Customer Ratings & Reviews

Genre: Slice of Life, Romance Length: 91 minutes "Yokohama, 1963, Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the Olympics. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi (Sarah Bolger) and Shun (Anton Yelchin)- but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart." Umi and her two siblings live with their grandmother in Yokohama up on Poppy Hill. Her mother is in America pursuing her career and her father, a naval captain, has been missing ever since his supply vesel was sunk by a mine in the Korean War. Every morning, Umi raises symbol flags at the top of the hill to try to help guide her father home. Set in 1963, From Up On Poppy Hill tells the story of Umi's every day life and how a chance meeting with a daredevil boy named Shun will pull her into a brand new world. If you're familiar with other Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films, then one thing becomes apparent right from the start with From up on Poppy Hill. This film is nothing like the others as it is heavily grounded in reality and not a fantasy movie. It's incredibly well-scripted and animated which leads to being very emotional at times. When the secret between Umi and Shun is revealed, I instantly felt my heart sink. Almost managed to pull some tears out, but not quite enough. Haven't done that since Clannad. As is the usual, there are tons of extras included here. Approximately twice the length of the movie at 3 hours worth! I watched the vast majority of them. I had to cut some short as I didn't want to spend 4.5 hours to watch everything. You should definitely watch the celebrity cast recording and the Yokohama featurette. The amount of professional actors brought on for the voice acting is amazing. Everyone did a fantastic job! And I always love to see what other places in the world are like, so being able to see Yokohama in the past and present was truely fun. There's also a small booklet from the original script that gives an overall plot for the director. You also learn that the original title was "A Hill with a Harbor View." An amazing movie in my books. I missed the local screenings of it in Nashville back in May and had been kicking myself since. Everyone should have it in their collection.

As is the case with most Studio Ghibli releases, FROM UP ON POPPY HILL was my favorite animated film of the year. Director Goro Miyazaki will have a long struggle if he’s ever to get out of the shadow of his famous father -- considered among the greatest animation directors of all time (PIXAR’s head honcho John Lasseter is among the ardent admirers of Hayao Miyazaki’s work) -- but this film is a step in the right direction. TALES OF EARTHSEA was a lackluster directorial debut, but Goro’s second feature film really won me over. I hope we can expect more great films from him in the future. Studio Ghibli has long been associated with making fantasy films like PRINCESS MONONOKE, SPIRITED AWAY, PONYO, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, NAUSICAA, CASTLE IN THE SKY and HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, but Hayao and company have recently decided to start to focus on telling stories set in a more reality-based world. This film fits in more with Ghibli movies like WHISPER OF THE HEART and older titles which sadly haven’t been released yet in America like ONLY YESTERDAY and OCEAN WAVES. FROM UP ON POPPY HILL is basically a charming teenage romance set in early 1960s Yokohama coupled with a subplot about the students doing some major cleaning and renovations to their high school’s large, dilapidated clubhouse to rescue it from being demolished to construct a new building for extra-curricular activities clubs during a sweep of beautification being done in advance of the Tokyo Olympics. Even though this film isn’t quite up to the level of Goro's father Hayao Miyazaki’s best and most famous works, it’s still a great movie and highly recommended and is better than most non-PIXAR animated films. Being a new movie, the Blu-ray transfer looks beautiful as expected and professional reviewers have described the picture and sound quality as flawless. There are hours of special features on here, from trailers and interviews & press conferences with the director, writer and even the singer and arranger of the theme song. There’s even a supplement looking at how the city of Yokohama looks now compared to back in the early 1960s when the story is set. The only extra I haven’t watched yet is a storyboards feature which runs the length of the film itself.

This film is definitely a step up from Goro's other film Tales From Earthsea. I enjoyed the film a lot as I have always been a fan of all of Ghibli's Films. Although this film isn't full of fantasy, it is still full of adventure. The characters are created much like his father's, yet the story takes place in a setting that can be more related to in real life. Overall a magical and fun film to watch! The only slightly negative thing I have to say is that the dubbing for this film along with other Japanese Animated films can sometimes be bad. If you watch the film in Japanese and then with english voiceovers, much of the emotion and dialogue sometimes gets lost.

If you only see one animated, nay, one movie a year, watch this one. You will not be disappointed. This is a beautiful and moving story that is well-told. In an age of CGI 3D movies, this film provides a much needed respite from Hollywood. It is apparent that the creators have put in a lot of warmth and heart into this film. It is breathtakingly beautiful movie that must be seen.

The best anime movie ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet another great movie. If you like any other movie from Ghibli you will certainly like this one.