From Up on Poppy Hill is a triumphant second chance for Director Gorō Miyazaki. The younger Miyazaki’s directorial debut, 2006’s Tales from Earthsea, fell flat in spite of the extreme depths of its pedigree. Five years later, the man is put in charge of another film—this one a gentle and romantic coming-of-age film set in 1963 Yokohama—and he finds considerable success this time.
From Up on Poppy Hill effectively has three major plot threads happening at any given time, all revolving around two high school students: Umi Matsuzaki (Masami Nagasawa/Sarah Bolger) and Shun Kazama (Junichi Okada/Anton Yelchin). After Shun makes a big splash in their first encounter, Umi ends up visiting him at the nearby Latin Quarter clubhouse that Shun and many of the other boys at their school use to explore their various hobbies and interests outside of school. It is a filthy place, however, and the local school board wants to tear it down to make way for something more modern to support the upcoming 1964 Olympics in nearby Tokyo. Umi suggests to Shun and the rest of the boys that they spruce the place up and fight back against the demolition plan. Over the course of the rest of the film, Umi and Shun become quite close as they work together, and a mystery involving both of their families unfolds.
Director Miyazaki and Writers Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa handle and balance each of these major plot threads well. Just as the viewer is starting to wonder what’s happening at the clubhouse, cue a fun montage scene of the boys and girls working together (and bonding) as they clean the Latin Quarter, oftentimes culminating with one boy or another doing something equally foolish and brave to impress the girls or with one of the girls angrily showing the boys how to actually perform a domestic task, impressing the boys in turn. The next scene might pivot to Umi and Shun talking with each other as they stroll down the gorgeously drawn streets of 1963 Yokohama as their friendship expands and makes the viewer wonder “will they or won’t they?” That in turn will inevitably deepen the family mystery, which I will not write much about except to say that it exists and is handled quite well.
The art direction in From Up on Poppy Hill is a real highlight. Yokohama is alive and vibrant with a gorgeous palette of greens and pinks during daytime scenes, and blues and yellows during nighttime scenes. Tokyo Bay frequently serves as a backdrop for many scenes, and it is always busy with ships passing to and fro from one destination to another. Even during ostensibly quiet and intimate scenes between Umi and Shun, there are a large number of passersby and vehicular traffic—a stark reminder that they are living in one of Japan’s biggest and busiest cities. The transformation of the Latin Quarter clubhouse is a real highlight. Starting out with drab browns and covered in dust and cobwebs (even as the boys in the chemistry club make things explode), it receives a real royal treatment by the time the boys and girls have finished their renovations.
There are a number of interesting and quirky characters that infuse life into the story. Shirō Mizunuma (Shunsuke Kazama/Charlie Saxton) frequently plays second fiddle to Shun despite being class president, and he develops a budding romance with Umi’s sister, Sora (Haruka Shiraishi/Isabelle Fuhrman). Umi lives in a boarding house with several other young women, some of whom have their quirks. The most interesting is almost certainly college art student Sachiko (Rumi Hiiragi/Aubrey Plaza), who is absent minded about most things not related to art, but drives the family mystery forward.
On the other hand, several characters are purely utilitarian, like Miki (Yuriko Ishida/Gillian Anderson), another boarder, whose purpose seems purely to bring Umi and Shun closer together and little else. There’s also Saori (Eiko Kanazawa/Christina Hendricks), who literally seems to just exist in the world with a few lines of unimportant dialogue. It is a little frustrating when there are so many other vibrant characters in the film that characters like Miki and Saori exist.
The music score provided by Composer Satoshi Takebi is a bit uneven at times, but is overall a great addition to the film. It works best for me when it leans heavily into the big band-style jazz cues or the classical-style piano cues. A lot of the small combo-style cues are a little too repetitive, nor do they fully succeed at transitioning from jazz to classical in the same cue. One of the best is the cue associated with the mystery plot, which seems to be really inspired by the following quote from the great American composer Aaron Copland: “You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room—proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.” We see a photo flash on the screen and a single note rings out from the piano like a clarion. It shifts the mood so strikingly and compellingly—just as Mr. Copland predicted—that one can’t help but be drawn into the scene by the mysticism of the note.
From Up on Poppy Hill is at once gentle, nostalgic, romantic, and mysterious. A strong pair of lead characters, a host of interesting secondary characters, wonderful art direction, and good music lead the way. Some purely utilitarian characters in an otherwise strong ensemble cast and the occasional musical stumble keep it from truly lofty heights. From Up on Poppy Hill does not suck.
Directed by Gorō Miyazaki.
Written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa.
Starring Masami Nagasawa/Sarah Bolger, Junichi Okada/Anton Yelchin, Shunsuke Kazama/Charlie Saxton, Haruka Shiraishi/Isabelle Fuhrman, Rumi Hiiragi/Aubrey Plaza, etc.
8/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING (IT DOES NOT SUCK)
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