From Up on Poppy Hill
Movie, 2011, The 2010s, Set in Yokohama, 1963
From Up on Poppy Hill is #19 of 25 in release order and #19 of 25 in chronological order in the Studio Ghibli.
The story
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
From Up on Poppy Hill recap
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011) follows two Yokohama high school students in 1963 who campaign to save their school's clubhouse and fall for each other. Gorō Miyazaki directed this adaptation of a manga by Tetsurō Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi, written by his father Hayao Miyazaki with Keiko Niwa. Umi Matsuzaki (Masami Nagasawa) runs her family's boarding house on a hill above the port while her mother studies in the United States, and raises signal flags every morning for her father, a sailor killed in the Korean War. Shun Kazama (Junichi Okada), who sees the flags from his father's tugboat, writes for the school paper and helps defend the Latin Quarter, a ramshackle clubhouse due to be torn down before the Tokyo Olympics. Umi organises a clean-up, and the two grow close until a photo of three young sailors suggests they share a father.
From Up on Poppy Hill ending explained
From Up on Poppy Hill ends with the students persuading the businessman Tokumaru, chairman of the school board, to visit the restored Latin Quarter, and he cancels the demolition. Umi's mother returns and explains that Shun's real father was another of the three sailors, who died in 1945. The last surviving friend, now a ship's captain, confirms that Umi and Shun are not related.
Where to watch From Up on Poppy Hill
From Up on Poppy Hill is streaming on HBO Max in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.4/10, Rotten Tomatoes 87%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Secret World of Arrietty, before The Wind Rises.
- Chronological order: after The Secret World of Arrietty, before The Wind Rises.
Cast
- Masami Nagasawa as Umi Matsuzaki (voice)
- Junichi Okada as Shun Kazama / Yuichiro Sawamura (voice)
- Keiko Takeshita as Hana Matsuzaki (voice)
- Yuriko Ishida as Miki Hokuto (voice)
- Rumi Hiiragi as Sachiko Hirokoji (voice)
- Jun Fubuki as Ryoko Matsuzaki (voice)
- Takashi Naito as Yoshio Onodera (voice)
- Shunsuke Kazama as Shiro Mizunuma / Hiroshi Tachibana (voice)
- Nao Omori as Akio Kazama (voice)
- Teruyuki Kagawa as Tokumaru Board Chairman (voice)
- Haruka Shiraishi as Sora Matsuzaki (voice)
- Tsubasa Kobayashi as Riku Matsuzaki (voice)
Directed by Goro Miyazaki.