Club Ghibli #10 - From up on Poppy Hill (2011)

A debatable masterpiece?

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    4
Diddy

Diddy

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Thank you to @Gangsta Nancy Lam for deciding on the tenth movie in our little club - this time were are back to the (relatively) modern age, with 2011's "From up on Poppy Hill" (Kokuriko-saka kara).

It's also the first entry we've encountered directed by Goro Miyazaki, the long-suffering son of founder Hayao. His working relationship with his father is complicated, and his relationship with the Ghibli fanbase pales in the shadow of the studio's titans, but let's all give him a chance, OK?

"From up on Poppy Hill" tells the story of Umi, a high school girl in 1960s Yokohama, who meets schoolmate Shun as they struggle to save a school clubhouse from demolition. But is there more to their relationship than that? It performed reasonably at the box office, and has generally been well-received by the public and the critics, however it is a far cry from the fame shared by the earlier movies. Could this be a hidden gem?

I actually recommend NOT watching the trailer, there's a heavy spoiler alert right at the start for a fairly big moment in the movie - watch at your peril!



HOW THIS WORKS

In a semi book club format, the films will be announced, and over the course of about 2 weeks we can watch it and let everyone know what we thought. I'll nominate someone to pick the next film each time, but maybe let's try not to blow all the famous ones first!

I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!
@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley @big ron @ButterTart @Mats (let me know if you don't want to be tagged any more)
 
I thought this was the LEAST GHIBLI of all the Ghiblies. It's not awful, although the

incest plot

was all sorts of WTF, but in all honesty it could have been ANY OTHER ANIME STUDIO. It was cute, in its own way, and I liked the bits about rebuilding the house, working together etc which is the closest you get to a Ghibli "theme", but overall it was pretty FORGETTABLE.

SORRY GORO.
 
Had no idea this one even existed so good pick.

This looks very Kyushu-like at first glance (apparently Yokohama which is still cool), but in any case warmer coastal Japan is one of my favourite settings, and I really appreciate the everyday life here.

I love the fancifully weird clubhouse, especially given the characters don't blink and just accept this claptrap disaster of a place as if not entirely normal, like
it's an expected "boys will be boys" man cave.

Ue O Muite Aruko! I guess it showing up in a Japanese film set in the 60s is hardly unexpected but also... tune.

This debate over destroying the clubhouse is cool, 'tyranny of the majority' and 'throw the anarchists out' were unexpected phrases to see here, but also
this is a debate I'm going to both sides on, history is important and should be preserved, Japanese history is something worth learning from (at least
the non-imperialist parts), and also this clubhouse is clearly quite odd and probably causing huge disturbances like the chemistry
club scaring the neighbours' dogs or the philosophy dude recruiting unsuspecting children into a NIETZSCHE CULT.

The 'who's your real father' plot was kinda weak and did lead to a pretty low point in the movie when she confessed her love thinking they were siblings and she didn't care but it was resolved quite pleasantly.

Far stronger was the student activism plot, seeing everyone come together to improve their school as model students is really quite impressive. Expected, but that's what's nice about Ghibli movies really, that they show the positives of society working together. Umi was a pretty good stock Ghibli well-written female character as well for most of the movie, diligent, kind and apparently blessed with the power of influencing people to break their backs for her so, good on her I guess.

It's not the strongest Ghibli I've ever seen but there's so many beautiful moments of feeling like you're there in 1960s Japan, especially seeing Umi run her hostel almost alone, that I enjoyed vibing along.
 
I don't know, I guess I was just in the right place and time for this - I think it's one of the Ghibli movies I've watched the least, maybe only once when the DVD came out? So I was braced for meh, but I ended up quite touched by it (and yes, I did cry because goddammit they always make me). I think a very "still waters run deep" film for me.

On the face of it, it's quite an ordinary story (spoiler tags notwithstanding) - I did enjoy the line "It's like a cheesy melodrama, isn't it?", knowing what that plot point was, it made me think "OK, you acknowledge that, let's see what you do with it". And I guess the payoff of the wartime backstory probably didn't do a lot for most people, but I think it was a good climax to the overarching story, which I THINK was not the clubhouse, but Umi dealing with her grief. If I think of the film from that angle, it works better.

