My Neighbors the Yamadas

Hôhokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun

Japan

1999

104 Min

Color

1.85:1

Japanese

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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PROD Takashi Shoji, Seiichiro Ujiie

CAST Toru Masuoka, Yukiji Asaoka, Masako Araki, Naomi Uno, Akiko Yano, Chocho Miyako, Tamao Nakamura, Yasuko Tomita, Arata Furuta

MUSIC Akiko Yano

Locarno (Manga Impact – The World of Japanese Animation), Helsinki (Animated Dreams)

Synopsis

Based on a wildly popular Japanese comic strip, master animator and studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata directs this loosely structured work about that wacky household, the Yamadas. The family consists of laid-back mother Matsuko, the businessman father Takashi, who has illusions of machismo, the acid-tongued grandmother Shige, the slacker teenaged son Noboru, the younger sister Nonoko, and Pochi, the misanthropic family dog. My Neighbors the Yamadas was chosen by The Museum of Modern Art in New York for its film collection, the first Japanese animated feature film to be so honored. –Helsinki International Film Festival

Director

Isao Takahata

Isao Takahata (born October 29, 1935) is one of the most famous directors of anime, or Japanese animated films.

Born in Ujiyamada (now Ise), Mie prefecture, Japan, he is a long-term colleague of Miyazaki Hayao and co-head at Studio Ghibli. His four animated films at Studio Ghibli have spanned a remarkable range of genres: war-film (Grave of the Fireflies), romantic drama (Only Yesterday), comedy (My Neighbors the Yamadas) and ecological adventure (Pom-Poko). Of these Grave of the Fireflies, in particular, is widely considered among the greatest animated films ever made.

Graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1959, Takahata joined the newly-created Toei Douga animation company where a short time later he met Miyazaki, and also directed his first feature film Horus: Prince of the Sun. Ostracized within the company after the financial failure of the film (despite its artistic success), he and Miyazaki left in order to work together, and collaborated on many other films… read more