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Forum - View topicREVIEW: From Up On Poppy Hill BD+DVD [2014-11-24]
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bobob101
 Posts: 201 |
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For me, this is one of my personal all time favorite Ghibli movies. I love the way Ghibli designs buildings, both hobbled together and incredibly efficient. The Latin Quarter, and to a lesser extent Umi's house, both are the kinds of settings I could look at for hours and still find neat features. The plot of this movie truly is standard Shojo, but done well enough to draw no complaints from me.
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asdqweiop
Posts: 33 |
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If anyone wants to listen to an interpretation of this movie that goes beyond Mike's view of this movie as rote shoujo, I really appreciated Erin Finnegan and the Ninja Consultants podcast on the film.
Link |
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thekingsdinner
 Posts: 1097 Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands |
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I absolutely love From Up on Poppy Hill. It's my second favorite Ghibli movie, right behind Whisper of the Heart. I love everything about it and I've rewatched it about 3 times already.
I'd love to get the UK Blu-ay if only it wasn't so incredibly expensive. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Way too workmanlike (good word choice) and uneventful for me. The conflict over the Latin Quarter doesn't contain much conflict (everything goes perfectly smoothly) and the conflict between the female and male leads is way too soapy to care about.
The depiction of 1960's Japan and of a port city were interesting, but that can't carry the film for me. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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It lost me in the third act family drama, but I enjoyed the good old save our school parts.
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I've found that to be the case whenever I show Ghibli to my family as well. Both Whisper of the Heart and From Up on Poppy Hill are their unequivocal favorites, while Howl, Spirited, Mononoke, and Naussica don't seem to capitvate them at all. They just aren't really interested in fantasy, which is fine, but it still baffles me. 
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Boojitsu
Posts: 1 |
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I've always said they did a great job with this movie except the lack-luster ending. The style, feel, sound, animation, and flow are great (for a slice-of-life type period movie). The end was abrupt and a weak send-off in my opinion. Would've worked as a post-credits type thing or something that ran as credits were rolling after the school celebration.
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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Note the exact timing. I think I've mentioned this, but it's stuff that is more obvious in japan than the west and kind of shapes you you percieve the film. Really I don't think you can understand the film unless you know it. Anyway. A second-year high school student in 1963 would be a fourth-year university student in 1968, and Umi wants to do medicine [a change from the original] and [explicitly mentioned in dialogue] could only afford to do so at Toudai. Japan had fairly large student protests in 1968, in common with a lot of other places. Pretty big thing, pretty common knowledge [there's a bit character in 12kk who's tied up with this, say]. Certainly Miyazaki pere knows. And our heroine, an accomplished and successful activist, who the narrative praises , is walking straight into the middle of it. Brilliant. [tags] Last edited by nargun on Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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Well, like I mentioned, the original japanese audience knows what happened next. You need to know the context or you won't understand the film as intended. |
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thekingsdinner
Posts: 1097 Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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Oh yeah, this one. I couldn't see any good points in this movie after it tried to get me to swallow the concept of a man's honor during a particularly hopeless war being unquestionable based on the testimony of a complete stranger.
Yes, I know they wanted to buy it.spoiler[ "Well, that's cleared up then. Let's do it!" They could have least have done a "Well, we could be strangers or we could be related. Let's do it anyway!" moment.] {Also, there's a certain "blindly accept what your elders did during the war" element here as well. This is not a message movie, it's not trying to be one but it still felt preachy for some reason. "Admire your elders, they're awesome!" "But look at some of the stuff they..." "Admire them!" The story's co-written by an old bitter man, never would have guessed it...} Somebody took Please Twins, dressed it up in post war Yokohama, screamed "Look, a period piece!" and ran away before the whole work fell apart. Story D+... because the other half of the story is trying to keep a death trap open for kids, because it's old and... old. |
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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I really enjoyed Poppy Hill. Not my favorite, but it was sweet, and I liked the depiction of 1960's Japan. Unlike the reviewer, I liked the jazzy soundtrack and felt it fit the scenes well. That and the time period made it stand out to me among the other Ghibli films; it had a really different feel for me than the other works that the studio makes. Didn't know it was based on an old Shojo manga, but the story did seem like one.
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TurnerJ
Posts: 482 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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It seems as though Goro Miyazaki has yet to truly find his voice. Tales from Earthsea suffered mainly because I don't think Jr was really ready to tackle such a complex story. It was too much of a burden for the young man. Luckily he had Daddy helping him when he made this one; it's a much more simplistic and less contrived film, and certainly an improvement. It's certainly not my favorite Ghibli movie by any means, but I still found it to be a beautifully animated and heartwarming film. It WAS slow going, but for some reason I wasn't so put off by this film as I was, say, The Wind Rises. The characters here were very likable and easy to relate to.
The dub was also really good as well; no false notes I could detect from it. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Pretty interesting take on the film. I must have forgotten the scene where spoiler[the girl's mother talks to the captain the kids later meet up with.] |
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thecritter
Posts: 69 Location: Northwest GA |
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I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and respected it. I respect the review much less.
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