Club Ghibli #7 - Pom Poko (1994)

[Diddy]

Are you already at the CLUB?

Welcome back to the seventh instalment of my latest Asian Persuasion effort, a deep dive into the beautiful, bewitching and occasionally baffling world of Studio Ghibli. Dear sister @Mats has done the honours this time, and selected "Pom Poko" ("Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko", Heisei-era Tanuki War Ponpoko).

After a couple of Miyazaki-directed movies, let's return to the late Isao Takahata, who also directed "Only Yesterday".

The film follows a community of Tanuki, Japanese raccoon-dogs (from the dog family, and only resembling raccoons), which in Japanese folklore have special powers of transformation. I won't go into TOO much detail about that, I'll let you see for yourself

Anyway, the Heisei period (1989-2019) started out with a period of tremendous growth in Japan, and major cities expanded accordingly, encroaching on natural environments. This is the fate presented to our brave tanuki, and they must decide how to stay alive. Think "Watership down" without the intense trauma.



HOW THIS WORKS

In a semi book club format, the films will be announced, and over the course of about 2 weeks we can watch it and let everyone know what we thought. I'll nominate someone to pick the next film each time, but maybe let's try not to blow all the famous ones first!

I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!
@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley @big ron @ButterTart @Mats (let me know if you don't want to be tagged any more)

 

[Diddy]

Oh and if any of the English translations talk about their pouches…

THEY ARE NOT POUCHES

 

[Diddy]

How's this going, my little Ghiblets?

 

[Marina Salty]

Am saving this for the weekend.

 

[Diddy]

Curious about @Peekaboo and @Christian ‘s hot takes

As well as @Lucille @Gangsta Nancy Lam and @big ron amongst many others

 

[Peekaboo]

I enjoyed this and I know it's many people's favourite but I only got round to watch it on DVD a decade after it had come out in cinemas and... I FELL ASLEEP TOWARDS THE END so had to watch it in two go's which I normally find very off-putting.

I really did like the really un-Hollywood ending though and it had the right mix of MAGICAL and REAL-LIFE that the best Ghiblis have. The ghost parade was BEAUTIFUL, and I'm aware I am probably missing about 80% of the references and meanings behind all the yokais that appear!

I would give it an 8, conscious that a REWATCH would likely bump it onto a 9.

 

[Lucille]

Saving this for a COZY SUNDAY NIGHT.

 

[Diddy]

The ghost parade was BEAUTIFUL, and I'm aware I am probably missing about 80% of the references and meanings behind all the yokais that appear!

FUNNY you say that

 

[Peekaboo]

FUNNY you say that

I knew kappas and onis but that AMABIE was a new one. She looks like a RIGHT BITCH

I was hoping you'd mention the ONE-EYED UMBRELLA which features in plenty of animes and games but have no idea where it's come from!

 

[Diddy]

I knew kappas and onis but that AMABIE was a new one. She looks like a RIGHT BITCH

I was hoping you'd mention the ONE-EYED UMBRELLA which features in plenty of animes and games but have no idea where it's come from!

I’ll save that for next Halloween

Amabie is nice, she’s like the Baby Spice

 

[Peekaboo]

Have you seen the footage in your own video? She has LASERS coming out of her EYES!

 

[Diddy]

Have you seen the footage in your own video? She has LASERS coming out of her EYES!

I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation

 

[Diddy]

Well, that was lovely - I feel like it's one of the Ghiblies that I'm a bit more familiar with, and like @Peekaboo I have had troubles with its length. Not that 2 hours is super long but there does seem like there is a bit of slack in there. But the last act did leave its mark after that.

Spoiler: potential spoilers

I enjoyed the creative visuals in the prologue about the land development, and of course the Yokai parade was iconic. I think this has impact on us Westerners because it's rare for animation to be so matter-of-fact about death, especially when the body count starts to go up. Maybe I'm just giving them too much credit as a Japanophile, but it wasn't like the Pixar game of "right now here is the bit where you cry, because that's the objective of this scene" - the tanuki are very fun-loving for the most part, and the misfortunes just feel poignant rather than emotional duress of things like Toy Story 3 or Up.

The desperation of the cause, and the realisation that it isn't going to end well is a real CHOICE for something that - on the face of it - seems aimed at younger children. A happy ending would've undermined the message that this is a real environmental issue they wanted to address. And STILL it didn't come over as preachy.

It's not a perfect film, but they way they balanced the forces of showing the issue of rampant development, entertaining the audience, and giving the story emotional weight and depth... that is the real talent, I think.

And I got through that without mentioning huge swinging ballsacks OH SHIT

 

[Diddy]

Speaking (in spoilers) about "Up!", I was talking with someone about how Japanese studios are quite matter-of-fact with death, whereas Pixar really whacks you over the head with any emotional points.

