From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka kara, 2011) by Miyazaki Gorō

Post By: Michael Remington

“From Up on Poppy Hill” is an animated film, that on the surface is about a young boy and girl who fall in love, but has the deeper meaning of the cultural preservation of the Japanese identity visualized by the juxtaposition of the modern school building and the old clubhouse of the students. To the students the clubhouse represents their own cultural identity and they oppose the old being ripped down in favor of a more modern building that the school district has already volunteered to build. This relationship between the students and their clubhouse is not just a representation of the students’ identity, but the cultural identity of a “young” Japan trying to hold onto its cultural past while facing a rapidly changing modern future.

As summaries go it is important to mix the narrative and the summary, as no discussion regarding this film will really be understood without many of the details of the film. This summary is a little longer than normal, but the narrative is also critical here. It is by far one of the best and most powerful messages that Miyazaki has been able to put into film.

The film opens on a scene of Umi Matsuzaki raising flags over the boarding house where she lives in Yokohama. Every day she raises the signals to say “I pray for safe voyages.” Umi’s mother is a professor of medicine studying in America. Umi’s father has already passed away when the film opens. She lives with her grandmother at the boarding house and runs the house for her. She does all the cooking and takes care of her younger siblings and the people boarding in the house.

A poem appears in the school newspaper by Shun Kazama who sees the flags everyday on his tugboat ride to school. It is discovered that Umi’s flags are a way to hold on to her past. Her father told here that those flags guided him home. After a negative first impression of Shun due to his daredevil stunt, they become close friends when Umi and her sister go to get an autograph from Shun. That is the first time they set foot in “The Latin Quarter” where all the clubs of the school are housed. Shun and one of his friends are in charge of the school newspaper and Umi ends up helping them produce it.

The students debate whether they should allow the clubhouse to be ripped down. Umi suggests to Shun that they just cleanup and renovate the building. Shun and the boys like the idea and Umi gets the girls to help clean. They hope that cleaning up the building will teach the students how important their cultural heritage is. Many of the students argue that the new Japan must be built upon the ruins of the old. They discuss their heritage as something dead and broken. However, Shun gets up to argue that they cannot really progress without remembering who they are. This is the critical conflict in the film. How valuable is it to the future to preserve our past?

Shun visits Umi’s home and sees a photograph of three naval officers, one of is Umi’s deceased father who died in the Korean War. Shun is shocked because he has the same photo. After questioning his father he learns that his parents had a baby die and shortly thereafter Umi’s father showed up with a baby boy and gave him to them. Shun is troubled, but Umi says she doesn’t care if they are siblings.

While this is happening the school board president decides to demolish the clubhouse despite renovations. Umi, Shun and the student president make a trip to meet with the school board president to petition that they not demolish the building. The school board president agrees to come see the clubhouse. During his visit Umi and Shun are taken to see a sea captain who was another of the sailors in the picture, the only one still alive.  

They learn that Shun is the father of the third man in the picture. To the sea captain, meeting the children is like being reunited with his old friends. To him the new generation is the way that the old generation lives on. They also serve as a connection to his past that he had all but lost during the wars. That is the key part is that both of the fathers die due to wars. War is what had virtually wiped out the Japanese traditions and forced them to feel as though they had to abandon their past to modernize for the future.

After concluding his tour and observing the students efforts to preserve their history. The school board president decides that the old building should be preserved, as he states “How can we educate our children if we forget our past.” The other benefit of their new revelations, the road block of being siblings is removed, allowing Umi and Shun are able to continue their relationship, one that had almost been destroyed by war, much like Japan’s relationship with its past.

In terms of its formal elements one of the most effective techniques employed by this film is establishing shots. Typically establishing shots are used to set the setting for the viewer. However in “From up on Poppy Hill” establishing shots are employed to show a traditional Japan still living in the midst of a modernizing Japan. One of the prime examples of this is when Shun is riding his bike to school. The hillside is shown with many traditional Japanese houses and narrow streets. People are bustling and traffic is heavy. From the hillside many ships are visible in the harbor. This is a big change from the formerly isolationist Japan. Yokohama is one of the prime trading ports of Japan and it was the port through which Admiral Perry entered Japan to end the isolationist policy of the shogunate. A busy harbor full of foreign ships is a powerful representation of Japan’s departure from its past. This quickly establishes the setting as Japan during the postwar period.

