Review From up on Poppy Hill

Our Heroine

Umi is a hard working girl who lives in a boarding house with her grandmother and younger siblings in Yokohama just one year before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Every day she raises a set of nautical flags in remembrance of her dead father. One day at school she hears about how an old school building is going to be torn down and becomes interested in one of the boys (who's name is Shun) that is protesting the closing of the Latin quarter (the school building in question). Little do either of them know they have a past that not only makes them closer than they would possibly think but also threatens to tear them apart.

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From up on Poppy Hill is the second film by new director Goro Miyazaki. It is a period piece (the early sixties in Japan) and the movie's visuals bring the setting of the movie alive and perhaps the movie's best feature. The architecture of the Latin quarter is example enjoyable to watch.The movie is also peppered with various period appropriate musical pieces and feels quite unique even if you watch a lot of anime.

This movie does have some pretty scenery even when it about stuff that is supposed to look ugly

The characters on the other hand aren't that great. The two main leads (Umi and Shun) are decent enough but feel a bit flat in terms of having an interesting personality or being that memorable. A lot of this is do to how there is little to really challenge either of them on a really fundamental level or make them emote all that much. There is also the problem of the romance angle to the movie being lackluster and the fact they choose Umi to be the main character when she seems to only have a passing interest in the other goal of the film, being saving the Latin quarter.The rest of the cast consist of fairly quirky one note foil characters, none of which are particularly notable or annoying.

Nope this movie isn't about the enviornment

Overall this movie is something that works best if you are looking for a period piece. If you are looking for a more character or plot focused movie you might be somewhat disappointed.

Rating the bronze eyeball flower (Aku no Hana) for being only a decent movie to most people even if I suspect some artsy types might like the film more