From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

From Up on Poppy Hill (Japanese: コクリコ坂から, Hepburn: Kokuriko-zaka Kara, lit. "From Coquelicot Hill") is a 2011 Japanese animated drama film directed by Gorō Miyazaki, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, and produced by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1980 serialized Japanese comic of the same name illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi and written by Tetsurō Sayama. The film stars the voices of Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita, Yuriko Ishida, Jun Fubuki, Takashi Naito, Shunsuke Kazama, Nao Omori and Teruyuki Kagawa.

Set in 1963 Yokohama, Japan, the film tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a high school girl living in a boarding house, Coquelicot Manor. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a member of the school's newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school's clubhouse, Quartier Latin. However, Tokumaru, the chairman of the local high school and a businessman, intends to demolish the building for redevelopment and Umi and Shun, along with Shirō Mizunuma, must persuade him to reconsider.

From Up on Poppy Hill premiered on July 16, 2011 in Japan. The film received positive reviews from most film critics and grossed $61 million worldwide. An English version of the film was distributed by GKIDS; it was released to theaters on March 15, 2013 in North America.

Synopsis

Umi Matsuzaki is a 16-year-old student at Isogo High School living in Coquelicot Manor, a boarding house overlooking the Port of Yokohama in Japan. Her mother Ryoko is a medical professor studying abroad in the United States. Umi runs the house and looks after her younger siblings Sora and Riku and her grandmother, Hana. College student Sachiko Hirokouji and doctor-in-training Miki Hokuto also live there. Each morning, Umi raises a set of signal flags with the message "I pray for safe voyages".

Actors