Another of the powerful establishing shots is when the children go to Tokyo. As they walk through the old streets and neighborhoods that now have trains cutting through them, posters of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics can be seen on walls everywhere. The Olympics were really Japan’s first opportunity to show to the world the progress they had made after the war. This sets the story in that important phase in Japanese history as they are struggling to recover and to gain international recognition.

One of the last establishing shots that really stands out is when they show the modern school building juxtaposed with the old “Latin Quarter” clubhouse. It is a powerful representation of the old and the new coexisting side by side. To the children the old clubhouse is a representation of their past. They don’t want to let the clubhouse go because it would mean letting go of their past and who they are. The clubhouse represents an old Japan that his thick with dust and clutter from its past that it has yet to resolve. However, the student clean the old building and remodel it to prove the value of history going forward. They are able to clean and restore what had once been built over the course of many years.

One of the important relationships in the movie is that of Umi and Shun’s. The relationship starts off as a strong and effective relationship that helps Umi recover from the tragedy of her father’s death. In a way she is like Japan. As a child she had a loving family but lost her father to war, just as Japan’s identity was nearly destroyed by World War II. Shun is the memory of her father’s friend, her cultural heritage in a way. It is Shun who is able to overcome her past and look forward to her future. The past is what enables us to face the future, not letting go of our past. In that way Umi and Shun’s relationship, in many ways, represents Japan’s effort to bridge the gap of its pre and post war identities.

The message of the film is that Japan should not throw away and burn its cultural heritage, but that they need only restore it to its former glory. Their history is integral to who they are as a people. The war has not left their society in ruins as the building in the film appeared. Their culture was actually buried under years of neglect as attempts to modernize were heaped on their past burying who they are as Japanese beneath a layer of dust. However, if they were willing to scrub as one people they would once again realize what it means to be Japanese.

Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen, 1983) by Mori Masaki

Post By: Taylor Hollister

   Mori Masaki’s film, Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) was originally a comic book series written by Kenji Nakazawa and released in 1974. As a result of its’ popularity, it was made into an animated film that premiered in 1983. Animated films are usually associated with fictional storylines and characters, however this film is able to more accurately depict the atrocities and aftermath of the atomic bomb without the real life depiction of a traditional film using live-action. As a result, this film creates a story for the audience that is more bearable and one that leaves just enough for the imagination to build upon without depicting the real-life horrors of what happened during the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. 

            Loosely based on Nakazawa’s personal experience as a survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan, Barefoot Gen tells the story of a small boy, Gen, and his family. The family lives in poverty, Gen’s father works making Japanese sandals while his mother is very pregnant and malnourished, being confined to bed rest. The story takes place during the final part of the Second World War when most families were tired and war-stricken. On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Gen and his mother survived the blast but Gen’s father and younger brother get trapped beneath a crumbled building and died right before their eyes. The traumatic experience caused Gen’s mother to go into labor. Gen delivered the baby and called her Tomoko.

            Gen and his mother struggled to survive in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. They witnessed the atrocious effects of the aftermath. The city was full of dead bodies and there were thousands of survivors suffering from severe burns and radiation poisoning. Gen’s hair fell out due to radiation poisoning and he thought he is going to die. He remembered the words of his dying father and he took charge of his family. He searched for food and built shelter for his mother and baby sister. They adopted a little orphaned boy who looked like his little brother who died and they united and worked to earn money to buy milk for their malnourished and dying baby sister. However, by the time they raised enough money, the baby was dead. On August 14, 1945 Emperor Hirohito made an announcement to the whole country that Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Americans. The film ends with Gen and his new brother finding some newly sprouted wheat.

