The Yamada Family Chronicles

Advantages: Beautifully animated, entertaining and amusing in places
Disadvantages: Slightly too long - perhaps not to everyone's taste

...at children. Whilst it's easy to considered and dismiss them purely as 'cartoons', they often have great depth and appeal that goes beyond age and as such can be enjoyed by whole family's, children, or even just adults who enjoy "good drawings". 'My Neighbours The Yamadas' is a stylistic move away from the animation usually associated with Studio Ghibli. According to the blurb on the back of the DVD, writer-director Isao Takahata used "?digital production to create the feel of a moving watercolour sketch." The movie is about the lives of the Yamada family, which consists of the mother and father Matsuko and Takashi, their young son and daughter, as well as Matsuko's live-in mother. In some ways, the movie is also a move away from the typical Studio Ghibli style of story telling. Rather than being one long plot, the movie is more a series...

BlueMidget 09.04.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of My Neighbours The Yamadas (Animated) (DVD)

Yamada DVX-6700

Advantages: It plays EVERYTHING
Disadvantages: Cheap construction

...My Christmas present to myself this year was the ?Yamada-DVX-6700? ? which looks like a DVD player, works rather like a DVD player but offers a special something extra - this unit not only plays DVDs but many other digital formats too. The device cost me ~£55 ? to make it price comparable with other DVD players? It replaces a CyberHome ?CH DVD 400? which only plays bone-fide DVDs ? and cost the same 18 months ago. The build quality of the Yamada is best described as ?cheap? ? but? don?t get me wrong ? it looks OK next to the TV ? only if you look closely is it obvious that every component has been made to the tightest of budgets ? everything from the flimsy eject-tray to the front-panel plastic buttons and cheesy digital display which might have looked modern in the 1980s. To criticise the unit on aesthetics, however, is to...

bristol_steve 16.02.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada DVX 6700

YAMADA DVX 6600

Advantages: cheap and plays 99% movie format
Disadvantages: nothing

...I bought my Yamada DVX 6600 last year at around £70, this was when DVX dvd players were starting to be used. I'm sorry but i cannot remember where i purchased my player from but it was from a online shop off the net, so i guess they are easy to find. Well, what can't the Yamada play?? i don't know because my Yamada can play everything ive tried, from dvd's, vcd's, jpegs, wma, xvid, dvx. The Yamada is supposed to play 99% of movie fromats but up to now mine has played 100%. The Yamada is a stylish silver unit that is slim and easy to function, and has the caperbility to play 5.1 surround sound, with the correct speakers of course. Comes with a remote control that you can change various functions such as PAL, NTSC, screen size, volume control etc. ITs easy to install just basically plug a scart lead into the unit and into your tv...

silkyuk9 14.04.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada DVX 6600

my review of yamada 5520

Advantages: looks good, plays all dvd types
Disadvantages: sometimes slow

......

mapesy 05.11.2006 (10.11.2006) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada Dvdslim 5520

bedroom entertainment

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: none

...I am often to be found awake in the wee small hours with my nocturnal 2 year old. Even when I manage to get the little prince back to sleep I sometimes find it hard to return to my dreams! Television in the small hours is not too great, unless you want to learn Spanish (too demanding for my brain at that time of the morning)! Fans of the Trisha show would be all right too but my viewing needs were just not being catered for. We have numerous D.V.D s which I am yet to get round to seeing, so the obvious answer for me was to get a D.V.D player to go in my bedroom. My husband has usually stomped off to the spare room, so this would mean I could watch what I liked-bliss! I didn't want to spend too much as we are a bit strapped for cash at the moment. I looked on the Internet and found a yamada 5520 priced at only £34.00. I thought this...

anwar 08.05.2004 (26.07.2005) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada DVD5520

Yamada DVX-6600 Multiregion DOLBY 5.1

Advantages: Plays divx,avi,mpeg straight from dvd or cd
Disadvantages: flimsy disc holder

......

banwoir 30.03.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada DVX 6600

Hearing voices

Advantages: Original and very readable
Disadvantages: None

...at all, is that there are descriptions of sex between two men during one part of the book. This didn't bother me, but if you find homosexuality offensive, it would be best to stay away from this book. I read this book during three trips to and from work. I found it very difficult to put down and thoroughly enjoyed every scrap of it. Taichi Yamada has written another book, called Strangers, which I am looking forward to reading. The book is available from play.com for £7.49. Published by Faber and Faber, it has 220 pages. ISBN: 0571229719...

sunmeilan 25.10.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of In Search of a Distant Voice - Taichi Yamada

Charming and remarkably different Ghibli film

Advantages: Sensitive, amusing and charming, it'll leave you with a great feeling of warmth
Disadvantages: Nothing epic here, nor is there a continuous story

...Tonari no Yamada-kun was the second Ghibli film I ever saw, and the contrast with Mononoke-Hime couldn?t have been greater. However, I was impressed when I saw it, by something so different from any other animation I had ever seen, in terms of both presentation and plot (or lack thereof), although aware that plenty of people would watch it with a look of utter bewilderment on their faces ? although I was wrong to think that Mum and Dad, who were with me in the cinema, would be amongst them. Mum even remembered a fair few plot points when I reminded her of the film a week or two back, and it?s been several years since that screening in the Barbican. While I enjoyed the film back then, it?s only really since then that my obsession with anime has developed, and so now I feel I understand and appreciate far more, in terms of both...

Adziu 29.07.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of My Neighbours The Yamadas (Animated) (DVD)

Line up for poor picture show

Advantages: View a DVD anywhere
Disadvantages: Poor picture quality

...You've heard the saying, 'you get what you pay for', and this is so true for the Yamada DVD 520. I purchased the portable DVD player after seeing a full page advertisement in my Satellite and TV weekly magazine. It was only £159.00 but still had all the features of the top brand players retailing at three times that amount. DTS, Dolby Digital, Kodak Picture CD, MP3, what more could I ask for? Well, it?s all very well having all this but you really do need a decent image on screen to enable you to enjoy everything. I was bitterly disappointed with the picture quality, full of lines going horizontally across the screen. Unless you look at a particular angle under particular lighting conditions, the lines are so apparent, it spoils the enjoyment of the movie that you?re trying to view. Battery power is a complete joke...

Pazadov 05.10.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada DVD5520

Movies on the move! PVR-500

Advantages: Compact, lightweight, good picture, external playback, PAL & NTSC
Disadvantages: Disk can stick when player gets hot

...This review is about the Yamada PVR-500 not the PVD-500 as this category suggests. I don't know what the difference is since they look exactly the same and appear to have the same features but just so you know,.... I own the PVR-500. Readers of my other reviews may be aware that I spend a lot of time away from home, mainly with work. Currently I?m in US waters (dodging hurricanes) and the DVD player on the ship only plays Region 1 (US) DVD?s. Obviously this is a problem for me, since I like to watch DVD?s from the good old UK too. The solution was obvious,.. a portable multi-region DVD player! But which one? There seemed to be a lot of high priced alternatives when I was researching this product and all I really wanted was a cheap, small player. Something that I wouldn?t be too upset about losing or getting trashed. I came across...

noyzboyz 26.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamada PVD500