Movie: From Up On Poppy Hill
Monday, July 16th, 2012
From Up On Poppy Hill (コクリコ坂から) is the latest animated masterpiece produced by Japan’s Studio Ghibli. The film is based on the manga series of the same name by Tetsuo Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi.
The film was released in Japan on July 16, 2011 and became the highest-grossing Japanese film of the year. It will hit theatres in the US in early 2013.
The DVD and Blu-Ray was released in Japan last month so check out sites such as JList, YesAsia and Amazon Japan to get your hands on the DVD or Blu-Ray early.
I got the Blu-Ray version and it looks amazing! Hope you enjoy the movie as much as I did.
Official Plot
The story is set in 1963 in Yokohama.
Kokuriko Manor sits on a hill overlooking the harbour. A 16 year-old girl, Umi, lives in that house. Every morning she raises a signal flag facing the sea. The flag means “I pray for safe voyages”. A 17 year-old boy, Shun, always sees this flag from the sea as he rides a tugboat to school.
In preparation for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, people are destroying the old and believing only in the magnificence of the new. In that time, at a high school in Yokohama, a small struggle occurred. The building of the Culture Club, nicknamed Quartier Latin, is old but full of history and memories.
Should it be destroyed or preserved? In the middle of this, Umi and Shun meet. Shun appeals to the students who want to protect the building. Umi suggests a big clean up of the building to show its good parts.
Gradually the pair are drawn to each other but they are faced with a sudden trial. They may be siblings. Even so, they keep going without running from reality. Then, in the middle of the battle and the aftermath, they come to know how their parents met, loved and lived.