            Masaki uses traditional cinematic techniques and animation to tell this most important story that could not have the same effect for the viewer if done using traditional live actors. Creating a film with traditional film and live actors, in some ways, limits the creativity of the director. In order to recreate this awesome event in history, Masaki decided to use anime in order to help the viewer really experience this horrible event. Anime helps the director show something beyond depiction and comprehension to an audience who has not experienced the event. With traditional actors and the technology of his time, Masaki would not have been able to recreate the effects of the atomic bomb. 

  For example, after the atomic bomb was dropped Masaki shows the effects of the initial heat wave and blast on the citizens of Hiroshima. Masaki goes a step further to show some of the suffering of the survivors after the initial blast. These images of a mother and a baby being incinerated from the heat and a family walking around as their skin melts off with shards of broken glass sticking out of their flesh, would be nearly impossible to accurately recreate using real actors, especially with the limited technology of the 1980s. Even if these events could be recreated using live actors, the images would be too gruesome for a broad audience. Animation is a great medium for being able to recreate an event, such as war, while maintaining a boundary, thus enabling audiences to watch the events without being truly horrified by the reality of them.

In addition to being a good medium, animation is able to create anonymity for the characters. Although this movie is an anti-war movie, it is not an anti-America movie. The film is able to purely show the horrific effects of war without blaming the American pilots, who dropped the bomb. Masaki was able to do this by using anime to create a separation between the pilots who dropped the atomic bomb and the viewer. The animated faces of the pilots in the plane have very little detail and are hard to identify as any one race or nationality. This makes the film purely about the atrocities of war and nuclear warheads rather than about the people who caused them to happen.

In addition to animation Masaki uses traditional cinematic techniques to portray this story. He uses long shots to show the expanse of the damage done by the atomic bomb. For example after the initial explosion, the city is in flames.

 Masaki puts the viewer in the shoes of a survivor looking at the burning city and we are able to see the effects of the bomb as the whole city is toppled and burning. Additionally, in order to put the viewer in the cockpit of the plane that dropped the bomb, Masaki uses an overhead shot. This shows how separated the pilots were from what was about to happen. This shot shows the anticipation of what is about to happen and how powerless the victims below were. Therefore, we can see how Masaki expertly used various traditional cinematic techniques, normally reserved for live-action, in order to create a film where the viewer is able to experience what actually happened.

In conclusion, in his film, Barefoot Gen, Masaki is able to create a film using cinematic techniques as well as animation to recreate scenes of the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II that are beyond depiction if using live-action.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Majo no takkyûbin, 1989) by Hayao Miyazaki

Post By: Katherine Seastrand

            The film Kiki’s Delivery Service by Hayao Miyazaki shows the difficulties with a culture that continually expands through globalization and attempting to keep cultural traditions and values. Although this film takes places in a fairly European setting there are still strong elements that apply to the continually changing and expanding world of the Japanese. Kiki represents the balance that must come between embracing new and modern culture and retaining one’s traditional culture.

            In Kiki’s Delivery Service, Kiki is a young witch living in what can be assumed is a northern European country. Kiki has turned thirteen and is prepared to embark upon the traditional year of training as a witch on her own. Once Kiki, and her opinionated cat Jiji, find a city that she likes she struggles to find exactly where she should fit in and stay. Upon meeting and befriending a kind bakery owner, Osono, she secures lodging and soon is able to find a way to earn money by beginning her own delivery service, with the help of her new friends. She then befriends Tombo, a young man around her age who has a fascination with flying and Kiki. Kiki later loses her powers of magic and quickly becomes depressed, not knowing what to do with herself or where she fits in within this large city. Luckily Ursula, a friend she had made during a delivery, takes Kiki to her home in the forest, able to give Kiki the advice she needs to let her magic come back naturally instead of forcing it. After the refreshing stay Kiki beings with her delivery service again by visiting a previous customer, that had become her friend as well. Upon this Kiki is offered a strong hand of friendship and caring to allow her to feel more loved and a stronger sense of belonging. After this tender moment Kiki sees the news of Tombo being in grave danger, dangling from a rope attached to a blimp that has lost control. Upon this Kiki is able to regain her powers to fly a broom and save her friend. She is then able to find a way in which to live within the new culture happily.

