Title: From Up On Poppy Hill (Kokurikozaka Kara)
Genre: Drama, Romance, Historical
Publisher: Studio Ghibli (JP), GKids (US)
Original Creator: Chizuru Takahashi, Tetsurou Sayama
Director: Goro Miyazaki
Script: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa
Music: Satoshi Takebe
Original Release Date: September 3, 2013
From Up on Poppy Hill is the most recent Ghibli film released in the states, and truth be told, I find it a notch below a decent portion of works that have been released here (like Nausicaa, Grave of The Fireflies, The Secret World of Arrietty). But it falls into a section where the story of two high school students in Yokohama, their circumstances, and how they deal with it grows into a sweet, endearing work that is wonderful to see. This might be too much of a slow burn to people, and the overall storyline surrounding the two characters can seem a bit forgettable. But if you’re willing to put up with a less than stellar beginning, then this should be another Ghibli work that’s worth checking out. With excellent visuals and vibrant animation, some shrewd themes, and some nice music, this probably can be seen as the film that redeems Mr. Miyazaki–that would be Goro, not Hayao–after the disappointment of Tales of Earthsea.
Set in Yokohama 1963, From Up on Poppy Hill tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a young high school girl living with her grandmother, younger sister and brother, a doctor in training, and a college student with a passion for art, at a boarding house. With her father gone after his ship sank in the Korean War, and her mother working in America, she’s the one who tries to take care of her family by cooking and keeping an eye out for them. While doing this though, she also wakes up every morning to raise a set of signal flags, and brings them down. The raising of the signal flags apparently has been seen by someone in Konan Academy’s newspaper, and writes a poem with that detail. But exactly who wrote that poem and why is it aimed at her?
But before she can figure that out, she gets herself involved in a school wide debate involving an old, disgustingly messy clubhouse called the Latin Quarter, and whether the school needs to get rid of it and build something new over it. Along the way she meets Shun Kazama, a part of the side wanting to keep the clubhouse and a member of that Archeology/Literature club that is a part of the student newspaper. These two end up becoming linked due to a few conveniences and gradually start from being friends to becoming romantically in love with each other. But one of those conveniences involves Umi’s father, and it’s the kind that threatens to suppress how they act around each other.
In reading the 16 page booklet provided in the BD/DVD box (which, by the way, you should read after you’ve watched the film since it spoils the plot twist), there is little doubt that there were changes compared to the original. Based on Tetsurou Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi’s shoujo manga in 1980, the way Hayao talks about how he didn’t want supporting characters to be introduced purely for laughs, how he didn’t want Umi’s friends to be used as foils, it speaks to how they definitely did not want to tell the story in the manga style, and ultimately, that was probably for the best. There are a number of characters in the story, and while they may not outshine the main cast, you definitely respect them — from the Philosophy Club student, a seemingly goofy, but passionate young man, to even the secretary of the Chairman of Konan Academy, very direct, but kind when necessary — they’re very real, and feel just as important to the story as the main characters.
Speaking of the main characters, it’s hard to actually dislike them. Umi has to take over caring for her family, while also going to school and trying to succeed in her classes, with the backdrop of losing her father and her mother being away for work. Shun seems like the usual adventurous, troublemaker type of guy (I mean the guy jumps off a roof, into bushes, and into water), but along with Student Council President Mizunuma Shiro, wears his knowledge and skepticism on certain societal views on his sleeve, and isn’t afraid to show it. And of course, with Umi and Shun getting to know each other, as they learn certain events, things change for the worst…except they don’t make it overblown, and handle it in a mature manner.
That plot twist involving those two and the ending is what made From Up on Poppy Hill sit well for me. Well, the excellent visuals did help, along with a few timely music compositions from Satoshi Takebe and the main theme of the film by Aoi Teshima. The overall theme of the film was also something that resonated with me, since there are people that treat the past as crude and silly. Now, revelling so much in the past is not all that good either, since there are things that time destroys and that can lead to being blinded from what needs to be changed; but, and especially for this work and how the aftereffects of World War II are still there, there were people who perished to protect the future, and now we want to throw it away for what? The Olympics? Well, the Olympics was brought up in this film and how it was a reason for the clubhouse to go (gotta make sure those tourists are impressed!). But overall I took away from knowing that we always need to try and keep the past, the ones who’ve contributed to what we can do today, in our minds and not brazenly toss it aside. Now, I’m as guilty as anyone for not knowing enough about certain things, but trying to learn and understand why is something that should and can be stressed.
There is a few problems with the film though. It starts off fairly slow, as a number of menial tasks occur (cooking for the family, going to school, etc) that made me wish something interesting would happen. The other storyline that did involve saving the clubhouse I felt didn’t start off well (especially with that debate, which involved a lot of shouting and eventually involved into pushing and shoving. I was basically out of the loop just like Umi). It also started to drag a bit for me at the end, where instead of waiting in anticipation for the meeting between the chairman and the three main characters, I was just hoping they’d get it over with quickly. But again, the start is what makes or breaks the film. For me, I dealt with it and I felt like I was rewarded at the end.
The dub is not bad. Well, it is a Ghibli film, and more often than not, a good portion of highly thought of actors generally take the role. Sarah Bolger (In America, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Tudors) I thought performed the role of Umi well, and Anton Yelchin (Taken, Star Trek, The Smurfs) as Shun was also good too. The script for the dub was kind of interesting. Mostly it was adequate, but some scenes (one example is when Umi and her sister arrive at the clubhouse, and instead of subtitling the signs, they opted to have Umi speak) required silence. Not everything needs a voice to express an emotion, unless annoyance is the key. In checking out the English voice cast featurette, the English director Gary Rydstrom expressed the challenges of voice acting (one of course where the voice actors are always alone, so keeping them informed of things is key), and it was cool to see how a few of the actors acted their lines (with Sarah being expressive in her lines for example).
The extras are pretty nice. It has the aforementioned voice cast featurette, a storyboard of the entire movie as something you can watch, a lot of information about what Yokohama means (from Goro and a past and present feature of the city), a very grainy 6 minute speech by Hayao after the staff screening of the film, and even a press conference involving the theme song of From Up on Poppy Hill. And yes, there’s a music video of the theme included as well. The one that I’ll attempt to keep in mind more is the storyboard, which shows just how much detail was put into them, and how they differed from the film itself. If you’re not into that stuff it may not be as impressive, but I found seeing all of the storyboard (with the voices in the background too–you can only choose the dub though!) pretty cool stuff.
So I guess that means it’s cool to like From Up on Poppy Hill. If this love story doesn’t drive you up the wall early, then you can be certain you’ll be rewarded with a pretty intimate, enjoyable film.
