From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
Directed by Goro Miyazaki
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
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What critics compared From Up on Poppy Hill to
But with Studio Ghibli – the home of Grave of the Fireflies – the bar is that little bit higher.
It doesn't have the sensational fantasy elements that other Studio Ghibli films like " Spirited Away " or " My Neighbor Totoro " have to capture your imagination and isn't nearly as captivating or heartbreaking as " Grave of the Fireflies ."
“Luca” may not pack the melodramatic punch of “When Marnie Was There” or offer a whisper of the heart that’s as powerful as that in “From Up on Poppy Hill,” but it’s buoyed by the same frizzante sense of personal freedom that informs even those second-rate Studio Ghibli films.
Romance is something Miyazaki has only brushed upon in his directorial works (he is apt to focus on it more in the films he writes but does not helm, like Whisper of the Heart or From Up on Poppy Hill), but the romantic element here is spectacular, quiet and gentle but astoundingly tender, touching, and poignant.
"The Wind Rises" is being marketed as the "farewell masterpiece" of Japanese writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, who brought the world "Spirited Away," "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Ponyo," as well as oversaw and contributed to "From Up on Poppy Hill" most recently.
Certain scenes in My Neighbor Totoro (1988) evoke a four-year-old's perspective with uncanny precision, and Miyazaki's screenplays for Whisper of the Heart (1995) and From Up on Poppy Hill (2011) achieve something similar in their portraits of early adolescent girls, making their experiences feel universal.
It finds room to stretch in several formative dream sequences, but for the most part threads its ideas through a precisely realized early-20th-century Japan, reminiscent of the bucolic landscapes of his son Goro Miyazaki's recent From Up on Poppy Hill .
He was ready to pass the torch to a younger generation, including his son Goro, for whose directorial effort From Up on Poppy Hill the elder Miyazaki wrote the script.
Studio Ghibli released " The Secret World of Arrietty " in US theaters last year and while Hayao Miyazaki was involved with contributing to the screenplay (which he also did for " From Up on Poppy Hil l"), his last animated film as director was " Ponyo " back in 2009 (" The Wind Rises " was released in Japan earlier this year and looks to be Hayao Miyazaki 's final film before retirement).