#from up on poppy hill
from up on poppy hill become my favorite ghibli movie on the day I watched it, I really like this movie, and I think it’s extremely underated, idk why it’s not on anyone’s top.. it’s really beautiful, also the soundtracks are so relaxing and cute, my favorite one is sayonara no natsu..
─ icons cr : @lailfsy on pinterest
[Artists in Studio Ghibli’s Movies] -Sachiko Hirokôji-From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
Sachiko is an art student who lives with the Matsuzaki family in Coquelicot Manor. We don’t know much about her, other than she’s a skillfull artist. The only painting we see is almost completely abstract, with the significant exception of a ship, depicted in a figurative way. Sachicko’s style seems influenced by Kandinsky - a way to use colours that, although abstract, does still conveys emotions and feelings. Sachicko is the only one in the house who helps Umi in her domestic chores. She also seems to enjoy food and other people’s company.
From Up on Poppy Hill, Down To the Rumbling Sea
Let’s learn some vocabulary about the sea, by looking at the beautiful lyrics of Sayonara no Natsu from “From Up on Poppy Hill”. The first part of the post introduces some vocabulary (kana only), the second part focuses on one word (kanji).
I grew up on a hill with a view on the sea. From my hometown, during clear days, I could see a line at the horizon, bluer than the sky, and a shining city below it.
What a beautiful city. I am especially fond of the harbour area: a row of low, brightly colored houses on one side, and a forest of floating masts on the other. The lighthouse standing out against the summer sky, the air filled with the echoes of seagulls and the gentle blows of the water on the ships’ flanks. The kiss of the sun; the salt on the breeze.
Maybe this is one possible reason why I love “From up on Poppy Hill” so much: the beautiful world in which the story is set remembers me so much of my little world by the sea.
Some Sea Side Vocabulary! (Kana only)
The beauty of that world is well captured, in my opinion, in the song Sayonara no Natsu(さよならの夏,The Summer of Goodbyes). Down here I wrote some “sea side” vocabulary I learned from the song and from my japanese course. In this first part I only use hiragana and katakana alphabets and no kanji: at the moment, in fact, I’m more focused on learning the “sound” of the language.
- うみ(umi): the sea, the ocean. うみなり(uminari) is the rumble/roar of the sea, from the verb なる (naru), “to sound, to roar, to rumble”. Another verb to use with umi?ひかる (hikaru), “to shine, to glitter, to be bright”;
- ふね (fune): ship, boat, vessel, seaplane. こぶね(kobune) also appears in the lyrics: it’s a compound of ko(which means small) and fune (which is turned to bune in this case) and thus it means “small boat”;
- なみ (nami): wave. It appears in the famous word tsunami(つなみ), where tsu means “port, harbor”. A tsunami is a wave that attacks the harbor;
- カモメ (kamome): gull, seagull. I found it written in katakana, so it’s probably a loanword, although I’m not sure which origins it could have;
- さかな (sakana): fish.
Kanji of the day!
Today’s kanji is:
海 (umi): the sea, the ocean.
(Interesting enough, Umi is also the name of the movie’s main character - which I find beautiful!)
I hope you enjoyed the post as much as I enjoyed learning some Japanese vocabulary about the sea! If you are interested, you can check this post on some vocabulary I learned by watching the movie “From up on Poppy Hill”.
Pictures (from the web): FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (2011), by Goro Miyazaki, STUDIO GHIBLI.
P.S.: I am just a beginner student of Japanese. If you are more experienced with the language and want to point out an error, feel free to let me know, and I will correct the error as soon as possible!
Japanese with Studio Ghibli - From Up on Poppy Hill
From Up on Poppy Hill is one of the first Studio Ghibli movies I have ever seen, probably the second after The Secret World of Arrietty. It is a quiet, peaceful story of everyday’s life and romance, set in the beautiful scenery of Yokohama.
