tek's rating: meh and a half

Ocean Waves (PG-13), on Nippon TV
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This TV movie aired in Japan in 1993, with a title that translates as "I Can Hear the Sea". (I didn't see it until 2022.) Whether you call it by that name or "Ocean Waves", the title is perhaps misleading, because the movie really has nothing to do with the ocean or the sea. (The DVD cover is also misleading, because the scene it depicts doesn't appear in the movie; the two characters were never on a beach together.) I suppose it's meant to be a metaphor for emotions, which is fine, I just couldn't manage to care about any of the characters or their emotions. The movie was mostly reasonably well received by critics, I think, but to me it was just kind of boring, and the only reason I liked it at all was just because it's anime.

So, it's told from the perspective of a guy named Taku, who went to high school in Kochi with another guy named Yutaka. It's obvious that Yutaka had a romantic interest in a transfer student named Rikako, and the movie is supposedly about a love triangle in which Taku also has feelings for her. But to be honest, for most of the movie I wasn't sure about that; it felt more to me like Taku might have had secret romantic feelings for Yutaka, but I was wrong about that. And it never really seemed like Rikako had feelings for either of them. Anyway, a lot of stuff happens that didn't really interest me all that much, so I don't feel like trying to describe the plot any more than that. I guess it's not a bad movie, I just couldn't get into it.


anime index

films by Hayao Miyazaki and/or Studio Ghibli

The Castle of Cagliostro * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind * Castle in the Sky * Grave of the Fireflies * My Neighbor Totoro * Kiki's Delivery Service *
Only Yesterday * Porco Rosso * Pom Poko * Whisper of the Heart * Princess Mononoke * My Neighbors the Yamadas * Spirited Away * The Cat Returns *
Howl's Moving Castle * Tales from Earthsea * Ponyo * The Secret World of Arrietty * From Up on Poppy Hill * The Wind Rises *
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya * When Marnie Was There * The Boy and the Heron

TV: Ocean Waves * Ronja, the Robber's Daughter * Earwig and the Witch