           

In the film Kiki begins in her home as a young witch, it is clear that the home is set apart from the rest of the world in a very small town. As Kiki begins her journey she changes from a lightly colored dress with a white apron into a dark blue dress. This dress is given as her dress to embark upon the journey and it is stated that it is the color that many past witches have worn. This dress acts as a signifier of Kiki’s traditional culture as a witch. It is clear upon her arrival into the large city as she gazes around to the other dresses worn, all being fairly bright or lightly colored clothing. It is stated by her soon to be friend, Tombo, that her dress is a sign she is a witch since they always wear dark clothing. Kiki is unable in the beginning of her year within this new city to understand where she belongs and how she fits in. She is consistently wishing for clothing that is more similar to that of the other girls her age from this city. 

  By the end of the film though, we are able to see that by understanding how to balance her magical traditions and ways with her work and friendships within the city she is able to finally belong while keeping her true self. This is signified in the film when Kiki is once again looking into the shop window and sees behind her a young girl walking with her mother dressed to be like Kiki.

            Another thing that helps Kiki when she loses her powers is to stay at her friend, Ursula’s house. Ursula is an artist and shows Kiki a work she paints of her and how she views Kiki’s flying abilities.

 

Before Kiki loses her powers she is talking with Tombo and states that she does not enjoy flying that much anymore now that it is her job and she must do it for money. It is also clear that Kiki feels incredibly alone as she walks home alone after Tombo’s friends drive up and make her feel like an outcast, although perhaps not intentionally. We see with this walk home that Kiki does not understand where she fits in this world as she struggles to walk on the stony and dangerous side of the road as cars wiz past. When she arrives back in her room she includes that she feels incredibly alone, alluding to homesickness. It is later this day that she realizes she has lost all of her powers. With the visit to Ursula’s house she is able to escape the busy city and feel more at home in the less populated wood that the artist lives in. It is here that Kiki sees the painting of herself, showing the perspective of Ursula on Kiki. Ursula is able to restore Kiki to the understanding of the beauty of her gifts as a witch. Urusla compares her work as an artist to Kiki’s work as a witch and that instead of trying to force herself to retrieve her magical talents she must relax and let them come back naturally, because these gifts are what Kiki loves to do and therefore a part of her spirit/ soul. By looking at this with the powers representing Kiki’s traditional culture we are able to see that these values and traditions are a part of us. We should not covet the other new modern cultures but rather let our spirits naturally combine the two to have a harmony and a balance within ourselves.

The Secret World of Arrietty (Kari-gurashi no Arietti, 2010) by Hayao Miyazaki

Post By: Dallin Jack

            The Secret World of Arrietty, an animated film adaptation of The Borrowers by Mary Norton, is a Japanese take on an English children’s novel. Miyazaki does a brilliant job in giving this story a Japanese flavor, even though the original The Borrowers is set in Great Britain.  Through cinematic and narrative devices, Miyazaki portrays the story of a young girl reaching maturity and her struggle to survive in an ever-changing world. Through looking at the interactions between two different societies, Miyazaki is able to comment on the flaws of an isolationistic philosophy while telling a coming-of-age story.

            The film opens on Sho, a sickly boy, riding to his great aunt’s house to relax because of a heart condition. As he arrives, he briefly glimpses a tiny person who we find out is Arrietty, a “Borrower” who lives with her parents in a tiny house underneath the human house. Arrietty is almost fourteen, so her father takes her on her first “borrowing,” where they take things they need from the human house. While trying to get tissues, Sho sees Arrietty again. He tries to talk to her, but she and her father run home. The family talks of leaving the house because they have been discovered.

Sho tries to meet Arrietty by giving her the sugar cube she had dropped during the borrowing. Ignoring her father’s warnings, Arrietty takes the sugar cube and returns it to Sho. She tells him that they do not need his help and to leave them alone, but as they talk they become friends.

