Pom Poko

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Title pompoko.png
Feature Film: 16 July 1994 / 118 minutes
Screenplay, Storyboards, Direction: Isao Takahata


Pom Poko poster
Pom Poko poster
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Isao Takahata
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Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko?) As civilisation draws ever nearer to their idyllic forest home, a group of mischievous Japanese tanuki (raccoon dogs - Nyctereutes procyonoides) try to scare humans away. But they soon discover that humans are not their only rivals in the struggle for their age-old territory.

Released in 1994 as the Japanese economy slumped, but looking back to the sixties construction boom in Tokyo’s Tama Hills, Pom Poko questions the money-grabbing ethics of yuppie Japan, and mourns the loss of the countryside. Drawing on Japanese myths and legends, writer and director Isao Takahata presents a satirical view of woodland spirits using every available magical ruse to take on modern developers: including transformations, sabotage and trickery.

Pom Poko is a unique window into Japanese folklore, a comedy of modern failings, and an elegiac tale of unlikely heroes fighting insurmountable odds.