“It’s like some cheap melodrama.”
What’s it all about? “Following in his father’s footsteps, anime director Goro Miyazaki creates a charmingly nostalgic, sometimes tragic story of young love and student protest against the period of revitalization before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.” (2011 Toronto International Film Festival)
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL was adapted by director Goro Miyazaki from the manga (Japanese comic-book) “Kokurikozaka Kara”. The transition from manga to animation — though overseen and co-written by his famous father, Hayao — wasn’t well-advised, nor does the film itself come close to the magnificence of Hayao’s SPIRITED AWAY, PRINCESS MONONOKE or HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. Plainly, the source material, “Kokurikozaka Kara”, does not justify becoming a theatrical feature. A one-off home video release, maybe, but it did not deserve being selected for an international film festival.
Sixteen-year-old Umi lives in a house that overlooks the harbour. Every morning she wakes up, does her chores and raises a signal flag before leaving for school. At her school, there is a student protest against the planned tear-down of their decrepit clubs building in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The leader of this protest group is named Shun, who also works with his father in the harbour and sees Umi’s signal flags every morning. Obviously, they meet-cute and fall for one another. There are complications, of course.
Now, I can withstand quite a lot of cheese when it comes to manga/anime, as I’ve read a book or two of shoujo during my short career as an “otaku” — but FROM UP ON POPPY HILL didn’t sustain my interest and, for that, I partly blame the film’s protagonist, Umi. The roles for women and men are very clearly defined in FROM UP ON POPPY HILL, as they often are in Japanese anime — and Japanese culture for that matter. In other anime, however, women usually have the opportunity to do exceptional things outside of cooking, cleaning and looking for a husband, which were Umi’s sole activities throughout this film. Umi, couldn’t you fight off some ghosts or something? I swear, if there was one more scene of her grocery shopping or doing the laundry, I was going to scream.
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL is forgettable and paltry, as nothing really happens and the film is resolved with a heavy dose of soap-opera exposition. Others thought the film was quaint and charming. I thought it was clear as day that FROM UP ON POPPY HILL was a festival selection solely for the clout behind Goro Miyazaki’s father’s name.
Notes: Directed by Goro Miyazaki; Produced by Koji Hoshino, Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli; Starring Masami Nagasawa, Jun’ichi Okada, Teruyuki Kagawa; Written by Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa; Cinematography by Atsushi Okui; Music by Satoshi Takebe.
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Aw man I was looking forward to this one after reading Ryan’s review but now I am unsure! I feel bad for Goro Miyazaki because it must be really hard to work in the same field as your super-famous and universally adored father, so I want him to succeed. I figure I’ll check this and EARTHSEA out eventually, but I won’t have very high expectations.
I’m in Alex’s boat. I’d heard some good things about this and was interested to see it, but this sounds so trite and pointless. I’m especially off-put that the son of Hayao “I’m the only male living who gives Joss Whedon a run for his feminist money” Miyazaki would put his female lead into what sounds like such a conventional role. My eagerness to see this just took a huge hit.
Yeah, I wouldn’t put much stock in this. You should watch a Hayao film instead.