It is crucial to learn to move with the flow of times and to experience life as an eternal celebration despite or precisely due to its difficulties and disappointments: The animation film Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours, the Yamadas 『ホーホケキョ・となりの山田くん』 Hôhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun (1999) talks in a warmhearted, gentle, and simultaneously serious manner of the importance of family as a balanced set of aspirations and concerns, on the one hand, and fulfillments and pleasures, on the other hand. It is a cheerful family comedy, displayed like a video comic strip, arguably in itself quite unusual, compared to other animation works released by Studio Ghibli, which are drawn in classical animation style. It was the first fully digital movie of the Studio Ghibli. Despite positive reviews, Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas was a huge flop at the box-office – both domestic and international – and was followed by a long break in Takahata’s creative activity until 2013, when his magnum opus The Tale of Princess Kaguya was released.
The unexpected surprise delivered by Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas does not arise so much from the topic it chooses to address, but rather from the unusual characters and design style as well as through the somewhat unorthodox treatment of the subject with its numerous ironic and self-ironic elements and startling twists. At the crossroads of the millennia, audiences seemed to seek for affirmative and straightforward works of art which could be taken as mental-emotional signposts, and be less impressed by philosophical or critical inputs, in troubled times lacking ideological and aesthetic orientation.
Plot Overview
The plot of Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas is based on the manga work of Ishii Hisaichi 石井壽一 from the 1980s. It describes the everyday life of a (typical or not, depending on the point of view) Japanese family with their quotidian endeavors. Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours, the Yamadas belongs to the comedy as a genre, while unconditionally displaying an ideological background of honesty and warm humanism which can be recognized in all animation works directed by Takahata Isao. The director does not intend in the least to make fun of the painful, embarrassing, terrible experiences of the members of the Yamada family or to put them in a ridiculous light; rather, the intention is to convey a realist image of Japanese everyday life by means of digital animation, as much as this was possible at that very historical moment.
『となりの山田くん』はジブリ作品として『もののけ姫』に続いて作られた。『生きろ』という真摯な主張があって、ではどうしたらいいのかとの問いに、登場人物の一見滑稽な座右の名の形でこう応じたのである。『適当』と。 […] 『太陽の王子ホルスの大冒険』のように破壊者を悪魔に象徴させなくても、『おもひでぽろぽろ』のように農作業をしに出かけなくても、環境問題と家族問題とそれらのかかわりも、ちゃんと表現したり、考えたり、主張したりすることが可能だということが分かったのだ。
[Hôhokekyo:] My Neighbours, the Yamadas was produced as a Studio Ghibli animation work after Princess Mononoke. In this work [Princess Mononoke], there is the very seriously meant statement “Live!”. To the question how to do it best, the characters in [the animation film] Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours, the Yamadas obviously react with the funny, lovely verdict: “However you might like it!” […] In doing so, [Takahata] clearly shows that it is indeed possible to openly address the problems plaguing the environment and the family as well as the connections between them, to reflect upon those issues and to express various opinions, without demonizing the perpetrators as in [the animation film] The Prince of Sun: Horus’ Great Adventure [1968] or to return to the fields and the physical work [implied by living in the countryside] as in [the animation film] Memories like Raindrops [1991].
(Inoue Shizuka, 2004, Miyazaki Hayao: Eizô to Shisô no Renkinjutsu [Miyazaki Hayao: The Alchemist of Images and Ideas], Tokyo: Shakai-Hihan-sha, pp. 192)
Takashi is an average employée in an anonymous company, Matsuko is a ordinary, not exceptionally hardworking, housewife, Yamano Shige (Matsuko’s mother) is a retired old-lady as to be found everywhere in Japan: obtrusive, annoying, know-it-all, and yet somehow familiar with her fascination for larvae instead of the flowers that they eat away at. Noboru (the elder son) is a student at a minor university and does not understand the meaning of continuous goal-oriented study, and Nonoko (the younger daughter) embodies the archetype of the spoiled, cynical girl.
Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas is peppered with mythological allusions, visible, for instance, in the birth circumstances of the two children of the Yamada family Noboru and Nonoko which are traced back to two of the most famous popular legends or folk-tales: the first one about Momotarô 桃太郎 (the “Peach-Boy”, a baby-boy who had been found in a peach floating down a river by an elderly childless couple who then decided to adopt him, and years later, as the boy turns into a grown-up man, he trains to be a warrior who saves the world from the oppression of demons) and Kaguya-Hime かぐや姫 (the baby-girl found by an elderly childless bamboo-cutter inthe stem of a bamboo-tree in a bamboo-forest, who takes her home and decides together with his wife to raise her; later on, she turns out to be a princess from the moon, where she is also supposed to return to, one day). Cultural hints are taken into account, too, e.g., when the newly wed Takashi and Matsuko ride on a huge wave, unbashingly reminding of Hokusai’s world-renowned wood-block print, but they are counter-balanced by the popular song “Naru yô ni naru” 「成るように、成る」 – “What will be, will be”, the Japanese version of Doris Day’s unforgettable evergreen “Che sera, sera”. In the midst of a fight, during which Shige makes fun of Takashi’s advancing baldness, Takashi points out Shige’s missing teeth, only for both of them, subsequently, to accuse Matsuko of her overweight when she tries to bring them to stop fighting; eventually, Nonoko complains that she cannot enjoy her favorite television show because of their nonsensical verbal duels, and Noboru concludes snappily on the secret recipe to the harmony and balance within the Yamada family: 「我が家が平和なのは、どうしてか分かったよ。皆さんが三人とも皆へん、どっちもどっちもなんだからだ。もし、誰か一人でもまともだと、バランスが崩れる。」 – “The reason why Yamada family can stay afloat no matter what is that all three grown-ups are nuts, and when/if one of them would become normal, the sense of balance would be broken.” Immediately afterwards, the Yamada family levitates in the air carrying colorful umbrellas à la Mary Poppins, while day turns into night and huge fireworks appear out of nowhere. They sing, wholeheartedly, “Che sera, sera”, shot a commemorative Pulikula family picture and the father may, for once, exceptionally, or habitually, it is not said or even suggested, decide what to enjoy for dinner. (Pulikula プリクラ are memorial pictures with peculiar embellishments and models, generally shot at special machines with friends during or after karaoke sessions or when going out together.) Accompanied by the deep-sounding words of Buson’s poetry 「春の海終日のたりのたり哉」 – “The soft movement of the sea-waves in spring, the whole day”, the five members of this (un)usual family together with their dog move towards distant horizons, in the dim, melancholic light of the sunset. (Yosa [no] Buson 与謝蕪村 [1716-1784] was a Japanese poet and painter of Edo period. Together with Matsuo Bashô 松尾芭蕉, Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 [1763-1828] and Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 [1867-1902], he is a member of the so-called “golden quartet” of Japanese haiku 俳句 poetry.)
Human happiness, its meaning and its methods, cannot be found as such neither in the Japanese nor in the Western way of seeing life or the world; rather, it depends on the individual: the difference emerges from the two underlying existential paradigms, the Western one which rests on the vision of life and of the world as something unchangeably predetermined (sera is the future form of the verb essere, ‘to be’ in Italian) and the Japanese one, based on a life and world philosophy which promotes a changeable modifiable model of existence (naru 成る, ‘to become’). Despite adversities in life and in the world, it is still possible to move forward, when one believes in oneself and puts in the effort. In case it does not work out, there is always a second chance, a third chance, and so on, in the circle of a life and world vision derived from Shintô and Buddhist faith, in contrast to the irreversible limitation of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Significance and Context
The fundamental message in Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas materializes from its vignettes: one lives an uneventful life, has to deal with ironic, disrespectful attitude of the people around oneself and of one’s own children, with the neglectful, loveless gestures of one’s own partner, with indifferent co-workers and seniors, but there is always space for dreaming of an heroic existence in which one can save at least one’s own family from soul loss so commonly encountered in today’s societies. This is illustrated in the scene in which, following the crushing defeat in the altercation with a three-member motorcycle gang, Takashi metamorphoses into a Superman-like man and rescues his family from the clutches of a dangerous yakuza-clan – a highly combative scene which turns out to be the product of his imagination while he sits on a swing in the desolated park, holding in his hand a protective helmet, so ubiquitous in Japan with its national “safety first” strategy stifling any gestures of risk or adventure. (Yakuza (ヤクザ, やくざ or 八九三) is a Japanese criminal organization, like the Italian Mafia, with a history going back several centuries. The yakuza conglomerate has a very strict inner hierarchy and is divided in various, oftentimes rival groups or kumi 組.) Thick, heavy, bitter tears roll down his cheeks: 「ギャグではなくて、真実だ。」 – “This is no joke, but the reality.” (Takahata Isao, 1999, Eiga wo Tsukurinagara Kangaeta Koto II: 1991-1999 [What I Was Thinking While Creating Movies II: 1991-1999], Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, pp. 21) One works, one plans, one does his best – and still, everything goes wrong. The only way out is to pull oneself once again together and to master the situation to the best of one’s abilities, as detailed in another classic scene, in which during a friend’s wedding, Takashi finds in his pocket, instead of the laboriously prepared speech, a shopping list, so that he has to improvise, spontaneously. Apart from the irresistible playfulness of the scene, there are deep, meaningful lessons for young people in Takashi’s efforts to do his best, both in post-recession Japan and elsewhere, in over-saturated, stagnating societies, where fresh, dynamic lifestyles are slowly taking over and replacing the old ways of living, loving and working.
