From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka kara) (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio & Animation Storyboards Featurette-Various Interviews-Crew Music Video Trailer-Various Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	90:46
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Goro Miyazaki
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Masami Nagasawa Jun'ichi Okada Keiko Takeshita Yuriko Ishida Rumi Hiiragi Jun Fubuki Takashi Naitô Shunsuke Kazama Nao Ohmori Teruyuki Kagawa Haruka Shiraishi Tsubasa Kobayashi
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Satoshi Takebe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese DTS HD Master Audio 5.0 English DTS HD Master Audio 5.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Studio Ghibli is renowned as one of the best animation studios in the world, with a distinctive style driven by the strong vision and personality of their creative head, Hayao Miyazaki. This film is the most recent Ghibli creation to hit local entertainment formats, despite having been made a couple of years ago, during and shortly after the earthquake and tsunami disaster which hit Japan. Although this film has been given a G rating by local censors it cannot be bracketed with Ghibli films made with young children in mind like Ponyo or My Neighbour Totoro. This film tells a coming of age story set in Yokohama in 1963, just after the Korean War and is best suited to young adult and adult audiences due to its dramatic style, pacing and themes. Having said that there are certainly parts which pre-teens will enjoy and there is nothing to upset them as evidenced by the rating. This film was planned and written by Hayao Miyazaki (based on a graphic novel) but the direction and production was handed over to his son, Goro, who previously directed Tales From Earthsea for the studio in 2006.

    The story follows the life of a young teenage girl, Umi, who lives in a guest house owned by her Grandmother. Her father died in the Korean War and her mother has gone overseas to study Medicine. She works hard to keep the guest house going (seemingly while her Grandmother sits around) and then spends her days at High School. The title refers to the fact that Umi loves on Poppy Hill overlooking Yokohama harbour where she raises ship signal flags every day in the hope her father might sail home. She goes to a high school called Konan Academy which is co-educational. Near the high school is an old club house which has been used by the boys of the school for many years as a club where they can study, play games and generally muck about. It seems that the businessman who owns the club house is planning to tear it down for a development and the boys from Konan Academy are up in arms about it. One of them, Shun, the adopted son of a ship's captain, decides to mount a stunt to protest against the demolition. This daring stunt catches Umi's attention and they begin a tentative relationship. Can they band together to save the club house from demolition and what secrets will be revealed which could end their relationship before it really gets going?

    This is an evocative and beautifully rendered reminiscence for youth and the past of Japan but is restricted in its audience by its stately pace. The story starts slowly and the main plot doesn't really begin for at least half an hour into the film. The animation is hand drawn and magnificently detailed as you would expect from this most artistic of animation studios. The painterly backgrounds and magnificent use of light and colour make this a standout from a technical animation perspective making it a visual feast of a film like most output from Ghibli. Adults will love the beauty of the film and its evocative themes of youth and memories of the past, however, children will struggle with the pace as my pre-teen boys did, although they certainly watched and enjoyed the film in the end.

    The English voice cast includes Bruce Dern, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Howard, Sarah Bolger, Chris Noth, Christina Hendricks & Beau Bridges.

    Recommended for animation fans but not the first Ghibli film to show your kids.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 1080p HD encoded using the AVC codec.

    The picture was wonderfully clear and sharp throughout. Shadow detail was wonderful.

    The colour is excellent providing a great palette for the wonderful animation to shine.

    There were no noticeable artefacts beside a little shimmer at times.

    There are subtitles in English for the Japanese soundtrack but also subtitles for Japanese signs and songs in the English version.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good perfectly suited to a film of this nature.

    This disc contains a Japanese soundtrack in DTS HD-MA 5.0 plus an English dub in the same technical format. The track includes great ambiance and atmosphere for what is a soft and gentle film.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout.

    The score is jazzy big band orchestral music and there are also some Japanese songs.

    The surround speakers provided significant ambiance and atmosphere which without showing off provided good immersion to the film. There was occasional use of the surrounds for voices and other mild directional effects.

    The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu includes scenes and music plus changes scenario as it plays similar to the Ponyo Blu-ray menu.

Storyboards

Press Conference - Theme Song Announcement (39:12)

Interview with Goro Miyazaki (17:30)

Staff Speech - Hayao Miyazaki (6:20)

Music Video - Summer of Farewells (5:40)

Original Trailers & TV Spots (7:18)

Yokohama Featurette - Stories of Past & Present (22:31)

Making of - English Voice Cast (21:45)

Ghibli Trailers

Booklet

Reversible Cover

    The US Region A version of this Blu-ray is basically exactly the same. Buy Local.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall