Pom Poko
Short description
Pom Poko follows a community of tanuki, the raccoon dogs of Japanese folklore, living in the Tama Hills west of Tokyo. As housing developments and shopping centres spread into their woodland, food and shelter grow scarce. The animals band together to resist, reviving an old shapeshifting art that lets them take human form and pose as ghosts or objects to disrupt the construction. Their campaign against the encroaching city is heroic but uneven, and it pushes the tanuki toward other ways of surviving.
Isao Takahata directed and wrote the film, which followed Only Yesterday in his run of features and preceded My Neighbors the Yamadas. Studio Ghibli produced it with Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokuma Shoten and Hakuhodo, and Toshio Suzuki produced. The voice cast includes Makoto Nonomura as Shoukichi, Nijiko Kiyokawa as Oroku, Shigeru Izumiya as Gonta, Norihei Miki as Seizaemon, Yuriko Ishida as Kiyo and Megumi Hayashibara as Sasuke, with 57 credited crew members.
Released in July 1994, the film runs 119 minutes. It drew a critics' rating of 5.9 out of 10 from 14 reviews, while audiences rate it 7.2 on IMDb from 39,000 votes and the same 7.2 on TMDB from a much smaller 1,237 votes, a gap suggesting viewers have been warmer toward it than reviewers. Its worldwide box office of about 1 million dollars was modest.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film became the highest-grossing film in Japan at the end of its 1994 run.
- Tanuki are the largest of the wild animals commonly found in Japan. They are currently on the verge of extinction. In addition to Japan, tanuki also live in Korea and China, as well as in the Russian Far East (the Ussuri River basin). In 1934, tanuki were introduced to the European part of the USSR, and now their habitat extends to Western Europe.
- The meetings of the Tanuki Salvation Committee echo the well-known meetings of Japanese socialist organizations from the late 1960s, as depicted by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
- The West Tokyo Tanuki Salvation Committee genuinely exists, although tanuki are not members. It is actually headed by Kuwahara Noriko. Isao Takahata actively consulted with this organization while making the film. Besides tanuki, the committee also cares for raccoons and other animals inhabiting this rapidly developing region.
- In 1995, the film was submitted by Japan for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This was the first time in Oscar history that an animated film was nominated in this category.
- Heisei is the period of Emperor Akihito's reign, which began in 1989. Pom Poko is a period in the history of tanuki. Tanuki make a 'pom-poko' sound when they beat on their full bellies.
- The word 'tanuki' is often translated as 'badger' or 'raccoon.' This is incorrect. Raccoon dogs belong to the canine family.
- When creating the visual design of the tanuki, Isao Takahata drew inspiration, among other sources, from Shigeru Sugiura's popular manga '808 Tanuki.'
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