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diff --git a/src/anime/review/poppy-hill/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/poppy-hill/document.en.rest.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf77009 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/poppy-hill/document.en.rest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +======================= + From up on Poppy Hill +======================= +:CreationDate: 2012-09-23 19:39:15 +:Id: anime/review/poyy-hill +:tags: - anime + - review +:rating: 4 +:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/from-up-on-poppy-hill + +I went to see this movie, at the UK preview during the Terracotta Film +Festival at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, thinking that it +couldn't be worse than Gedo Senki / Tales from Earthsea, the other +movie directed by MIYAZAKI Goro (宮崎 吾朗). You can say that I had +very low expectations. It turned out that Miyazaki Junior has been +learning a lot about directing, and probably also about using the best +that Ghibli has to offer. From a quick look at the list of people +involved, it seems that Gedo Senki was filmed by the "B team" at +Ghibli, while the best people were working on Howl's Moving +Castle. Not so with Poppy Hill: it looks better, it flows better, I +felt I could care for the characters. Sure, the story is much simpler, +and the fact that Miyazaki Senior worked on the screenplay has surely +helped. Nonetheless, the result is a very pleasant movie, and has +changed my opinion of Goro: I'm now looking forward to his next work. + +So, what's the film about? It's about Japan in 1963, about the +long-term consequences of the Korean War, about responsibility, +community, political engagement, love, family. Every aspect is touched +upon with a very light touch, you're never forced to notice. It could +just as easily be seen as a standard school-age "girl meets boy" +story. But the various aspects of the historic and social context do +help shape the story, and make it richer as a result. + +The main character, a schoolgirl named Umi, runs a lodging house for +women while her mother is away (studying medicine in America). Her +father, a military sailor, died during the Korean war. At her school, +the boys' clubhouse, an old and dirty building, is going to be +demolished and rebuilt. The boys are struggling to convince even their +schoolmates, never mind the school administration, that destroying +what is, essentially, a historic building, would not be wise, that +erasing history will not make your future brighter. They don't have +much success until Umi suggests to clean and renovate the place (no, +I'm not telling you how it goes, although you can probably guess). In +the meantime, she falls in love with Shun, who works for the school's +newspaper. + +I was impressed by the role of women in this story: even if Japanese +society is portrayed as male-centric, we have many independent and +strong females. Umi runs the lodging house, not just cleaning and +cooking, but also handling the finances. Umi leads the girls and the +boys of the school to renovate the clubhouse (and the girls are not +the only ones that clean!). Umi's mother and one of the lodgers are +medical doctors. On the other hand, due to the historic setting, all +school officials are men, and marriage is an unavoidable part of any +woman's life. + +There are some debatable directorial choices: very animated scenes +alternate with mostly static ones; in a couple of cases background +songs seem to intrude on the dialogues; some "camera movements" looked +jerky. But all in all, Poppy Hill delivers a good story on several +levels, and "cleans" Goro's name of the disaster that was Earthsea. + +Finally, some comments on the English subtitles: they are pretty +accurate, although the lose several subtleties in the way people refer +to each other. For example, while the subtitles often use the given +name of people, the Japanese soundtrack uses surnames and +honorifics. Also, Umi is always called Umi in the subtitles, but her +friends call her "Meru" most of the time; this is sort of a pun, since +"umi" means "sea", and "Meru" is pronounced like "mer", the French +word for "sea" (the connection with French is established in the +title, コクリコ坂から: "コクリコ" reads as "Coquelicot", poppy in +French). |