This DVD is Region-Free. Should play on all
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PS/2 game consoles.
(Synopsis)
When director Isao Takahata discovered a bamboo grove in his neighborhood had mysteriously transformed into a flat vacant lot, he wondered where the sparrows that once inhabited the area would go. The bamboo grove, which was hidden behind the home of a large land owner, was cut down as part of large-scale development. Takahata began to think about where animals and other life went when their habitats were destroyed due to construction of such things as golf courses and new towns. From these ponderings emerged Heisei Tanuki-Gassen Pon Poko, the story of some tanuki who band together to lash out against excessive development.
"The film is not so much fiction as a documentary of the destiny of the tanuki (racoon-like animals native to Asia) as seen through their own eyes," Takahata told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The story is set in the Tama mountains in western Tokyo, an area that underwent large-scale development in the 1960s. In particular, land was cleared so that houses and apartments could be erected to alleviate housing shortages in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Many hills and mountains in the area were deforested and leveled, driving the animals out of the area.
In the film, the tanuki--who lived peacefully in the mountains until man brought his shovel to the area--realize that their life is being seriously threatened. So the animals join together to fight the land development. According to many Japanese legends, tanuki have the ability to transform into other objects. For example, in one famous story a tanuki changed into an iron tea kettle. Takahata's animated tanuki use special powers to transform into humans, ghosts and other objects.
Banding together and seeking help from other tribes of tanuki, the Tama tanuki live up to their traditionally mischievous reputation by changing their shape and trying to sabotage the construction effort. When this fails, they stage one last great illusion, hoping to alert the city folk to the natural wonders being bulldozed to make room for yet another Tokyo suburb, before it's too late...
Dialogue : Cantonese/Japanese
Subtitles : Chinese/English
Publisher : Dynastic
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