From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

A nostalgic yet subtle portrait of 1960s Japan from the famed children’s animation studio

7.5

Movie

Japan
Japanese
Animation, Drama
2011
GORO MIYAZAKI
Aoi Teshima, Goro Miyazaki, Haruka Shiraishi
91 min

What it's about

Two high schoolers find hope as they fight to save an old wartime era clubhouse from destruction during the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The take

While more known for their fantastical children’s stories, Studio Ghibli occasionally serves a down-to-earth, domestic film set in the real world. One of them is From Up On Poppy Hill. On the surface is a story of two student activists who fall in love while fighting to keep their high school club’s Latin Quarter from demolition. Of course, with this in mind, the most surprising event in the film is the incest scare. However, this seemingly random plot point feels important in the sense that everything is resolved once they've fully understood the past. And because of the 1960s post-Korean War Tokyo setting, the film is nostalgic yet dares to question whether or not Japan has fully processed and acknowledged their losses in a war that isn't theirs.

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