The movie’s title in Japanese is コクリコ坂から(Kokuriko-zaka kara, From the Hill of Poppies):
- コクリコ(Kokuriko) means “poppies”. You may have noticed that it is written in katakana: that’s because it is a loanword, from the French word for poppy, Coquelicot. I don’t know if there’s a Japanese word for this flower, nor if the flower was already known in Japan before it came from Europe…
- 坂(zaka)means “Hill”. Interesting enough, the name “Poppy Hill” seems to come from the name of the boarding house where the main character Umi and her family live, Coquelicot Manor. I initially thought “Poppy Hill” was the name of a neighborhood in Yokohama :)
- から means “from” when put at the end of a noun. This word is mantained in the English title From Up on Poppy Hill, while it is omitted in the Italian title (yep, Italian is my first language) La Collina dei Papaveri, “The Hill of Poppies”. Anyway, I like all of them :)
As I said, this movie shows glimpses of everyday’s life in Japan, therefore it is well suited to learn some common expressions, like the following:
- ただいま!(Tadaima!) : “I’m home”
- お帰りなさい / お帰り (Okaerinasai / okaeri) : “Welcome back (home)”. From what I’ve seen 帰る(kaeru) means something like “return, go back, go home”.
- 行ってきます(Ittekimasu): “I’m off, I’m leaving” (行is the kanji for “go”)
- いただきます(itadakimasu): polite expression you use before starting a meal. It’s very difficult to translate (but many attempt to do it on the web, if you want to know more about this word)
This movie is also a good way to learn/review some vocabulary about the family, since families, and the relationship between parents and their children is a main theme of the story. Those are some of the words about family I recognized:
- お母さん(okaasan): “mother, mum”
- お父さん(otousan): “father, dad”
- 子(ko): “child” can be either son or daughter
- 息子(musuko): “son”
- おねえちゃん(oneechan): “big sister”.
- 兄弟(kyoudai): “siblings, brothers”
Those are just a few examples, the words that I noticed either because often repeated throughout the movie or because I already heard them in my Japanese course. Anyway, if you have the chance to watch this movie, take it, and enjoy this sweet story while learning (or reviewing) Japanese vocabulary!
P.S.: I am learning Japanese as an amateur, by exploring this language and its culture and making new discoveries every day. This means that I am not fluent in Japanese, and that I can make a lot of errors! If you are a native speaker or a student already fluent in the language, feel free to point at errors in the post, and I will correct them as soon as possible!
Pictures:FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (2011), by Goro Miyazaki, STUDIO GHIBLI.
ghiblifilmsheaders
is it just me or was up on poppy hill kind of fucked up…
Naw, it definitely took a turn that just like straight up fish slapped me into another dimension that kinda got resolved but not really????????
Yeeaah it was kind it out there and I haven’t seen it in a couple years but what I generally took away was the fact that it wasn’t really the kids’ fault that they were in such a messed up situation.
Like they grew closer and grew to love each other naturally, but because their parents lied and hid the truth they were ultimately pushed into a taboo situation and they were punished for their parents failures. It’s super not ok that they tried to continue their romantic advances after finding out they might be siblings but it was inherently the sins of their parents that led them there.
I mean the whole message of the movie is to remember the past, no matter how painful or bad it is, because it’s only through understanding past failures are you able to grow and be better.
So yeah in short totally weird relationship and definitely not a love story, but a good reflection on human nature and society.
From Up on Poppy Hill Trailer
huzzah!
Amazing colors.
What’s your favorite Ghibli film?
dovesnest by androicorn
DA-5178-3684-0142
inspired by Studio Ghibli’s ‘From Up on Poppy Hill,’ i loved every second on Dovesnest! andro is a good friend of mine and i implore you to go and visit this gorgeous, Japanese island with so much cute details! you can check out my tour here
check out my twitch streams here
I have had enough of this life. I wanna live and die in the Ghibli World.
Ghibli Rooms and it’s poetic sensibility.
Films in Frame - Kiki’s delivery service, When Marnie was there, Whisper of the heart, Only Yesterday, Ocean waves, Howls moving castle, From up on poppy hills, The secret World of Arrietty, My neighbour totoro
