Umi Matsuzaki lives in her grandmother’s boarding house at the top of a hill in Yokohama. As a part of her morning routine, she raises some signal flags in honor her naval veteran father. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a rabble-rousing member of the school’s newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school’s clubhouse, The Latin Quarter. However, the chairman of the local high school intends to demolish the building for redevelopment. Umi and Shun, along with Shun’s friend Shiro Mizunuma, must persuade him to reconsider.
From Up On Poppy Hill features a few landmarks from Yokohama, although the film attempts to express more of the spirit of the city than its precise historical reality. From a Goro Miyazaki phone interview with the New York Times, “I came to realize that simply re-enacting something of the time may seem real enough but may not necessarily be beautiful.”
Some of the more standout spots include the Hikawa Maru, still docked in Yamashita Park, the historically significant Hotel New Grand, the Yamate Archives Museum, which loosely inspired the house from the film, and the Yokohama Marine Tower. The Yokohama Bay Bridge was not constructed until the late 80s, and therefore did not dominate the backgrounds in the film’s sequences around Yokohama Bay.
One striking comparison is the film’s depiction of the old Sakuragicho Station.
The city of Yokohama announced March 22, 2012 that it installed a flagpole in Harbor View Park bearing the signal flags for “UW”, as seen in the film, and a plaque celebrating the film’s choice to be set in Yokohama. This commemorative photo from the installation ceremony has been upscaled since a higher quality source could not be found. It is incredibly rare for Ghibli to official recognize an inspirational location.
A plaque at this location features an explanation in Japanese and in English.
“The City of ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’ -YOKOHAMA-
“Yokohama set in 1963 is the stage of the Studio Ghibli film ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’, which was released in summer 2011.
“The film shows Yokohama harbor, Yamagata Park, Yokohama Marine Tower and many other sites highly regarded by the Yokohama citizens from that time till the present. Yokohama is a city which treasures its good old times.
“Umi Matsuzaki, the main character which appears in the film, raises the two nautical flags every morning, signaling ‘I wish you a pleasant voyage’. The location of her house where she raises these flags is based in the Harbor View Park area.
“We hope you will have a chance to experience Yokohama, featured in ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’ by watching the flags from Harbor View Park, and looking out to the view below.”
The shoujo manga of the same name published by Kodansha in Nakayoshi bears little resemblance in terms of art direction and character design to the film, but many of its narrative beats were preserved.