Despite its financial failure at the box-office – Japanese and worldwide –, this bright, cheerful family comedy narrates of (family) values and inter-generational interdependence, of social conformism and personal fulfilment, of quotidian love in the lives of average citizens and of individual solutions to general constraints and obligations. Regardless of the socio-political environment, life goes on inside of the household – with its dreams, hopes, desires, disillusionments, joys and expectations. Finding one’s own true self or living to be one’s own true self does not necessarily mean the epic quest for adventures and world-rescuing events, but in the case of the Yamada family, the undisturbed continuation of everyday life – as overwhelming or boring as it might be at times.
There are several scenes which seem to hold this very everyday life like pictures in an photo-album, and to perpetuate it, likewise: first of all, there is the unforgettable scene called A Dangerous Domestic Crisis 『家庭崩壊の危機』 Katei Hôkai no Kiki (literally “The Danger of Family Dissolution”), in which Nonoko gets lost during a shopping tour of the Yamada family in a department store. Too exhausted to continue their search for the lost daughter, the remaining members of the family decide to return home where, after a while, they receive a call from an unknown person who had found Nonoko and had brought her home from the shopping-mall together with her own son. With the tension having lifted, one can hear from outside of Yamada family’s house happy laughter and cheerful voices; Bashô’s lyrical words 「秋の夜を打崩したる咄かな」 – “Cheerful laughter dissolves [the silence of] the autumn evening”, confer to the entire situation a slightly surreal atmosphere. (Matsuo Bashô 松尾芭蕉 [1644-1694] was a Japanese poet of early Edo period, famous for his haiku works; his real name was Matsuo Kinsaku 松尾金作; during his lifetime, he took over the samurai name Matsuo Munefusa 松尾宗房; the Sino-Japanese reading of the name Munefusa, Sôbô, is remembered as his first pen-name as a haiku poet.)
Even the “Yamada marriage” seems to be particular in its own ways. In two further scenes – Married Life: Yamada Style 『我が家の夫婦道』 Waga Ya no Fufu-Michi (literally “The Married Life of My Family”) and It Is Easier to Get Old than Wise 『少年老い易く学成り難し』 Shônen Oi, Ekigaku Nari Muzukashi –, the battle for the television remote controller between husband and wife is keenly depicted: while Mr Yamada wants to watch a soccer game, Mrs Yamada wants to watch her favorite television drama show. They switch back and forth, and Nonoko’s comment 「結局、テレビ[が]見れないよ!」 – “In the end, nobody can watch television anymore!”, is a clear evaluation of nasty, uncomfortable circumstances, while her grand-mother’s Shige reply 「この方が面白いやんかね!」 “This is funnier, by far!” – finds its explanation in the next sequence, which surprises the two spouses entangled in a short moment of affection, dancing tango. Despite numerous gestures of petty competition and disagreements, Takashi and Matsuko stay connected through some sort of invisible inner bond, dysfunctional, one might argue, but still somehow weirdly familiar from the viewer’s own experiences outside of the ideatic area of the animation film. On the other hand, in the second scene, Noboru cannot overcome his sleepiness and lack of interest in studying. He tries his best, but he is obviously not interested in learning and, consequently, fails his exams. During the subsequent family gathering, the father suggests hiring a private teacher for 30.000 JPY (the exchange rate at that time ranged at 100 Yen = 1 US$) an hour, and Shige offers herself as the private teacher for only 20.000 JPY an hour, to which Noboru mentions he would gladly learn by himself for just 10.000 JPY an hour. Bashô’s sensible words 「蛸壷やはかなき夢を夏の月」 – “The moon in summer: transient dreams of [beautiful] octopus catcher”, remind of the transience of life which neither knowledge nor money can transcend.
