SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
While it sticks solidly to genre conventions and pedestrian direction, From Up on Poppy Hill’s love story is still heartwarming and nostalgic enough to charm.
After Goro Miyazaki made his debut with Tales of Earthsea, things must have been a tad awkward both at Studio Ghibli and in the Miyazaki household. Luckily, From Up on Poppy Hill is just the right sort of film to smooth things over; a solid if not entirely brilliant second movie made by a son benefitting in part from the guidance of his father, who just so happens to be a titan of animated filmmaking. While it’s a stretch to imagine that From Up on Poppy Hill will become anyone’s favourite Ghibli story, it’s a perfectly heartwarming and nostalgic affair; in fact words like ‘inoffensive’ don’t do it justice. Not when it has a few charms of its own.
Set in 1960s Japan, From Up on Poppy Hill is the story of Umi and Shun, two high school students who meet while trying to save their school’s old clubhouse from demolition. The powers that be on the prefectural education board have ruled that it be demolished to make room for new developments related to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics: a precursor to the Japanese economic miracle that lasted through to the 1990s. While rallying their fellow students to remodel and renovate the clubhouse, Umi and Shun find themselves in a budding romance, and discover that they share a mysterious connection that they then decide to investigate further.
At this stage, it’s worth pointing out that Studio Ghibli have done a few realist dramas before. Between films like Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves, From Up on Poppy Hill isn’t so much staking out new storytelling territory as it is re-treading a fairly well-worn path in a particularly prolific genre. Unlike the two other films I mentioned however, it works best as a kind of period drama where the studio’s animators have turned their attention away from fantasy and towards recreating the mood and atmosphere of 1960s Japan. Against this backdrop of revitalised towns and heavy industry, our characters deal with their own everyday dramas and by showing us the little moments of magic in their lives, the Miyazakis seem to encourage us to see those moments in our own. Umi and Shun are compelling characters whose struggle to save the rustic clubhouse embodies the conflict between past and future that comes part and parcel with modernisation. There’s an undeniable sense of affection, perhaps even longing for the former, befitting a film that captures an enviable upswell of student activism and civic pride, at least on a local scale. The drama and romance are complicated by Umi and Shun’s mysterious personal connection, which is gradually uncovered via plot twists that are decidedly awkward and a little artificial, making the overall narrative a little uneven, if not clumsy.
Though the elder Miyazaki wrote the screenplay, I have to pin From Up on Poppy Hill’s direction on the younger Miyazaki instead, based simply on its more workmanlike and pedestrian style. Some flair does exist; the labyrinthine internal sprawl of the school clubhouse with its various news offices, chemists’ labs and makeshift booths is a delight as are its inhabitants, including the highly passionate leader of the school’s one-man philosophy club. This depiction of the clubhouse aids the story immensely, helping the audience understand just why this wonderfully bizarre community centre is worth rescuing from the bulldozer and wrecking ball. The art design is adorned with numerous period-appropriate touches that successfully recreate the bustling atmosphere of this particular part of Japanese history too. But aside from that, it’s filmed in such an unobtrusive way that you can’t help but wish there was a little more pep and patience. A bicycle ride to town is just that: a bicycle ride, and not the high energy, high speed sequence it could have been. Miyazaki’s reluctance to linger awhile in the world he creates is all the more puzzling given the Studio Ghibli pedigree.
But I’d be surprised if you put this on for a rainy day and got any complaints. It’s perfectly relaxing: comfort food from a younger director who appears to be slowly working his way up towards greatness. As it is, From Up on Poppy Hill is a solid feel-good film with some heart and emotion of its own, undermined only by the way it, and its director, still haven’t fully moved out from under the shadows of their predecessors. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm for Goro Miyazaki.
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