The Odd View "From Up on Poppy Hill"

Good afternoon,

I've happily continued my parental leave-facilitated movie-watching marathon, and am hoping to continue the blazing speed with which I am blowing through movies until the bittersweet end later this month.  Both as a distraction from all of the complex, poignant, and in some cases simply painful feelings I have about returning to work when my Second Child is still so little but also as, admittedly, a way of grasping at and marking the remaining time I do have on leave, I'm also hoping to write about as many of these movies as possible.

So let's talk about "From Up on Poppy Hill" (2011)!

There's a lot to appreciate about this film, especially given how nicely it fits into the Studio Ghibli pantheon.  The film's art is gorgeous and the overall aesthetic, from its pacing to the beautiful setting and the way action is animated, is gentle and lovely.  The movie also, in classic Ghibli fashion, treats young people respectfully, as competent and empowered agents within their own lives, and deals directly with themes of loss and longing.

[Unusually abundant spoilers ahoy]

And yet: I just can't get past what becomes the central conflict of the film, which is the question of whether its two main characters, Umi and Shun, are siblings.  This conflict is a conflict because the two teenagers also have crushes on each other.

I just can't.  I can't get past that.  Especially when the movie really doesn't adequately resolve the question of whether they are in fact related.  In fact, I found it so ambiguous that I immediately googled a synopsis of the movie and rewatched key scenes in case I'd somehow missed something.  

To retrace our steps:

--Umi's father died in the Korean War.

--Umi shows Shun a photograph of her father and two of his friends to Shun, who recognizes Umi's father because he has the exact same photo and has been told that Umi's father is also his father.

--Umi's mother tells Umi that Shun is actually the child of one of the other men in the photo who died before Shun was born, and that Shun's mother died in childbirth.  Per this story, Umi's father refused to allow Shun, his friend's newly-orphaned child, to be placed in an orphanage and impulsively adopted the baby before consulting Umi's mother, who was pregnant with Umi at the time.  Because Umi's mother felt she was unable to care for another baby, Umi's mother gave Shun to I guess some neighbors?

--And those neighbors thought Umi's father was Shun's father, but I guess we're supposed to assume Umi's father just let them think that and didn't bother to tell them the real story for unstated reasons because God knows if you're spontaneously dropping off a baby at someone's house forever there's no time to talk about where that baby came from, THERE'S NO TIME...?

--And when Umi tells her mother about Shun, including that he thinks he and Umi share the same father, Umi's mother asks if Shun looks like Umi's father and Umi seems to indicate that he does by bursting into tears?? 

--And Shun is definitely depicted having similar features to Umi's father, including his eyes and jawline???

--And instead of offering any additional proof that Shun and Umi are not half-siblings, Umi's mother just says she hadn't considered whether Shun could have been Umi's father's child????

--But hey, the third guy in the photo meets these teenagers for the first time and says that they remind him of his two dead friends, so I guess that's proof they don't have the same father?????

--Please note this guy does NOT say anything about the not-Umi's father guy's wife or partner being pregnant, or whether he even HAD a partner/wife, or anything else that would clarify that yes, the not-Umi's father guy is definitely Shun's father. (??????)

--But I'm supposed to be happy that Umi and Shun are in love with each other???????

I'm.... I'm sorry, but again: I just can't.  I feel so impossibly perplexed by this movie.  Do the people who made it understand the movie they made?  Like do they understand?  Do they understand that this level of ambiguity about something like this isn't like, okay?  Like it isn't conducive to a sweet, happy ending to a children's movie????????

I really wish I could just like this otherwise pleasant and well-made movie, but for the final time: I just can't.  Out of deference to its Ghibli-ness, I didn't want to give it a 1, but I just couldn't see how to give it much more than that.  So I gave it a 2.

{Heart}