In some other domestic scenes – The Housekeeping Genius 『家政の天才』 Kasei no Tensai; The Famous Combination 『名コンビ』 Mei-Konbi; The Morning of the Ginger 『茗荷の朝』 Myôga no Asa; Art Is Short [-Lived], Life Is Long 『芸術は短し、人生は長し』 Geijutsu ha Mijikashi, Jinsei ha Nagashi (the last scene title being an allusion to the Latin quote “Ars longa, vita brevis” or “Art is long, life is short”, which has been attributed to the Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist (and sometimes poet) Seneca [c. 4 BC-65 AD] in his work De brevitate vitae or On the Brevity of Life, but had been, in fact, originally coined by the Greek architect and physician Hippocrates [c. 460-370 BC]) –, it becomes possible to understand the background of this peculiar household, at the same time familiar and alienating: in a first step, Matsuko’s laziness is openly displayed, who either forgets to dry the laundry, only to wonder hours later how she could have managed so much that the laundry itself has disappeared from the clothes-line; on a different occasion, she employs common, mean tricks to avoid her husband’s guests by pretending to be in the middle of a spring cleanup, instead of just sorting up the prevailing mess in the house. Mr. Yamada’s dismay and frustration, who constantly tries to fit in the role of the self-conscious head of the family, deliver a specific ironic serenity to this little interlude, even if it questions, simultaneously, the brutal discordance between facts and appearances in many parts of the Japanese society, both public and private. In a second step, the oftentimes strangely underestimated
generation gap is depicted, in the relationship between Matsuko and her mother, Shige. Matsuko cannot get her mother to cook dinner, or at least to order it; after several unsuccessful attempts, Shige gives up and leaves a huge chaos in the kitchen. On a similar note, Matsuko’s culinary art is not stellar either: her monotonous meals prepared with the same ingredients lead, apparently, to forgetfulness and boredom, with the (somehow predictable) outcome that no one can properly carry out their daily tasks anymore. The resulting confusion talks about the necessity of manifold, diverse dishes within a healthy framework of quotidian activities with a great variety of contents. Repeatedly, Bashô is quoted 「やがて死ぬけしきは見えず蝉の声」 – “In the cicadas’ chirping, the image of death does not creep in”, which brings into the foreground Takahata’s credo of life as the most important asset one possesses and could ever possess. While death might come out as the end goal of life, up to the point when death shows up, one must live life to its fullest and enjoy the events, experiences, surprises of life wholeheartedly.
Two particular scenes are dedicated to grand-mother Shige: My Way 『我が道をいく婆さん』 Waga Michi wo Iku Ba-San (literally “The Old Woman Who Goes Her Own Way”) and The Ally of Justice 『正義の味方』 Seigi no Mikata. Interestingly, throughout Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas, Shige is portrayed neither under the sign of blind respect nor with sarcastic sneakiness. Rather, she appears as the prototype of millions of Japanese senior citizens who, upon exiting the workforce market and/or entering the late phase of their lives, find themselves placed on the outskirts of a society which prefers the young, strong, beautiful people, focused on consumption, excess, intensity. Shige has her own set of rules which she takes into account within her daily life: she lays ads for the local croquet tournament over the posters for the election campaign with its political candidates; she gets annoyed with another retired person who is cleaning her part of the public park; she scolds her daughter Matsuko when she tries to fool around the complicated garbage collection system by disposing the domestic trash at various convenience stores; she feels sorry for a guardrail which had been ruined in an accident caused by a motorcycle gang instead of feeling sorry for those youngsters themselves who had died in the accident. On the other hand, she changes the rules whenever she feels appropriate, like when she is caught off-side: one such moment is, for instance, when she rewards two boys with two balls, which had fallen in her garden, instead of one, but subsequently, she is not able anymore to give the (second) ball to the boys who had lost it. Hastily, she employs a nonsensical lie and sends the boys away, despite having lectured Nonoko only minutes ago on the necessity to always say the truth and to stay behind one’s true intentions and gestures.
