From Up on Poppy Hill is a Japanese animated movie produced by Studio Ghibli, with Goro Miyazaki as the director and his father, Hayao Miyazaki, along with Keiko Niwa writing the film. The film was released in 2011 and takes place in Yokohama in the years after the Second World War. It provides a backdrop of hope and the post-war recovery of Japan while dealing with issues of reminiscence, restoration, and the wish to strive ahead but protect the legacy. This is a coming of age seemingly typical story revolving around the themes of young romance, identity, and how one learns to forgive and forget the past, all wrapped in the unmistakable visuals of Studio Ghibli along with an interesting and realistic plot.
Synopsis
This, however, is a story set in history on the year 1963 just before the Tokyo Olympics, a time where Japan was quite crucial as the time when Japan was returning back on its feet, both industry and culture wise. The movie follows Umi Matsuzaki, a high school who lives in a boarding home near the port of Yokohama. Umi has always waken up every morning and hoisted several signal flags in remembering her dad, a sailor who’s fighting in the Korean war. Along with her younger siblings, she helps manage her grandmother’s boarding house since the household is orderly and disciplined.
Umi also goes to a secondary school of a local nature and there she gets acquainted with Shun Kazama who is an attractive but a bit wild student involved in the activities of the school’s Latin Quarter, a clubhouse. The Latin Quarter is an older structure which contains several clubs including the philosophy, astronomy and chemistry clubs. Nevertheless, the structure is earmarked for demolition in the ongoing modernization process. Modernization is the catchphrase of the current groups that aim at evolving the youth, that is why it is important to them to keep this piece of the past histories intact, it serves as their identity as a generation.
Umi becomes enthralled by Shun’s love for the Latin Quarter and his determination to protect it. She offers her assistance during the campaign as she and Shun get to see more of each other and a friendship slowly begins to develop. Both have an unusual empathy for one another which is gradually turning into affection although they have not yet been romantically involved. The relationship is, however, complicated when Shun discovers an alarming secret about both their families which suggests they might be more than just friends as they presumably have the same father. Due to this shocking truth about Shun, he pulls away from Umi putting both of them in an emotionally difficult position. Nonetheless, even though there may be a blood relationship, they both stand together in the cause of saving the Latin Quarter.
To understand their family backgrounds, both Umi and Shun go on a quest to learn about the past. They come to learn that after Shun’s biological father who was a friend of Umi’s father died in a car crash, Shun was taken in by his present family. Yet, the narrative of their fathers becomes connected with the conflicts of the wider post-war Japanese identity, demonstrating the conflicts that besiege a country at the crossroads of its past self and the new, burgeoning one. In the end, however, it was realized that Shun is not Umi’s real brother and this makes it possible for them to express romantic feelings without the taboo which would otherwise exist.
Ultimately, the students manage to protect the Latin Quarter, such as the memory of the father and the history. Umi and Shun’s love, full of hope now because of the different circumstances but largely misunderstandings, finds itself set against the backdrop of history. The film ends with mixed emotions as it touches upon the idea of history and the prospect of the new Japan that is about to come before the world at the Olympics.
Cast & Crew
Umi Matsuzaki (voice: Masami Nagasawa): The film centers on Umi, a teenager with the responsibility of taking care of her family and grieving for her lost father. Her character is quite complicated as it contains of both fierce and gentle elements, care for Shun and the efforts to keep the Latin Quarter safe. Viewers of the film find Umi’s character endearing, hanks to the voice work of Nagasawa. Umi Matsuzaki is described as the main character and a high school student dealing with a lot of aspects of life including losing her father.
Shun Kazama (voice: Junichi Okada): Shun is described as fiercely devoted to the protection of the Latin Quarter and free-spirited high school student. Shun indicates resistance to everything that the country is modernizing into and with Umi, the two embodiment of emotion in the film. Shun interacts with Umi Matsuzaki who is portrayed as a mature oriented female. Quite a work, spending days long recording dreams to which in actuality; Okada Yoshito is not easily able to witness youth blinded by ideals.
Supporting Cast: The ensemble also includes other students and teachers who help vivify the Latin Quarter and extend emotional support to Umi and Shun in their efforts to save it. Umi’s father, classmates, and many other characters are important in establishing the mood of the film and its vision and character studies.
Director Goro Miyazaki: In “From Up on Poppy Hill” Goro Miyazaki has adopted a different stylistic approach as compared to fantasy elements most Studio Ghibli movies have. The film is imbued with such an approach that realism, yet which instils an intense atmosphere to the photo-theatrical world. It looks good, and feels just as good.
Screenwriters Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa: Notable themes, which are easily recognised on a screenplay level and come from Hayao Miyazaki as a writer, have been ecology, reminiscences and pacifism topics. While cooperating with Niwa, he imbues the whole mythological tale with a light dose of romanticism and melancholic retrospect of bygone days.
Composer Satoshi Takebe: A fundamental role in enhancing the ambience of the scenes is played by the music which has been influenced by the Takebe’s Japanese heritage and Western culture. It adds to the film emotional pivot that is perfectly appropriate to the moments of contemplation, joy or adolescents.
IMDb Ratings
With 7.4/10 rating, From Up on Poppy Hill maintains a good rating on IMDB where both critics and audiences opinion is quite favorable. Such figures reinforce the success of the film for telling a universal tale effectively although it is set in a particular time and history of Japan. Many of the reviewers have praised it for the strong feelings it evokes, its pleasing visuals, and the sense of nostalgia the film offers. Although other Studio Ghibli works explore fantastical worlds, critics embrace the realism of From Up on Poppy Hill because of its moving narrative of first love and the need to protect one’s culture.
It is primarily praised for its treatment of Japanese identity against the changing times. They point out that From Up on Poppy Hill is a romantic drama at the same time as cultural discourse, it showed how Japan was trying to modernize without forgetting the prewar era. Some critics have observed that the tempo of the movie does not evoke fast-paced action sequences as some other Studio Ghibli movies have, but tempers it beautifully. A slower tempo enhances the atmosphere of 1960’s Japan beautifully. It places the viewer right in Japan’s beautiful hand-drawn animation.
The viewers also appreciated the sound heartfelt story of Umi and Shun as well as the film’s visual appealing nostalgic. Some notice the strongly emotional effect of the film that brings the viewers to a different time and space – to the times when simplicity, togetherness as well as mutual remembrance were treasured. The ending of the picture has been praised too since it is said to provide the audience with the necessary emotional satisfaction, as the protagonists come into peace with the past.
Overall speaking, From Up on Poppy Hill is an illustration of the Ghibli Portfolio By no means the studio that uses the fantasy as an easy fall back. The reviews of the film and the audience suggests the film was also portraying what’s it like to fall in love, deal with family expectations and the age old problems of the past and the future.
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