The clubhouse story and general highschool life was - well I can't agree with @Peekaboo about how it could've been made by any studio, it definitely had that Ghibliness infused in ever cluttered corner of those beautiful painted backdrops, as well as Yokohama. I don't know much about how it all really looked but I'm sure it was well researched. And gorgeous of course.

The characterisation was great too, Umi isn't the traditional heroine, but she has a likeable stoicism, and I felt I got a good sense of her being fairly adept at holding things together (logistically in the house and emotionally), but really holding back the emotions until she talked to her mum. And that dream sequence just kicked me right in the heart.

Shun was very likeable too, as were most of the ensemble cast - I love how even quite minor characters like her grandmother got fairly uneventful scenes that still told us about the dynamic of Umi's world. For ME, Goro made good use of the 90 minutes, I was going to say I can't imagine how bloated it would've been under Hayao, but The Wind Rises is probably close to that - in terms of latter-day Ghiblis, I was surprised that I enjoyed this film more than The Wind Rises.

That soundtrack too! <3 The boats! <3 (is that a Goro thing? We didn't get any aircraft!). I'm delighted that a Ghibli nerd like me can still somehow find a hidden gem.
 
By weird coincidence, I’m watching another film on my Netflix list, which also deals with a high school girl’s grief for a parent, Child of Kamiari Month.

It sort of puts in contrast how good Poppy Hill was, this film just puts the stages of grief in the most basic possibly terms/tropes with a fairly nonsensical anime plot and 2D characters. It makes me appreciate Ghibli all the more.

Actually just reading what I just wrote and remember what @Peekaboo said, I don’t think any other other studio could’ve made Poppy Hill (well, not the studio who made this movie anyway :D) - just realising how blatantly parts of it were just nicked from Weathering with You
 
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It wasn't just you, it's gorgeous.
Anyway, to get going with my review watching this has been the happiest 1,5 hours of my life for the past month. The heroes were lovely, the landscape was stunning, probably the most pretty town in all Ghibli films, the music was gorgeous. Yes that particular plot incident was predictable and yes that was extremely obvious, but the film wasn't about that. And I enjoyed that it even makes a satire on itself by having Shun making fun of that plot device. I wasn't very invested in the club sub-plot but that was beautiful too and provided lots of the funnier moments. I agree with sistren Dids on what the film is about. And it uses both of these sub-plots for that. And I also think that the teenage forbidden love theme is very relatable to how people of our generation were brought up, for different reasons. And the way this is portrayed, is so good, ie the moment where Umi cannot keep it in and decides to say it, even if it's impossible. And am thankful that they did not use a sad ending for this particular film. All in all, beautiful in every level, it's one of the top 5 and maybe top 3 Ghibli films for me. Good job Nancy for proposing it.
 
Queen of the Bay said:
It wasn't just you, it's gorgeous.
Anyway, to get going with my review watching this has been the happiest 1,5 hours of my life for the past month. The heroes were lovely, the landscape was stunning, probably the most pretty town in all Ghibli films, the music was gorgeous. Yes that particular plot incident was predictable and yes that was extremely obvious, but the film wasn't about that. And I enjoyed that it even makes a satire on itself by having Shun making fun of that plot device. I wasn't very invested in the club sub-plot but that was beautiful too and provided lots of the funnier moments. I agree with sistren Dids on what the film is about. And it uses both of these sub-plots for that. And I also think that the teenage forbidden love theme is very relatable to how people of our generation were brought up, for different reasons. And the way this is portrayed, is so good, ie the moment where Umi cannot keep it in and decides to say it, even if it's impossible. And am thankful that they did not use a sad ending for this particular film. All in all, beautiful in every level, it's one of the top 5 and maybe top 3 Ghibli films for me. Good job Nancy for proposing it.
Click to expand...

Really happy to hear that. Did you think the plot twist was obvious?? I guess after the bit where he sees the photo it became a lot more likely, but it’s sort of an unusual plot point for me :D
 
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