Original title: Kokuriko-zaka Kara
Directed by: Gorō Miyazaki, 2011 (Japonia)
When hearing the name of Miyazaki, you think of the magical animated films like „Totoro” or the Oscar winner „Spirited Away”, produced by the Ghibli Studios. This time, we’re referring to the young Gorō Miyazaki and his new movie „From Up on Poppy Hill”, launched in 2011 in Japan.
Gorō (b. 1967) never wanted to work within the animation field, refusing to be compared with his father and thinking he’ll never be as good. So, he graduated the agriculture faculty, becoming a good landscapist. The moment he became involved in the animation world was 1998, when he contributed to the creation of Ghibli Museum from Mitaka, Tokyo, between 2001 and 2005 being its first managing director. While Hayao was filming „Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004), producer Toshio Suzuki decided to let Gorō direct the next Ghibli movie since he was impressed by his ability to draw pictures and his talent of taking properly decisions. Therefore he directed „Tales of Earthsea” (2006), his first animated film, an adaptation after the first book of the “Earthsea” series written by Ursula K. Le Guin – a story about rediscovery, created within a mythical world, full of magic and wizardry.
The action of his second movie takes part in the 1963 Yokohama, a year before the Tokyo Olympics. The story is told from a young girl’s point of view, Matsuzaki Umi, 16 years old. She was taking care of her family and the guesthouse, his father, ship captain, having disappeared on the sea during the Korean War and her mother has left to study in the United States. At school she meets Kazama Shun, the school paper responsible, within a beat-up clubhouse, in danger of being demolished, bearing a very strange name: Quartier Latin. A very complicated love story flourishes between the two of them, almost impossible to achieve when they find out they might be related.
The movie seems to be a step away from the Miyazaki heritage, Gorō trying to create his own particular style, his movies being maybe an experimental beginning in the world of animation. The charm of the movie consists in the carefully painted backgrounds and the very optimistic soundtrack. The main subject is the every day life. This is why we can see the movie as a minor Ghibli, lacking the magic we got used to, that was present even in movies like „Grave of the Fireflies” (1988). These are the reasons that I think the message of the movie will hardly reach its public.
