My favourite Miyazaki films are (in approx. order):
Totoro
Whisper of the Heart
Nausicaa
Porco Rosso
I think I enjoyed From Up on Poppy Hill about as much as those.
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Scarlett Johansson is Miss Peel, Clark Gregg is John Steed, but who the heck are the others?!
You have good taste.
Thanks. What are your favourites?
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Scarlett Johansson is Miss Peel, Clark Gregg is John Steed, but who the heck are the others?!
I don't have a favourite, I like them all (to varying degrees) - I think this film perfects the realism and drama found in the preceding Studio Ghibli films (Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves and Whisper of the Heart), taking the best and strongest elements of all three and fusing them into a single narrative. Probably the studio's best "realistic" or dramatic work if you ask me.
shareI'll try to see OY and OW.
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Scarlett Johansson is Miss Peel, Clark Gregg is John Steed, but who the heck are the others?!
If you live in Europe/Oceania, then you might have a chance finding them on DVD - neither Only Yesterday nor Ocean Waves (Studio Ghibli's one and only TV Movie) have seen an official release in North America.
shareFrom Up on Poppy Hill had a solid narrative and brilliant characterisation. The themes engaged with of youthful ambition and struggling with one's past was supported by admirable characters.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
Great story and characters. And a realistic movie, could have been a live-action film. It's not a typical animated film. I'd compare it to The Wind Rises and Porco Rosso, of the ones I've seen.
share
Whisper of the Heart and From Up Poppy Hill were not made by Miyazaki though...Poppy was made by his son Goro, an Whisper by Yoshifumi Kondo.
Did you mean Ghibli?
I loved it too. I thin it shows that Miyazaki's son who directed it can come up with some great stuff. It would be one of my top Ghibli films. If I had to rate them, the top would look like
Princess Mononoke - Miyazaki
Whisper of the Hears - Kondo
Laputa- Miyazaki
Porco Rosso - Miyazaki
From Up Poppy Hill - Goro Miyazaki
In the beginning there was nothing, and it exploded.
From Up On Poppy Hill (was) not made by Miyazaki though...Poppy was made by his son Goro
Whisper of the Heart and From Up Poppy Hill were not made by Miyazaki though...Poppy was made by his son Goro, an Whisper by Yoshifumi Kondo.
I loved this movie more the second time. I don't know why, but it really touched me. It had heart and two likeable main characters.
Can't stop the signal.
OP: Me too! What a BEAUTIFUL movie, in all respects! I can never get over how artistically beautiful all studio Ghibli movies are (you can basically pause the movie at any frame and you have a perfect painting), but this one also has such a lovely story and character development. The whole clubhouse setting and storyline made me so nostalgic for the times when students were actually passionate about learning and about activism (I'm not saying that students nowdays don't care about these things at all, but I fear that the proportion of students who do care is much lower). And then the personal story of Umi and Shun was simple but engaging and really sweet. This movie had avoided a common story-telling flaw of Miyazaki's movies, namely being a bit all over the place in the second half (Nausicaa and Howl's moving castle being the prime examples of this, as well as Spirited Away, to some extent).
I am a fan of the more down-to-earth films by Miyazaki senior, so my favorite ones are:
The Wind Rises
Totoro
Castle in the Sky (that one is literally not "down to Earth" but still less epic than some other ones)
Kiki's Delivery Service
I think Princess Mononoke is the best among the more epic ones.
**Edit: PS: I forgot to mention Whisper of the Heart, which is quite similar to this one. Another lovely film, but it's usually not included in the lists of "essential" Miyazaki movies because he didn't direct it.
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It's always nice to hear the thoughts of another fan of Miyazaki's gentler films.
I really love Umi's interactions with her grandmother, her mother, her sister, and Shun. I got this one out of the library once and watched it several times. I alternated between the original Japanese version and the English dub, because I really liked both.
I've always found it very interesting that Miyazaki has directed (and/or written) 3 distinct different types of movies: war epics, nightmares, and family films suitable for younger children. Porco Rosso is the one of the few that does not fit into a single category and is really a hybrid.
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