Watched (and Read) May 14 - 20, 2007
Only one actual movie to report: Heisei tanuki gassen pompoko / Pom Poko (Isao Takahata, 1994) Despite the fact that the subtitles call the creatures who star in this cartoon epic of forest animals fighting encroaching development "raccoons", they are really "raccoon dogs" ("tanuki" in Japanese): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_Dog This is probably the hardest of all Ghibli films for Western audiences to come to terms with. It is unabashedly culturally specific -- and probably a comprehensive annotated booklet would be quite helpful for Western viewers. that said, the basic outline of the story is simple enough. T anuki living in the Tama Hills on the outskirts of Tokyo in the mid-1960s find their habitat being bulldozed and leveled. Being the most magical of Japanese animals (along with foxes), they fight back -- using all their skills (which include shape changing). T he effectiveness of their defense is undermined, from time totime, by their indol...