He said "But yeah, Up was so amazing, they made me care that an old woman died!!" ... I wasn't sure how to respond to that. Shouldn't it be easy to feel sad about peoples' partners dying? He said it like he'd never seen the fuss about people dying until that moment

 

[Diddy]

So how are we doing? Even @Queen of the Bay has lost her mojo

Is there anyone out there who hasn't nominated a movie yet, who WANTS to? I'm working through the tag list, but more than half of them haven't watched any soooo.... If not, I'll just loop around again.

 

[Marina Salty]

What I'll say probably won't make sense but I've lighted up the fireplace, covered myself up to my nose with a duvet and am ready to watch this.

 

[Diddy]

What I'll say probably won't make sense but I've lighted up the fireplace, covered myself up to my nose with a duvet and am ready to watch this.

Omg that sounds great! Just don’t fall asleep.
Especially if you’re crimping your hair or a pie crust

 

[Diddy]

This film has @COB written all over it

Also @Peekaboo are you really going to leave me as the only voter in the poll?

 

[Marina Salty]

Looks like am gonna have to rely on my listening skills for this one, subtitles are really off sync.
Also the racoons have testicles!

 

[Diddy]

Looks like am gonna have to rely on my listening skills for this one, subtitles are really off sync.

What are you watching it on? If it’s a video player program you can usually adjust the sync

 

[Peekaboo]

@Queen of the Bay I can upload it somewhere for you with the synched DVD subs if you want, I've got a rip.

 

[Marina Salty]

What are you watching it on? If it’s a video player program you can usually adjust the sync

@Queen of the Bay I can upload it somewhere for you with the synched DVD subs if you want, I've got a rip.

Thanks guys, all is good, I understood everything.

 

[Marina Salty]

Am between an 8 and a 9 for this one, but I think am going to go with the 8. The animation was fabulous (the scenery of how the Hills were before looks a lot like the village in Only Yesterday). And I quite like this folk tale of animals having transformation powers. I think the weakness of this movie is in that it handles too many different character stories so you can't really attach much to one of them and consequently your interest is somewhat split between them. Also am not sure if there is a secondary level of analysis in this one like in previous movies, cause what it says is pretty straightforward throughout. I guess if there is one I must have missed it. Still though the idea of taking this folk tale and using it to make a story about deforestation is remarkable. On a personal level, not having subtitles meant that I had to be alert for 2 hours, which was a little exhausting cause am not used to it.

 

[Marina Salty]

I really did like the really un-Hollywood ending though and it had the right mix of MAGICAL and REAL-LIFE that the best Ghiblis have. The ghost parade was BEAUTIFUL, and I'm aware I am probably missing about 80% of the references and meanings behind all the yokais that appear!

Yes and yes! Am really happy that I've seen all the other films first, cause I could recognize things that I now know .

 

[Diddy]

Am between an 8 and a 9 for this one, but I think am going to go with the 8. The animation was fabulous (the scenery of how the Hills were before looks a lot like the village in Only Yesterday). And I quite like this folk tale of animals having transformation powers. I think the weakness of this movie is in that it handles too many different character stories so you can't really attach much to one of them and consequently your interest is somewhat split between them. Also am not sure if there is a secondary level of analysis in this one like in previous movies, cause what it says is pretty straightforward throughout. I guess if there is one I must have missed it. Still though the idea of taking this folk tale and using it to make a story about deforestation is remarkable. On a personal level, not having subtitles meant that I had to be alert for 2 hours, which was a little exhausting cause am not used to it.

Yeah I agree with the too many storylines, I guess the ... Gonta(?) and ... the more level-headed one, Poncho? (I looked it up, he's called Shokichi, I wasn't close ) was the central conflict, but year it was a lot. But then there was the tanuki vs the humans too, so I don't know. I mean you could read into it about how the different ways of reacting to this threat are reflective of real life, but it wasn't exactly a new take.

Can't believe you watched this without subtitles though how easy was it to follow it? I mean there are a lot of visual clues, but Ghibli movie tend to be a bit wordy in the exposition (I still definitely need subs). How are you actually watching these, by the way? I thought I could do this club because they're all on UK Netflix but I don't know if they're on the greek one, or if you have Netflix in the first place

 

[Marina Salty]

Oh I had the english dubbing on Diddy (we don't do dubbings here unless sth is meant to be for little kids only) it's just that I'm used to rely on the subs all my life.
Do you remember the 888 option on teletext in the UK? That was meant to be for the hearing impaired? I was using it to watch TV at the time.

 

[Diddy]

Oh I had the english dubbing on Diddy (we don't do dubbings here unless sth is meant to be for little kids only) it's just that I'm used to rely on the subs all my life.
Do you remember the 888 option on teletext in the UK? That was meant to be for the hearing impaired? I was using it to watch TV at the time.

It’s interesting you say that, I put subtitles on Netflix all the time now I’m not sure why