Director: Goro Miyazaki.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Cast: Masami Nagasawa, Jun’ichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita.
Certification: U.
Synopsis: Two young students battle to save their school clubhouse from being demolished in preparation for the 1964 Olympics and fall in love along the way, only to find out they may very well be brother and sister.
If wizards, forest spirits or big fluffy Pokémon type thingys living next door are your bag, then you needn’t look any further than the output of Studio Ghibli. For over twenty years, the Japanese Anime studio’s scale and limitless imagination has consistently produced films of pure fantastical escapism. So when THN heard the premise of FROM UP ON POPPY HILL – students rally to save a clubhouse? A potentially incestuous teenage romance? – we were more than a little intrigued to see whether the studio’s switch from fantasy to drama would pay off. The short answer is yes.
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL succeeds in doing what Studio Ghibli does best; taking the audience on a journey to another place. Granted this film’s destination is a little more pedestrian than we’re used to, but through a blend of narrative pacing, a fantastic soundtrack and exquisite animation, a small harbour town in 1960s Japan is equally as engrossing as the likes of PRINCESS MONONOKE or HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. The story centres on Umi (Masami Nagasawa), a diligent student, wise beyond her years. With her father dead many years and mother away on business, Umi is very much the head of the household but still suffers from the insecurities all teenagers must face with their first crush. In this case accentuated by the fact she’s fallen for a boy who may be her brother, this dramatic hook pulls us engagingly towards the film’s conclusion. The angst and uncertainty is tangible as true love is dashed by a twist in Umi’s family history and how she mourns her father; a theme which regularly pulls at the heartstrings and presents us with refreshingly three-dimensional characters.
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL is a moving and atmospheric dramatic piece that took THN completely by surprise. We spent the first 30 minutes disgruntled that we hadn’t seen a single dragon or weird squirrelly thing, unaware that we were being drawn in by characters and a plot with true heart. Truly Studio Ghibli have the creativity to make even the mundane seem magical and picturesque, presenting a quaint and idyllic world that seems more tangible and alive than most of the green-screen tosh summer blockbusters bombard us with. Not everyone will be enthralled by what is essentially a dramatic cartoon, but for those brave enough to take a chance, you won’t be disappointed.
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL is released in UK cinemas on August 2nd.
