olivia newton john take me home country road

#OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROAD MOVIE#

Her efforts to communicate the song’s poetry weaves in with the movie’s overarching theme of Shizuku trying to find herself during a tricky stage of adolescence.Īt first glance, it’s a bit funny that a song so specifically about Appalachia fits so beautifully in Whisper of the Heart. Shizuku knows she can’t just literally translate it - after all, they live in urban Tokyo - so after penning a joke translation called “Concrete Roads,” she struggles with trying to convey the specific feeling that “Country Roads” conjures. Junior-high student Shizuku, an aspiring writer, is asked by her choir friends to translate the song because they want to sing it at an upcoming graduation performance. The song doesn’t just set the tone for the opening montage, it also plays an integral part in the movie’s storyline. Yet as the opening sequence of Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart rolls, with its sweeping nightscape scenes of urban Japan, Olivia Newton-John croons about the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River.

#OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROAD MOVIE#

Olivia Newton-John’s cover of the John Denver staple “Take Me Home, Country Roads” isn’t the most likely soundtrack for the opening scene of a soft animated slice-of-life movie about growing up in Tokyo. To celebrate the arrival of the Japanese animation house’s library on digital and streaming services, we’re surveying the studio’s history, impact, and biggest themes.

May 25-30 is Studio Ghibli Week at Polygon.

Olivia newton john take me home country road