Review of A Whisker Away
Man, this movie reminds of how cringey I could be as a teenager. Complaining about my parents, falling out with friends, saying I wouldn’t care if the world ended (an actual line in this movie) all because I really didn’t how to actually talk to people my troubles. A Whisker Away captures a lot these issues and insecurities that I and many others probably felt when going through middle school into high school and manages to bring them to the screen in a funny yet respectable way. It also has a lot of cute cats. A Whisker Away is a fantasy coming of age storyabout a 15-year-old girl, Muge, that has the ability to turn into a cat after buying a mask from a magic cat salesman. Unhappy, due to her parents’ divorce and living with her subsequent stepmother, she uses her newfound powers to secretly spend time with her crush Hinode, a young boy pressured to get into a prestigious high school, when he really wants to follow in his grandfather’s steps and work on pottery.
Let’s start this review but talking about the most divisive aspect of the film: the main character. The best way I can describe Muge is; damn she thirsty. She wants this boy and she wants him now. She puts all her energy into what I can only refer as irritating him into submission. She’s full of energy and is extremely driven to the point of jumping of buildings. With that being said, the film makes it fairly apparent that this is all at least in part an act to hide her own insecurities regarding her family. She secretly has trouble dealing with her family life, telling her father, mother and stepmother what she really feels and likewise telling her crush what she feels outside for her feline other self. Like most people her age, this often comes out in her acting kinda passive aggressive or overly bombastic depending on who she’s with and then getting pretty sulky when she’s alone.
Chances are you’re either going to find her funny and enduring or annoying and whiny. That’s really up to you as a person and how much you can tolerate adolescent energy I suppose. I personally found her pretty charming in all her quirks. The scenes with her as a cat we’re funny and seeing her interact with Hinode in this form was cute, but perhaps that because I have a soft spot for cats. She never goes too far to become frustrating and the film is able to convey her thoughts in a flawed but understandable in way that took me back to the times I had similar outburst of silliness or angst when I was in my early teens.
I similarly found her love interest, the quiet Hinode to be a fairly fun character. He starts of as the fairly typical stoic guy to contrast the hyper girl that inhabits these kinds of romanic comedies, but he has some decent development. The central theme of the movie is the two leads not being able to state their feelings not only to each other but the people around them. For Hinode this is the inability to declare his wishes to his overbearing mother. I feel this is handled quite well. As a child its quite hard to talk to parents if you fear you’ll be scolded for disobeying them and feel obligated to do what they want. By the end, Hinode has learnt to find the confidence in himself to follow through on his decisions, which in turn allows him to confess his true feelings to Muge. Overall, I thought the relation between our two leads was sweet but also had a surprising amount of nuance.
The side characters don’t get quite as much to do but I want to give special props to Muge’s stepmother; Kaoru. I feel the film gives a good representation of her difficulties in being a stepparent; feeling she want to support this child that has come into her life child while also not trying to overstep your boundaries since she’s technically not their parent. We see Kaoru attempting to make a serious effort with Muge only to be blown off. It’s a hard-balancing act and Kaoru’s development shows these hardships in a more realistic fashion albeit still keeping within the film’s lightheaded nature.
The art style of anime is vibrant and colour full which helps with the films bright tone and adds to the feeling of magical realism, especially later in the movie when the magical part becomes far more prominent. If you’re a fan of urban fantasy settings of Ghibli films like Totoro or The Cat Returns, this will probably speak to you as well. It has that kind of playful enchantment that draws you into its world and makes you want to explore more.
As for the music, it carries the weight of the scene well with more relaxed melodies for the playful scenes of cat Muge bouncing around the roof tops and more ambient tones for the serious scenes. In particular, there are several scenes where the characters are about to speak seriously to each other and the build-up in music for these confessions very much adds to the intensity of the dialogue.
A whisker Away is a fun fantasy romance with some surprisingly insightful introspection about coming of age. It handles it two leads and their issues a charming way that balances the funnier slapstick gags and world of talking’s cats alongside slower scenes that do an admirable job at getting into the head of a couple of teenagers still trying to work out things within their lives and with each other. If you’re looking for fluffy cats with a side of teenage drama, this is a good one for you.