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REVIEW: From Up On Poppy Hill BD+DVD [2014-11-24]


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bobob101



Joined: 28 Jun 2013
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:44 pm Reply with quote
For me, this is one of my personal all time favorite Ghibli movies. I love the way Ghibli designs buildings, both hobbled together and incredibly efficient. The Latin Quarter, and to a lesser extent Umi's house, both are the kinds of settings I could look at for hours and still find neat features. The plot of this movie truly is standard Shojo, but done well enough to draw no complaints from me.
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asdqweiop



Joined: 21 Feb 2014
Posts: 33
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:04 pm Reply with quote
If anyone wants to listen to an interpretation of this movie that goes beyond Mike's view of this movie as rote shoujo, I really appreciated Erin Finnegan and the Ninja Consultants podcast on the film.

Link
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1067
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:05 pm Reply with quote
I absolutely love From Up on Poppy Hill. It's my second favorite Ghibli movie, right behind Whisper of the Heart. I love everything about it and I've rewatched it about 3 times already.

I'd love to get the UK Blu-ay if only it wasn't so incredibly expensive.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Way too workmanlike (good word choice) and uneventful for me. The conflict over the Latin Quarter doesn't contain much conflict (everything goes perfectly smoothly) and the conflict between the female and male leads is way too soapy to care about.

The depiction of 1960's Japan and of a port city were interesting, but that can't carry the film for me.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 2:03 pm Reply with quote
It lost me in the third act family drama, but I enjoyed the good old save our school parts.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 2:18 pm Reply with quote
thekingsdinner wrote:
I absolutely love From Up on Poppy Hill. It's my second favorite Ghibli movie, right behind Whisper of the Heart. I love everything about it and I've rewatched it about 3 times already.


I've found that to be the case whenever I show Ghibli to my family as well. Both Whisper of the Heart and From Up on Poppy Hill are their unequivocal favorites, while Howl, Spirited, Mononoke, and Naussica don't seem to capitvate them at all. They just aren't really interested in fantasy, which is fine, but it still baffles me. Confused
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Boojitsu



Joined: 24 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 2:30 pm Reply with quote
I've always said they did a great job with this movie except the lack-luster ending. The style, feel, sound, animation, and flow are great (for a slice-of-life type period movie). The end was abrupt and a weak send-off in my opinion. Would've worked as a post-credits type thing or something that ran as credits were rolling after the school celebration.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:45 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
In one of the interviews, the elder Miyazaki explains that they wanted to do a period drama, but something set in 1980 would've seemed a little too recent. The studio selected Poppy Hill because of its more remote timeframe and setting, and pushed it back a few years to boot.


Note the exact timing. I think I've mentioned this, but it's stuff that is more obvious in japan than the west and kind of shapes you you percieve the film. Really I don't think you can understand the film unless you know it.

Anyway. A second-year high school student in 1963 would be a fourth-year university student in 1968, and Umi wants to do medicine [a change from the original] and [explicitly mentioned in dialogue] could only afford to do so at Toudai.

Japan had fairly large student protests in 1968, in common with a lot of other places. Pretty big thing, pretty common knowledge [there's a bit character in 12kk who's tied up with this, say]. Certainly Miyazaki pere knows.

And our heroine, an accomplished and successful activist, who the narrative praises , is walking straight into the middle of it.

Brilliant.

[tags]


Last edited by nargun on Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:48 pm; edited 1 time in total
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:47 pm Reply with quote
Boojitsu wrote:
I've always said they did a great job with this movie except the lack-luster ending. The style, feel, sound, animation, and flow are great (for a slice-of-life type period movie). The end was abrupt and a weak send-off in my opinion. Would've worked as a post-credits type thing or something that ran as credits were rolling after the school celebration.


Well, like I mentioned, the original japanese audience knows what happened next. You need to know the context or you won't understand the film as intended.
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1067
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:36 pm Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
thekingsdinner wrote:
I absolutely love From Up on Poppy Hill. It's my second favorite Ghibli movie, right behind Whisper of the Heart. I love everything about it and I've rewatched it about 3 times already.


I've found that to be the case whenever I show Ghibli to my family as well. Both Whisper of the Heart and From Up on Poppy Hill are their unequivocal favorites, while Howl, Spirited, Mononoke, and Naussica don't seem to capitvate them at all. They just aren't really interested in fantasy, which is fine, but it still baffles me. Confused
To be fair, Howl and Spirited Away didn't do much for me either. They're still great films with mindblowing animation, but for some reason I always end up liking the slice of life films the most. I guess that's just my kinda thing.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:58 pm Reply with quote
Oh yeah, this one. I couldn't see any good points in this movie after it tried to get me to swallow the concept of a man's honor during a particularly hopeless war being unquestionable based on the testimony of a complete stranger.

Yes, I know they wanted to buy it.spoiler[ "Well, that's cleared up then. Let's do it!" They could have least have done a "Well, we could be strangers or we could be related. Let's do it anyway!" moment.] {Also, there's a certain "blindly accept what your elders did during the war" element here as well. This is not a message movie, it's not trying to be one but it still felt preachy for some reason. "Admire your elders, they're awesome!" "But look at some of the stuff they..." "Admire them!" The story's co-written by an old bitter man, never would have guessed it...}

Somebody took Please Twins, dressed it up in post war Yokohama, screamed "Look, a period piece!" and ran away before the whole work fell apart.

Story D+... because the other half of the story is trying to keep a death trap open for kids, because it's old and... old.
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kevinx59



Joined: 27 Jan 2012
Posts: 959
Location: In sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:26 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed Poppy Hill. Not my favorite, but it was sweet, and I liked the depiction of 1960's Japan. Unlike the reviewer, I liked the jazzy soundtrack and felt it fit the scenes well. That and the time period made it stand out to me among the other Ghibli films; it had a really different feel for me than the other works that the studio makes. Didn't know it was based on an old Shojo manga, but the story did seem like one.
Boojitsu wrote:
The end was abrupt and a weak send-off in my opinion. Would've worked as a post-credits type thing or something that ran as credits were rolling after the school celebration.
That was my main quibble with the film. Great movie, but the ending was rather weak.
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TurnerJ



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 481
Location: Highland Park, NJ
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:33 pm Reply with quote
It seems as though Goro Miyazaki has yet to truly find his voice. Tales from Earthsea suffered mainly because I don't think Jr was really ready to tackle such a complex story. It was too much of a burden for the young man. Luckily he had Daddy helping him when he made this one; it's a much more simplistic and less contrived film, and certainly an improvement. It's certainly not my favorite Ghibli movie by any means, but I still found it to be a beautifully animated and heartwarming film. It WAS slow going, but for some reason I wasn't so put off by this film as I was, say, The Wind Rises. The characters here were very likable and easy to relate to.

The dub was also really good as well; no false notes I could detect from it.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:36 pm Reply with quote
asdqweiop wrote:
If anyone wants to listen to an interpretation of this movie that goes beyond Mike's view of this movie as rote shoujo, I really appreciated Erin Finnegan and the Ninja Consultants podcast on the film.

Link

Pretty interesting take on the film. I must have forgotten the scene where spoiler[the girl's mother talks to the captain the kids later meet up with.]
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thecritter



Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 66
Location: Northwest GA
PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:53 am Reply with quote
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and respected it. I respect the review much less.
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