Some scenes in Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas are deeply touching in their ironic helplessness: those scenes which try, unconvincingly, to present Takashi as the head of the family and a model of masculinity leading by example. In some memorable sequences – Male Bonding 『親子の会話』 Oyako no Kaiwa (literally “A Conversation between Parents and Children”); Father as a Role-Model 『親父の背中』 Oyaji no Senaka (literally “The Back of My Old-Man”); The Chronicles of the Yamada Family 『山田家の歳時記抄』 Yamada-Ie no Saijikishô –, Noboru undermines in full peace of mind his father’s efforts to impress his son as a father and as a man: The father plays more poorly Catch-Ball, a Japanese sport-game in which two or more players throw a ball among themselves, than his son and breaks the window of the neighbor’s house with the ball, the father cannot explain credibly to his son the meaning of life, the father is less of an expert when dealing with alcoholic beverages than his son, the father cannot convince the family to take a commemorative picture together when the first snow of the year has fallen, the father has to experience alone his own joys in life, the father receives hardly anything to eat when he comes home from work, exhausted, and despite earning money for the entire family. Takashi’s loneliness is summed up in two short poetical fragments by Santôka65 respectively Bashô: 「うしろ姿のしぐれてゆくか」 – “The back of a lonely figure in the light autumn rain.” and 「こちらむけ我もさびしき秋の暮」 – “Turn to me; I am lonely in the autumn dusk, too”. (Taneda Santôka 種田山頭火 [1882-1940, birth-name Taneda Shôichi 種田正一] was a Japanese haiku poet in the first half of the 20th century, particularly famous for his haiku works in free style.) Interestingly, in the depiction of Takashi’s lonely life within his family and at work, there seems to be no intention of disclosing by means of animation the split or dissolution of the Japanese family in late modernity or the half-mythical isolation of the individual within an alienating system: rather, family is displayed as a manifold, dynamic conglomerate, with both positive and negative dimensions, as well as sustainable methods to move through life.
This view of things is supported by a further scene – Section Manager Yamada 『山田課長』 Yamada-Kachô –, in which Takashi oversleeps on the morning when he is supposed to leave for a business trip and consequently intends to call in sick and stay home, but eventually decides to go to work and fulfil his obligation. His commute to work in overcrowded trains in the midst of faceless humans finds its semantic counterpart in the nostalgia-filled images of little plants on the garbage heaps and of the birds on the electrical wires: nature fills in where humans must give in to their own fallibility, and delivers in the process grace and beauty to life, to the world and to the efforts of the humans.
There are also moments, though, in which Takashi’s dignity is restored: an important step in this direction is his spontaneously improvised speech at the wedding, caused by his wife having handed him over her own shopping list instead of the piece of paper with his painstakingly prepared speech. A further important step is the electrifying sequence The Chronicles of the Yamada Family II 『山田家の歳時記抄II』 Yamada-Ie no Saijikishô II, in which Takashi calls home from the train station during a heavy rainfall and asks that someone come pick him up with an umbrella. Nobody wants to, but Matsuko advises him to go buy an umbrella from the supermarket and, if he goes to the supermarket anyway, he should also buy some pork. Takashi hangs up angrily, but he buys, after a long hesitation, the requested pork at the supermarket. On his way back home, he meets his wife and their children who bring him an umbrella. The four of them return home in quiet reconciliation. Buson’s poetical excerpt 「春雨やものがたりゆく簑と傘」 – “In the spring rain, they walk away while telling stories, carrying coats and umbrellas”, confers the scene lyrical universalism and underscores once again the diversity of the human life – and therefore, of human togetherness.
Significance and Impact
Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas is, without a doubt, an authentic masterwork which depicts life, the human being and the world in pastel colors and lighthearted emotions. Such a depiction is a repetition, a summary and a sensible emphasis of the issues represented so far in Takahata Isao’s animation works: that is, an alternative type of enlightenment on the historical stage, which celebrates the epic of life as an unique, unrepeatable event in itself. This showcases deep roots in the universe of Japanese animation: the basic idea in many animation productions in Japan, with otherwise very different themes, is the request to live and keep on living as long and as wholeheartedly as possible. This occurs in such animation works like Maison Ikkoku (『めぞん一刻』 Mezon Ikkoku, literally “The House of the Moment”, television animation series, 1986-1988, director: Yamazaki Kazuo やまざきかずお 1-26, Annô Takashi 安濃高志 27-52, Yoshinaga Naoyuki 吉永尚之 53-96), Nadia from Mysterious Seas (『ふしぎの海のナディア』 Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, television animation series, 1990, director: Anno Hideaki 庵野秀明), Rurouni Kenshin: Romantic Tales of a Meiji Swordsman (『るろうに剣心：明治剣客浪漫譚』 Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan, television animation series, 1996-2001, director: Furuhashi Kazuhiro 古橋一浩), Princess Mononoke or GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (『グレート・ティーチャー・オニヅカ』 Gurêto Tîchâ Onizuka, television animation series, 1999-2000, director: Abe Noriyuki 阿部記之). Between the fundamental idea in Princess Mononoke – to live together and to build up the future together, again – and the rather casual humor in Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas –, there is the leitmotif of Maison Ikkoku: 「とにかく、飲もう!」 – “Anyway, let’s drink!” This occurs in a society in which since the beginning of the economic recession in early 1990s, there have been roughly 27.000 to 30.000 suicide cases per year during the first of the so-called “lost decades”, absorbed by official statistics, with male citizens making up ca. 80% of the victims. The value of life seems to be recognized, at last. It emerges from a type of enlightenment with warm humanism at its very core, which celebrates the human being with its uniqueness and unrepeatability, with its failures and setbacks, but also with its delights, hopes and dreams. The problematic of banishing the animal-like dimensions from within the human being by means of pure reason is transcended and harmonized through the focus on the joy of life. It is no longer a battle, but a process of constructive cooperation. On this foundation, Takahata Isao creates his Yamada family and sends her into the wide world, with its momentary pleasures and frustrations, worries and aspirations, contradictions and nonsensical inquiries, mediated by Japanese animation art.
Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas was, like The Prince of Sun: Horus’ Great Adventure a crushing financial flop. Among the reasons why this exceptional masterwork ended up in the unhappy line of disappointing releases, an important one is the plot, as many viewers saw themselves confronted with their own marital misery and lack of social acknowledgment. A further contributor to Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas’ failure was the unusual drawing style and the innovative approach towards the topic itself with its numerous ironic and self-ironic constructions as well as shocking denouements. Takahata’s penultimate animation release clashed against the expectations of audiences who, too exhausted by their own loss of ideological-aesthetic orientation, were desperately looking for validating or at least consolidating artefacts which could serve as guidelines or guideposts, rather than philosophical or critical works of arts, meant to challenge them intellectually.
The animation style was a further fundamental reason leading up to the negative reception of Hôhokekyo: My Neighbors, the Yamadas: unlike in the vast majority of animation works, released in Japan or elsewhere, and even by Studio Ghibli standards, the characters are hardly sketched, with open contours and in pastel colors on barely visible backgrounds. The impression of a specific lack of finality in the design dissolves throughout the film, when the care for seemingly insignificant details turns obvious as well as the intrinsically complex structure of the narrative line. It takes insightful compassion to gradually discover the red threads connecting this animation work to previous ones, and neither the audiences nor the critics had, obviously, the necessary insight or the patience. As in every work by Takahata, this animation movie possesses a certain nostalgia and a particular human sensitivity beyond the precise art of representation. During the 144 minutes, with warm humor and empathetic irony, the viewer accompanies the Yamada family during various aspects of its everyday life, from domestic disagreements to work-related issues, in their narrative specificity. The audience begins soon either to identify with the apparently crazy, but in fact amazingly universal family, or at least to love and admire them in their natural affection and down-to-earth approach to everything.
At the end of a tumultuous decade, the profound disenchantment of the “lost 1990s” finds an inverse expression in Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours, the Yamadas: displayed in an unconventional, innovative drawing style and composed of several episodes describing the quotidian life of an average Japanese family in an humorous tone, it creates the emotional space for the audiences to increasingly identify with the Yamada members and their everyday struggles, dreams, fears, misunderstandings and (small) victories. As often with animation works directed by Takahata, Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours the Yamadas is a discrete masterpiece and a huge flop at the box-office, remaining nonetheless a powerful reminder that true happiness resides in the small things, occurring on an everyday basis, and which we tend to pass by without taking notice of them: the green grass on the side of the pedestrian way, the smiling “Good morning!” of an anonymous passerby, the ephemeral rainbow after the rain, the butterflies playing at the beginning of the summer, the twinkling stars in the night-sky. The soft, warm humanism which supports the directing act of this unobtrusive family-comedy is the foundation of that mental state in which we learn to accept those around us in their fundamental alterity, as Emmanuel Levinas famously put it decades ago, and to love them despite – or precisely due to – their flaws and inconsistencies.
Conclusion
Takahata Isao’s penultimate animation film speaks about life in tones of a cheerful endeavor: one lives only once; therefore, one should live life to its fullest, courageously facing both challenges and setbacks. Takahata’s previous efforts to present life as a beautiful, joyful adventure in his artistic works, develop in Hôhokekyo: My Neighbours, the Yamadas into an almost obtrusive request addressing the humans to take back their own power, to embrace life and other humans in their unconditional uniqueness and to start finding common solutions for a world open to all possibilities. The deeply rooted humanism of such a message is still scarcely understood, more than two decades after the animation film had been released – or mostly, misunderstood.
