Synopsis
The 1964 Olympics are making their way towards Tokyo, which is still feeling the effects of the World War through culture change. What once was old must be torn down and made way for new. Two young school children, who are forced to grow up way too fast, have banded together with some Yokohama students to save a clubhouse from the wrecking ball. The clubhouse, which contains not only a place for the students to get away into their own world, is also a symbol for the students love for Japan’s past, present and future.
What amazes me about Studio Ghibli is that they can turn a relative simple story into something beautiful and lasting. From Up on Poppy Hill is a great example of this, as the story really doesn’t do many special things on the outside, but slowly and methodically blooms beautifully on the inside . You won’t find tree spirits, witches or tragedy in this story (maybe a little bit of tragedy). You simply find a story that surrounds the survival of two young teenagers, who have tragically lost their parent(s) through death and adoption. They are drawn together through an old clubhouse that helps them to unravel their own real life mysteries. It’s quite a touching film, even if you just focused it on these two individuals.
But, in Studio Ghibli style, you get an entire cast of characters that not only push the main story along, but also add some flavor and depth to it. That’s where the beauty of this real life story falls into place. You get to see believable characters surrounding and supporting what’s going on in the film. Sometimes you get some great laughs, like the gentleman who runs the Philosophy Club (Ron Howard), who is the only member and everyone thinks he’s a joke (especially later in the film — it’s priceless). Other times, you understand their is some real emotional value at stake, like when our main character Umi (Sarah Bolger) must work out her feelings of emptiness from her mother’s absence because she is in America, and the death of her father, whom she hopes is still alive out in the sea. There’s this perfect balance that each character helps out within the film that keeps the entire story afloat and interesting. And again, there’s nothing particularly special about the story other than the characters drive it and make it engaging. What more would you want from a movie?
With that said, much like Studio Ghibli films of the past, the movie is also driven through the help of visuals. You will be absolutely sucked into the movie and the time period through the world that Ghibli has visually built for you. There is so much life within the animation, so much realness through the visuals that you can’t help but lose yourself in 1964 Japan. You have a Japan that was fighting to keep itself traditional, but also show the world that it had changed from what it used to be. You see tradition and customs through people, like Umi’s grandmother, very much embedded, while an ever expanding landscape puts technology right into the middle of tradition (such as street cars, motorcycles and phone lines everywhere). It’s a visual struggle for control of Japan and the folks at Studio Ghibli bring it all to life. It’s what you would expect from the studio, and it’s what they deliver.
After all this gushing, is there anything they did wrong? I think that our two main characters stretch their story too long, especially the conflicting feelings between them, which leaves little time for a healthy resolution by the end of the film. I wanted to know how their lives went beyond that conclusive moment in the film, or at least get a hint on what their decision (not going to tell you) turned out to be. It’s a blunt conclusion that simply doesn’t do the film’s build up any justice whatsoever. That is my only complaint in the movie, as the rest really does succeed in the storytelling and pacing side of things.
Anyway, at the end of the day you can tell that Goro Miyazaki is going to be a worthy replacement for his father, who just announced his retirement today, at Studio Ghibli. He’ll certainly keep his father’s vision alive and make his own mark, as he did with From Up on Poppy Hill.
Now, let’s talk about the Blu-ray.
What you get with From Up on Poppy Hill is some damn good visuals that look clean enough to make you forget you’re watching an animated feature. There are zero imperfections in the transfer, as it is with typically every Studio Ghibli release on Blu-ray. No hits, artifacts, graininess or color banding. To put it bluntly, it’s a perfect looking HD transfer to Blu-ray. It’s tough to keep imperfections out of hand drawn animated features, but there are none here. It’s gorgeous. It will certainly fit right in with your Studio Ghibli Walt Disney releases.
As for the audio, the movie comes to you in Dolby Digital 5.0 (Not sure why they hate bass, but oh well).
Finally, as for features, it’s stacked. Here’s what you get to look forward to:
– The original Japanese version of the movie
– Storyboards (feature-length)
– Celebrity Cast recording featurette
– Interview with Goro Miyazaki
– Music Video
– Yokohama Featurette
– Trailers/TV Spots
– 16-Page Booklet
– Speech/Press Conference from Hayao Miyazaki
This is just an absolute mountain of worthy features that make this release even sweeter. You get about everything you could hope for in an animated film from Studio Ghibli, and a bit more. It’s all extra value to an already good feature. It’s also value that is worth something, and just not thrown in for the sake of being thrown in. That’s how good it is.