1222 – From Up on Poppy Hill / Kokuriko-zaka kara (2011)

timespace coordinates: 1964 Yokohama, Japan

From Up on Poppy Hill (Japanese: コクリコ坂から Hepburn: Kokuriko-zaka Kara, “From Coquelicot Hill”) is a 2011 Japanese animated drama film directed by Gorō Miyazaki, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, and Toho, and distributed by the latter company. It is based on the 1980 serialized Japanese comic of the same name illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi and written by Tetsurō Sayama.

Set in 1964 Yokohama, Japan, the film tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a high school girl living in a boarding house, ‘Coquelicot Manor’. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a member of the school’s newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school’s clubhouse, Quartier Latin. However, Tokumaru, the chairman of the local high school and a businessman, intends to demolish the building for redevelopment and Umi and Shun, along with Shirō Mizunuma, must persuade him to reconsider. (wiki)

historical basis   /   imdb

0964 – Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

timespace coordinates: 1945  Kobe, Japan

Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓 Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 Japanese animated war film based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, and animated by Studio Ghibli for the story’s publisher Shinchosha Publishing. The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi. The film tells the story of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War.

The Grave of the Fireflies is commonly described as an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been denied by the director. (wiki)

imdb