Saturday Film Club #9: Pom Poko

Director: Isao Takahata

Country of origin and year of release: Japan, 1994

Pom Poko features, at its heart, an environmental and conservation theme that is common to a number of Studio Ghibli productions, most notably the excellent Princess Mononoke. You can also see nods to it in Nausica, My Neighbour Totoro and Whisper Of The Heart, amongst others. 

It is best characterised as a nostalgia for pre-industrial age Japan, conveyed through a gentler way of life, and a sense of harmony with nature, often depicted in the form of wood spirits and similar creatures. On the other hand, nature is often shown to be untamable and unpredictable, while still needing protection. Often, as is the case with Princess Mononoke, there is depicted the ultimate destruction of nature, and a sense of intense sorrow and grief at that destruction.

In Pom Poko, the reason for this reoccurring theme quickly becomes apparent: The film takes place in the 1960s, at a time when Japan's industrial boom saw rapid industrialisation spread from cities such as Tokyo to the nearby countryside.

Much as Richard Adams Watership Down sought to depict the tragedy of rapid industrial growth at the expense of the environment through the eyes of rabbits, so Pom Poko tells the story of a similar tragedy through the eyes of raccoons. Like Adams' rabbits, their territory and homes are being destroyed by industrialisation but, unlike the rabbits, the raccoons elect to stay and fight. Specifically, through a number of schemes, they try to chase away the humans, to make them give up and let them stay on the land in peace. It is fair to say that it doesn't end well. 

As with Watership Down, there are mystical elements to the story, and - to a certain extent - collaboration and assistance with other animal species. There is also the game changing element that is the raccoon's ability to transform themselves into humans. 

Like a lot of Studio Ghibli, it's a film that is by turns funny and very sad. It also has an epic fantasy feel to the narrative that at times feels as though it might escape the confines of the story, but which it never does. In the raccoons story we see a tale that feels all too human in many ways, dealing as it does with themes such as unexpected and unwelcome change, things outside of our control, and grief. It is utterly absorbing.