When Marnie Was There (2014)
Based on the 1967 novel When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson.
Anna Sasaki is a 12-year-old girl with low self-esteem who lives in Sapporo, Japan with foster parents, Yoriko and her husband. One day, Anna suffers an asthma attack at school and is brought home. At the doctor's recommendation to send Anna to a place where the air is clean, Yoriko decides to have her spend summer break with Yoriko's relatives, Setsu and Kiyomasa Oiwa, who live in a rural seaside town located between Kushiro and Nemuro.
After getting settled in, Anna goes for a walk and sees an abandoned mansion across a salt marsh. She goes to investigate and discovers that no one has lived there in ages. She dozes off, eventually waking up at sunset. She tries to return across the salt marsh but is trapped by the rising tide until she is found by Toichi, an old fisherman, who brings her back to the pier with his rowboat. When she returns to the Oiwa's for dinner, Setsu tells her that the mansion (“Marsh House”) used to be a vacation home for some foreigners, but after changing hands several times, it has been empty for a long time. Starting that night, Anna dreams of seeing a blonde girl in the mansion.
Over the next few weeks Anna goes to sketch the mansion and every night she has dreams about the blonde girl. One day before she goes out, Setsu takes her to meet their neighbor, Mrs. Kadoya, who has wanted to meet Anna and also has a daughter named Nobuko, who is around her age. The women decide that the girls should go the Tanabata Festival together and Setsu lets Anna borrow her daughter's old yukata. Anna reluctantly agrees since she hates festivals.
On the night of the Tanabata Festival, Anna gets into an argument with Nobuko after calling her a fat pig and runs away to the Marsh House where she cries. After calming down, Anna decides to get home but sees a boat with a candle waiting at the shore. Thinking someone left it for her, she gets in and rows towards the Marsh House which lights up. There, Anna meets Marnie, the blonde girl she saw in her dreams. The two agree to keep their meeting secret and to meet again the next evening. Anna returns to the house and overhears Mrs. Kadoya confronting the Oiwa's about the incident with Nobuko but the Oiwa's do not blame Anna.
The next day at high tide Anna returns to the Marsh House, where she and Marnie are properly introduced. Marnie helps Anna with rowing and they have some cookies and juice. They play together and get to know each other. Afterwards, Marnie invites Anna to a party at the mansion, which is filled with guests. Marnie disguises Anna to get her into the party however Marnie’s nanny (called Nan) tells her it's bedtime. They lure Nan upstairs and lock her in Marnie's room and go back downstairs the party. Marnie introduces Anna to her parents and the guests, but Anna's shyness gets the better of her and she goes somewhere else in the room. While there, Anna sees Marnie dancing with a boy named Kazuhiko. Later that, some townspeople find Anna asleep by the post office and take her back to the Oiwa's.
The next day, Anna returns to the mansion to find her missing shoe, but the mansion appears abandoned and dilapidated again. She continues to visit the mansion but it remains abandoned for a week. One day while sketching, Anna meets Hisako, an older woman who paints. Hisako comments that Anna's sketches look like a girl whom she knew when she was young. Hisako also reveals that the renovations being done on the house are almost complete since a family has moved into the mansion. Anna visits the mansion as the family is moving in and meets a young girl named Sayaka, who gives her Marnie's diary that had been hidden in a drawer. Anna can’t determine whether the Marnie she’s been interacting with was imaginary but determines that this diary must mean there was a real Marnie.
The next day, Marnie reappears again for the first time in a while and the two girls say how much they missed each other and discuss their home lives. Anna wishes she had her real parents like Marnie since her family and all of her closest relatives have passed. Marnie however wishes she was an orphan with loving foster parents like Anna. Suddenly Anna admits that a few months ago, she found government documents that show how her foster parents are paid to take care of her. Anna then made the assumption that they only pretend to love her for the money. Marnie then shares with Anna how her parents are always traveling abroad, her mother has to travel for work so she doesn't get to see her too often and due to her father's work, she only gets to see him twice a year, she also tells how they leave her in the mansion with her nanny and two maids and how they abuse her physically and psychologically. She manages to sneak out of the mansion when the staff gossips and that is when she feels so free. When her parents are at home they throw so many incredible parties, that's when Marnie sees her parents, gets a brand new dress and always gets to dance, that is when she feels like the luckiest girl in the world. While on the beach, Marnie tells Anna that the maids often threaten to lock her in the silo near the mansion. Anna leads Marnie to the silo, where she helps her confront her fear. Marnie also remembers a similar time in the silo where Kazuhiko comforted Marnie. Anna wakes up at the stairway in the rain, only to find Marnie gone, she goes to look for her and while running remembers her sad childhood times, tripping and blacking out in the rain. She is discovered by Sayaka who brings her back to the Oiwa’s.
After recovering from a fever, Sayaka visits Anna showing her the missing pages from Marnie's diary, which include passages about Kazuhiko and the silo, as well as a painting of the Marsh House which is signed by Hisako. Anna goes to meet Hisako who reveals that she was a childhood friend of Marnie and tells them Marnie’s story: eventually Marnie married Kazuhiko, moved to Sapporo, and had a daughter named Emily, but he died from a sudden illness and Marnie committed herself to a sanatorium to cope with her loss. With no other family to care for her, Emily was sent to a boarding school. Marnie recovered but a preteen Emily was resentful for her mother abandoning her. In her adulthood, Emily ran away from home and had a daughter herself, but she and her husband were killed in a car accident. Marnie raised her granddaughter until Marnie became ill and passed away.
At the end of the summer, Yoriko arrives to take Anna home and is delighted to see Anna with her new friends: Hisako, Toichi, and Sayaka. She gives Anna a photograph of the mansion and says it belonged to Anna's grandmother. When Anna sees Marnie's name written on the back, she realizes that she is Emily's daughter and Marnie's granddaughter. This revelation brings closure about her identity. Yoriko tells Anna about the government payments but reassures her that they have always loved her. For the first time, Anna calls Yoriko her mother.
Anna says goodbye to her new friends and promises to visit again next summer before seeing Marnie at the mansion window, waving goodbye to her.