Today, let’s talk about the Studio Ghibli movie: From Up on Poppy Hill. [コクリコ坂から]

Now, I’ve been a HUGE fan of studio Ghibli, I grew up with it and , to me, it’s kinda like Disney. Both Disney and Studio Ghibli are both so magical and they play a huge part of my childhood.

When this movie was released in 2011, I was travelling around Hong Kong, so I was absolutely trilled, but sadly, I didn’t have any access to watching it.

I tried looking online as well, once I arrived back in Australia, but nobody was posting it.

At the start of this year, I found a video that someone posted online, however the audio was not in time with the movie at all. I didn’t want to destroy my viewing experience of it, so I did not watch it.

People have been posting versions on of the movie on Youtube but they were all english dub and for me, it’s just not the same, when you watch it in English.

I gave up on it, until yesterday, when I found it online. [You can watch it on the KissAnime website]

I was absolutely thrilled! So let’s get on with this review!

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Story line: 

This story/movie follows the life of a young girl named: Umi. She’s one of those typical responsible, kind, caring and beautiful girls. But I admire her because she practically runs the household. Her father was a sailor that died during the Korean War. Before her father died, he thought her how to send ‘flag signals’ [?] and these have a symbolic meaning to it. Apparently the ‘flags’ are supposed to help her father find his way back home to her and the family. Therefore, Umi always raised the flag every morning, without missing a day. She still raises the flags even after her father’s death. [I find this pretty amazing and touching…]

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NOW PLEASE DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS!

I really loved watching this movie, it was great having a Ghibli movie that didn’t have a ‘fantasy’ element in it.

It kind of reminded me of Whisper of the Heart, but I kind of liked this one better. [However, did Whisper of the Heart have a bit of ‘Fantasy’ in it..?]

I really love how Ghibli movies always have those young, ‘gentlemanly’ guys in it.

To be honest though, the story line of ‘From Up On Poppy Hill’ confused me a bit. The fact that the story line was so simple and touching made me think: “What did I just watch? Did I fully understand it..?”.

The complication of Umi and Shun being siblings shocked me, however I was kind of disappointed at how they found out that they were not related.

I felt really sorry for Shun as well. How can he be so unfortunate?

His father died in a war. [?] His mother died while giving birth to him and a bomb killed all his relatives.

Then once Sawamura Yuuichi took him in, Yuiichi died a few years later.

How does this happen?!

But on to different matters, I really loved the music for this movie as well. They even included the song: SukiYaki, which I grew up listening because my parents loved it when they were living in Japan.

When I heard this song, it just made me feel so attached to this movie.

All in all, I loved the characters, I loved the music, I loved the story line and I loved the way Shun printed his newspapers.

Something that kind of ruined the touching feeling of it was how they put a notice at the end of the movie.

From what I can gather from it, It says: This story/movie is fictional.

For me, this kinda ruined it and made me laugh. Because at the end of the movie I thought: That was so meaningful. I think it might be based on a true story.

But then THIS thing pops up!

So How did you find this movie? Was it touching? Like? Dislike?

Have you watched it yet?

Would you like to watch it?

Comment below and let me know!

[Linn, Signing Out.]