Movie Review: From Up on Poppy Hill

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I feel like I had high expectations for this movie; I have loved the music for a while and the artwork made me super excited to see the film! And, I honestly did still REALLY enjoy From Up on Poppy Hill! It just wasn’t anything like I expected! Let’s dive into the overview and then understand my review of this piece!

Overview

The writers for IMDB summarize the overall plot nicely:

“A group of Yokohama teens look to save their school’s clubhouse from the wrecking ball in preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.”

From IMDB

We mainly follow our female protagonist, Umi, who lives with her grandmother and several boarders. She has lost her father in the Korean War and her mother is studying in America. Umi works tirelessly at home but soon befriends Shun, a young boy involved in a club of other boys who must fight to save their precious building from developers wanting to build Olympic structures instead.

Review

This movie was NOT what I expected! I think it is most aptly a coming-of-age film and probably most similar to Kiki’s Delivery with slight hints of Ponyo. The sea town atmosphere with ports of ships coming in and out was a fabulous setting and very reminiscent of Ponyo. The setting of the Latin Quarter was also wonderful and fun!

Umi was an extremely likable and relatable character. You really sympathized with her as she tried to juggle helping out at home and hanging out with her friends. Also, all of the boys in the Latin Quarter were absolutely hilarious! The very first scene at their building where we are introduced to all the various activities and clubs is one of the best scenes ever! You will smile and laugh out loud!

The backdrop of the ’64 Olympics in Tokyo is also an interesting element that I was not anticipating. It felt so real that “big, bad” adults would want to destroy a crumbling yet historic piece of architecture to build something that’ll turn them a profit and that the tenacious children would fight back to preserve culture. Definitely a unique time period and moment in history.

Since we are pretty quickly dropped into the middle of this world, I think it was a little confusing for the first little bit but still entertaining nonetheless.

The main thing I will call out without spoiling anything is that I have mixed feelings about the “twist(s?)”. It was interesting for sure, but I think it was hard to believe in some ways. If you’ve seen this movie though, I would love to hear your thoughts on the plot twist!

Conclusion

While this movie may have turned out differently than expected, and even though the twist was questionable, I still found this movie to be charming and hilarious! Definitely recommend for the whole family! It’s unique and quirky and just a joy to go on the adventure with our protagonist!