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Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Screens in New York, Los Angeles on February 3

Berlin distributor Capelight Pictures will screen the live-action sequel film based on Aoi Hiiragi's Whisper of the Heart (Mimi o Sumaseba) manga in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. The film will then be available on video on demand on June 20. The company streamed an English-subtitled trailer:

In the original film, Seiji expresses a desire to become an apprentice to a luthier in Cremona, Italy, one of the wrold's most well-known cities for luthiers of orchestral string instruments.

The live-action film was originally slated to open on September 18, 2020, but was delayed to October 14, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film stars Nana Seino (live-action Kyou Kara Ore Wa!!, After the Rain, Nowhere Girl, Tokyo Tribe films, left in image above) as Shizuku Tsukishima, and Tori Matsuzaka (Hello World, Himitsu - Top Secret, .hack//The Movie, Gatchaman, Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, right) as Seiji Amasawa. Runa Yasuhara and Tsubasa Nakagawa play Shizuku and Seiji, respectively, as they were in middle school.

Yuki Yamada plays Tatsuya Sugimura, Shizuku's childhood friend and baseball team member who had a crush on Shizuku. Rio Uchida plays Yūko Harada, Shizuku's best friend who had feelings for Sugimura in middle school. Towa Araki and Sara Sumitomo play Sugimura and Yūko as they were in middle school:

Yūichirō Hirakawa (live-action The Promised Neverland, ERASED/Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Waiting for Spring, Rookies, JIN projects) is directing the movie, which Sony Pictures Entertainment and Shochiku will distribute. Anne Watanabe performs a cover of Michio Yamagami's popular folk song "Tsubasa o Kudasai" as the film's theme song.

The new film's story is set 10 years after the original manga's story. Now 24, Shizuku has given up her dream of being a novelist, but works hard every day to sell books as a children's book editor at a publishing company. Meanwhile, Seiji is still following his dream abroad, even as the distance between him and Shizuku grows ever more.

The original manga inspired an anime film by Yoshifumi Kondō and Studio Ghibli in 1995. The story follows junior high school bookworm Shizuku as she has a chance encounter with a mysterious antique shop, and the boy Seiji Amasawa, the grandson of the shop's owner. A novice violin maker, Seiji has also attracted Shizuku's attention as she has noticed for a while that his name is written on the checkout cards of the books she borrows from the library. Seiji's passion for violin-making inspires Shizuku to pursue her dream of writing a novel.

Hiiragi published the manga in Shueisha's shōjo manga magazine Ribon in 1989. Hiiragi published a sequel manga titled Mimi o Sumaseba: Shiawase na Jikan in 1995, and a spinoff titled Baron: The Cat Returns in 2002. Viz Media published Baron: The Cat Returns in English. That manga inspired Hiroyuki Morita and Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns film in 2002.

Source: Email correspondence