[FROM UP ON POPPY HILL
opens in Cleveland on Friday April 12th exclusively at the Capitol
Theatre.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
In 1964 Japan, high school girl Umi
(Sarah Bolger) lives and works at her grandmother's boarding house
while her mother studies medicine in America. Umi's father died in
the Korean war, and she honors his memory by flying signal flags that
can be seen by boats passing by the boarding house. The flags are
seen by Shun (Anton Yelchin), another student at Umi's school who is
inspired to write a poem about them. Circumstances bring the two
young people together in an effort to save the Latin Quarter, an old
building on campus that has clearly seen better days but which many
students consider an important meeting place (almost a frat house, it
seems). They clearly have chemistry, but a surprise revelation throws
a major monkey wrench into their budding romance. Not only does it
seem the lovestruck teens are doomed to be “just friends”, the
fate of the venerable school building appears grim as well.
Grim, however, is not a word one could
use to describe FROM UP ON POPPY HILL,
the latest animated feature from Studio Ghibli. It's a colorful,
sunny film full of optimism tempered with just the right amount of
nostalgia and melancholy. Renowned anime director Hayao Miyazaki and
Keiko Niwa co-wrote the screenplay based on a Japanese comic book (or
“manga”, if you prefer), but it is Miyazaki's son Gorō
who handles the directing duties here.
It's
not as visually striking as Miyazaki senior's films, but give that
this is a far more grounded story that's as it should be. Less
forgivable is the blandness of the narrative. Despite its unusual
complication, the love story isn't particularly interesting, and the
whole “save the orphanage” plotline about the school building is
just as generic as it sounds.
Somewhat
more interesting is the film's theme about the past having value,
even when there are parts of it one might wish to forget. This is
certainly an issue that would resonated with the post-war generation
of Japanese youth depicted here. The film does a good job of
conveying that by contrasting the optimism and desire for
modernization brought about by the Olympics with the efforts to
preserve the beloved but run-down old school building.
The
version of the film being distributed by Disney theatrically in the
U.S. is dubbed. That will no doubt rankle some of the purists, but
while I too would have preferred seeing the film in its original
language with subtitles, the English language voice acting is fine.
In addition to the two leads, the cast includes such familiar names
and voices as Jamie Leigh Curtis, Gillian Anderson, Aubrey Plaza,
Christina Hendricks, Bruce Dern, and Ron Howard.
All
in all, FROM UP
ON POPPY HILL
is an agreeable enough lightweight youth romance. It's always nice to
see animation used for something other than kiddie fare and/or
fantasy make it to the big screen, and compared to most of the movies
Hollywood makes for and about teens these days, this is practically a
masterpiece. Certainly for that demographic, especially the ones who
already make a habit of watching anime, I would recommend this film.
For the older movie goer who maybe only dabbles occasionally in anime
I can't quite go that far, but I wouldn't try to talk them out of
seeing it, either. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
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