Hōhokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun
My Neighbors the Yamadas
by Isao Takahata – Japan, 1999
(104', Japanese with Italian subtitles)
The Yamada family, composed by father, mother, grandmother, two kids and their dog Pochi, lives thousands of daily adventures, sometimes funny, sometimes sweet, grotesque or surreal.
Yamadas is one of Takahata’s most personal movies, based on vignettes and without a real plot, with a free structure that allows him to show the daily life of a peculiar family.
Even more beautiful thanks to the simple drawing style and pastel colours, it hides its digital nature by being more stylized, that makes it look like classic Japanese painting.
Isao Takahata
Director, screenwriter, producer, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli with his friend and colleague Hayao Miyazaki. Praised by international critic for his amazing sensibility, he is considered one of the cornerstones of an entire way of doing animation. His interests in cinema history and studies of French literature met when, in 1953, La Bergére et le ramoneur by Grimault and Prèvert aired, which represents a true enlightenment for young Takahata, the starting point to explore all that animation can do.