature than anyone considering asking why she has been like this for all her school life there. Even Taku himself, a more interesting protagonist, is capable of ignorance or flip-flopping, a large portion of his arch (beyond being stuck sleeping in a hotel room bathtub) juggling whether he actually likes Rikako as a person or not when she is secretly getting money from him and others to fund her trip back to her father.
This is not a film populated by stereotypes like the tsundere, not easily distinct to filter these characters in such forms. It neither pulls back its punches, even as a family friendly story, which will surprise some. One male teacher in an off-comment, when faced with protesting students about a school trip being cancelled, will complain they are only acting up because their teacher being female, the film not touching up an idealised version of school life as teachers can say sexist things like this without anyone batting an eye, or that, her mother not seen but her father and a potential new girlfriend shown, Rikako's situation, is not with any side of the split family being idealised as she had presumed. One moment will make some even uncomfortable, when a scene involving rumours being spread leads to Taku and Rikako outside in a class room hallway slapping each other, the film not going to sugar coat its drama whether it works for a viewer or not.
That the film still has a happy ending makes sense in the maturity of the narrative, as it naturally comes after everyone has graduated and is an adult, with time healing even wounds. The film is altogether compelling, calm and matter-of-fact as a drama, able to crack open a lot of emotion from these being ordinary teenagers who are not perfect and capable of ill thought-out behaviour. That Ocean Waves does conclude with reconciliation is not felt like a compromise. That is not even considering that viewers, for a film which is not necessarily held in high regard in the Studio Ghibli canon, have even considered a queer subtext to the film by way of Taku and Yutaka's bond, which does add layers to the film even with its finale about the love of Rikako2.
The last paragraph to this review should refer to Tomomi Mochizuki, in mind that this production was meant for others in Studio Ghibli to create a film, befitting for a review of this underrated production to think of him. Ghibli, for the love they have gained, has had an unfortunate problem in terms of trying to find directors aside from Takahataand especially Miyazaki. Mochizuki's filmography in the nineties to the modern day is full of idiosyncratic sounding productions, now standing out with interest and happiness, despite the literal stress he went under, that he became a hard working man in the industry. He also helmed Pupa (2014), notoriously not well regarded as a horror micro-series about two mutated siblings, one male and one female, where the younger sister has to overcome her flesh eating urges by eating her indestructible older sibling. It is hilarious to think I can end a review Studio Ghibli review, of a worthwhile and under seen tale of school drama, with a reference to that, or maybe I have a weird sense of humour. It also shows how weird a person's career can be, in direction, regardless of what the occupation is.
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1) Referred to HERE.
2) As talked of HERE.