While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the "long-awaited one."
Ryusuke, who is grieving, makes salt on the day of his wife's funeral, aiming to preserve the local salt's history.
Keiko Takeshita (竹下景子 Takeshita Keiko; born on September 15, 1953 in Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Japan) is a Japanese actress. She starred in the Japanese version of From Up on Poppy Hill as Hana Matsuzaki. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia