Film · 2011
From Up on Poppy Hill
コクリコ坂から
In Yokohama in 1963, high-school students Umi and Shun develop a friendship against the backdrop of a changing Japan. A secret connected to their families threatens to pull them apart. Their personal uncertainty sits within a city preparing for a very public future.
The approaching Olympics give the setting a direction towards reconstruction and change, while the students must look backwards to understand their own circumstances. Goro Miyazaki directs from a screenplay credited to Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. The unresolved family history interrupts the forward movement around Umi and Shun.
The signal flags make communication visible against the sky, while the wooded hillside places houses above the port. Umi and Shun's changing city is also a lived landscape of windows, roofs and messages sent across distance. These ordinary signs give the story's questions about family history a physical setting.
Standalone animated film · Approx. 91 min · one film
The original 2011 standalone animated film. Excludes source books, live-action versions and unrelated adaptations.