From Up On Poppy Hill

So, guys, now we're moving onto a really high-up Studio Ghibli for me, From Up On Poppy Hill. This is another one I absolutely love. When I saw this for the first time, I really, really loved it and I rewatched it again recently and I still do. This is another very small stakes movie with people just kinda living their lives and do what they can in different situations. I think this is similar to something like Whisper Of The Heart where there's just people trying to live their lives with some complications in the way. Though, I guess this does have a bit more of a story to it. The film just has a huge amount of charm and likeability to it. The story is about a girl named Umi who lives with her sisters. Her mom is in college and her dad is dead. She goes to a school that has a clubhouse next to it that's going to be demolished and everyone wants to save it, especially the boys who use it a lot and Umi asks her friends to help fix it up to help. Not only that, but the main story outside of that is Umi meeting a boy named Shun and they both don't really like each other but begin to develop feelings for the other after a bit of time but that starts getting complicated after Umi shows him a picture of her dad and he realises that her dad might be his as well so now things are complicated because they think they could be siblings now. So, yeah, a part of this does sound like very typical teenage drama stuff that's been done a lot, but I think what helps make this so special for me is the pacing. Again, like I've said so much about this Ghibli movies already, this is another film that is so slow with its pacing and how long it spends on different scenes, even when the characters are doing absolutely nothing at all, and they still somehow manage to make this super charming, likeable, fun and incredibly engaging. But I think what I liked about the film the most is when the characters are discovering different pieces of information about their history because Umi and Shun are clearly trying to figure out what happened with Umi's dad and see what kind of relationship they really have and how they do a lot of that is done super well. And even the subplot with the clubhouse is really fun with how much time they spend on cleaning it up and also showing how much care they all have for it. And even in some scenes like when Umi, Shun and some classmate of theirs go to some place to talk to someone and all they do is just sit and wait, something about that alone is kinda engaging too. But I also like just general character stuff like when Umi and Shun are bonding and sorta figuring out what they want to do and so on. And all that stuff is great, but just how they go through the rest of the mundane stuff is just as great as it is in the other movies. And I think the ending couldn't have been done any better. Out of all the endings in these Studio Ghibli movies, this is one of the most satisfying because Umi and Shun and all the students manage to save the clubhouse by cleaning it and having one of the higher-ups come and he agrees to leave it alone and then Umi and Shun go to the docks and meet someone who knew Umi's dad and he reveals that Shun's dad was someone else who knew him and Umi's dad. Again, just really fantastically executed and really well presented too. It's also nice how even before that, Umi's mom came back and even explained it to her like that too. So, yeah, again, this film just has the same charm to it that so many other Ghibli films like Whisper Of The Heart and I love it for that. It has such a great way of doing everything it does and makes it so engaging and interesting to watch the whole thing. I think the dub in this is a good reason as to why that is because they all do great, especially Sarah Bolgar as Umi and Anton Yelchin as Shun. So, I'm not exactly sure if this would really appeal to everyone, but I do think you should check this out regardless because I do believe there's some really great stuff in this. So guys, that's my review of From Up On Poppy Hill. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.