            When the aunt leaves the house one day, the caretaker Haru calls the exterminators to catch the Borrowers, which she has known about for some time. She finds the Borrowers’ house and kidnaps Arrietty’s mother. Arrietty frees her mother with Sho’s help, and the aunt returns and sends the exterminators away.

            As the family is leaving for a new home, Sho finds Arrietty with the help of the cat and they get to say goodbye. The film ends as the family floats down the river in a teapot.

            The Secret World of Arrietty, as an animated film, uses the medium of animation to show things which couldn’t be done well in a typical live action film. The size difference between Arrietty and Sho is easy to animate, but would be difficult to show with real actors. Many live action movies overcome this issue by using strategic camera angles, specific composition, and other effects to show giants or small people, but much of the action in Arrietty involves direct interactions between Arrietty and Sho that would be hard to do even with those effects. On top of that, there are multiple animals and insects in the film that chase or attack the Borrowers. Even CGI would make these parts of the movie seem strange if it were live action. In one particular scene, an angry crow dives into the window of Sho’s room while Arrietty is on the windowsill. 

  The crow thrashes about and then leaves when Haru hits it with her shoe. If this were live action, the whole scene would seem ridiculous and cruel to the crow, but the fact that it is animation allows the viewer to recognize that the animals and characters in the movie aren’t real, and that lets us be okay with more out-of-the-ordinary things happening.

            The film, though based on a series of British novels, gives a distinct Japanese taste to the story. In the opening scene where Sho is in the car, we see that the license plate is Japanese (it says多摩). When the humans eat their meals, they eat Japanese meals with traditional rice bowls. These subtle inclusions give the film a Japanese feel. On a larger scale, the film may be an allegory of Japanese isolationism. Even though Sho and the aunt have done many things to try to befriend the Borrowers, they largely stick to themselves. They never use the dollhouse that was made specifically for Borrowers like them, and in the end, they move to another house simply because they have been discovered, even though the humans (with the exception of Haru) would be willing to coexist with them. This parallels Japan’s period of forced isolation, where they refused to trade with other countries, and some of the negativity towards foreigners that has carried over until from that. With the somewhat sad tone at the end, with Arrietty and Sho parting ways, it seems to be telling the viewer to stop the isolation and to accept others, even if they are different or “foreign.”

            Besides being a critique of Japanese isolationism, the film is also a seishun eiga, or coming-of-age film. Arrietty’s parents make a big deal out of her going on her first borrowing at the beginning of the film, but we see Arrietty step up as the archetypical “beautiful fighting girl.” While on the first borrowing, Arrietty finds a pin which she uses as a sword throughout the film. Though she never really has to fight anything with it, she says to her father that she is willing to fight off any rats that could attack. Later on in the film, her father injures his leg while searching for a new house, and Arrietty becomes the protector of the family. When Haru kidnaps her mother, it is Arrietty, not her father, who comes to the rescue. Sho helps her find and rescue her mother, but his heart problems keep him physically weak. This contrasting of the beautiful fighting girl with multiple passive men only amplifies Arrietty’s courage and strength.

           However, the feeling of a “coming of age” is conveyed not only in Arrietty’s rising to the challenges around her, but also in various shots of coupled animals. Throughout the film, it seems as if it is mating season for the animals and insects, which gives the viewer a feeling of “growing up.” At one point, Arrietty is playing with a roly-poly bug like a ball. The bug then leaves with another roly-poly. In another scene, there is a pair of birds on the roof of the house, and they fly off together. Yet again, a pair of butterflies is seen flying around together. These couples give a feeling of growing up and settling down. With all the things that Arrietty has to deal with, this really gives you a feeling that you yourself mature as you watch Arrietty mature.

            The Secret World of Arrietty is a great animated film which, through its narrative and use of animation, portrays a girl facing her challenges and coming out victorious. It is also a commentary on Japan’s isolationism, and calls viewers to shed that fear of what is foreign and instead accept things that are different.