From Up on Poppy Hill

A high-school romance is the focus of this Japanese animated drama, which reflects on the country's shift from postwar tribulations to a period of modernisation in 1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics. For teenage heroine Umi (voiced in English by Sarah Bolger) the past is a vital link to her father, who was lost at sea, and she scans the harbour daily from her hilltop home, dreaming of his return. And old family ties threaten the future of her growing relationship with Shun (Anton Yelchin), a student writer and member of the tumbledown academic clubhouse in Yokohama, which is faced with demolition. As ever with Studio Ghibli, the animation is a delight, teeming with affectionate period detail, but the scattershot storytelling lets the film down. That's surprising, given that it's co-written by Hayao Miyazaki - the film-maker behind Spirited Away - although in this case, son Goro directs. The film has a certain sweet charm, yet bland characterisation does a disservice to a colourful voice cast that includes Gillian Anderson, Bruce Dern and Beau Bridges, and the wishy-washy drama simply pales beside the imaginative sweep of Miyazaki Sr's past achievements. Disappointing.