From Up On Poppy Hill - Movie Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

From the studio that brought us classics like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, this animated drama feels unusually low-key and realistic. But while the lack of fantastical elements leaves it somewhat dry, as if it should really be a live-action movie, the animation is still a lavishly detailed feast for the eyes.

It's set in 1963 Japan, where orphaned teen Umi (Bolger) lives with her grandmother (Hendricks) atop a hill overlooking a fishing village. She raises flags every morning as a signal her fisherman father, who died in the Korean War, then heads to school where the topic on everyone's lips is the impending demolition of the ramshackle clubhouse. As the nation prepares for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, old buildings like this must go, but the students band together to protect it, and Umi teams up with student journalist Shun (Yelchin) to clean up the building and make a plea to the corporate boss (Bridges). Meanwhile, Shun is having a personal crisis: as he begins to fall for Umi, he starts to suspect that they have the same father.

The film never really weaves these two plot strands together, so as Umi and Shun try to save the clubhouse and work out their parentage, each storyline feels like a distraction from the other. But they both raise intriguing questions about the past, present and future in a nation still recovering from WWII. And the beautifully rendered backgrounds bring the period to life with artful detail. On the other hand, the characters are more basic anime shapes, inexpressive and a bit stiff, which makes it difficult to identify with them even when their stories turn extremely emotional.

Director Miyazaki (son of the great Hayao, who cowrote this script) has made a movie that feels almost like one of those French films full of politically active students who never stop talking. The film builds strong momentum as it heads into its intense final act, even if the ending feels tidy and abrupt. Fortunately, the dialog is packed with interesting observations, creating cheeky and engaging characters while touching on bigger issues about the generational fallout of war.

Facts and Figures

Year: 2011

Genre: Animation

Run time: 91 mins

In Theaters: Saturday 16th July 2011

Box Office USA: $1.0M

Distributed by: Independent Pictures

Production compaines: Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, The Walt Disney Company, Mitsubishi, Toho Company, KDDI Corporation, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Lawson

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Fresh: 70 Rotten: 14

IMDB: 7.4 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Goro Miyazaki

Producer: Tetsuro Sayama, Toshio Suzuki, Chizuru Takahashi

Screenwriter: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa

Starring: Teruyuki Kagawa as Tokumaru rijichô, Masami Nagasawa as Umi Matsuzaki, Junichi Okada as Shun Kazama, Keiko Takeshita as Hana Matsuzaki, Yuriko Ishida as Miki Hokuto, Rumi Hiiragi as Sachiko Hirokôji, Jun Fubuki as Ryoko Matsuzaki, Takashi Naitô as Yoshio Onodera, Shunsuke Kazama as Shirô Mizunuma, Nao Ohmori as Akio Kazama, Haruka Shiraishi as Sora Matsuzaki, Tsubasa Kobayashi as Riku Matsuzaki, Aoi Teshima as Yuko, Goro Miyazaki as World History Teacher

Also starring: Sarah Bolger, Anton Yelchin, Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, Aubrey Plaza, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bruce Dern, Beau Bridges, Toshio Suzuki, Hayao Miyazaki