Houhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun (My Neighbors the Yamadas)

A FAMILY CRISIS

The Yamada family is seen driving a car (a real one this time). Everybody gives different directions and opposing request for destinations. Mr. Yamada is frustrated again and complains that Nonoko is the only one that is NOT bothering him.

Noboru tell him that is because she is not on the car. The Yamada family went shopping to the mall and they have lost Nonoko. They turn the car around and drive back to the mall, encountering traffic on the way.

Back at the mall, Nonoko had fallen asleep on a bench while everybody was waiting for Mom and Grandma. She does not think that she got lost. She thinks that it is her family who got lost. Nonoko meets a smaller and scared child who is also lost. She talks to him and takes him to the cashier to help him find his mother.

By the time the Yamadas get back to the mall, Nonoko is no longer there. The cashier thinks she left with her mother or at least with somebody she appeared to know. Back on their car, Mr. Yamada tries to follow the car without knowing what color or make it is. Eventually they decide the best course is to go home.

The Yamada family comes home. Nonoko is not there. Matsuko receives a telephone call: Nonoko has been found. She has gone home with the lost boy and his Mom. Once together, we hear the Yamada family rejoice from outside the house, and we hear a family song.

Joyful laughter breaks the silence of an autumn eve.
-Basho (1644-1694)

A small segment shows Matsuko dozing in an empty bus. She wakes up, panics and blames the conductor for not calling her station. The conductor repeatedly tells her to step behind the line on the floor.

HOME ECONOMICS WIZARD

Matsuko and Grandmother Shige are in the house. Matsuko is daydreaming (or dozing) and realizes it has started to rain: her drying laundry will be ruined! She panics and runs to the clothesline. There are no clothes there! She is relieved, she must have put in the laundry and forgot about it. Shige is there to remind her that Matsuko never washed it to begin with.

Grandmother Shige tells her daughter she is going out. Matsuko asks if she could get her something she needs, but she cannot recall what it is: could she wait? Shige walks out the door disgusted. Matsuko follows her to the street still trying to remember what it is she needs. Matsuko finally remembers: she needs bread! She runs back to the house and tells Shige to wait again for she needs to go back inside to get money for the bread.

Noboru walks into an empty kitchen, hungry. The ingredients for ramen are there on the table, so he fixes lunch. As soon as he is done preparing the food, he turns around to find Matsuko with a ready plate. He has been tricked into making lunch!

Mr. Yamada comes home in the evening to a failing light bulb in the front door. Since there are no spares, Grandmother Shige recommends to Matsuko that she replace it with one that is not being used elsewhere in the house. Noboru is asleep at his desk. He doesn't need the light bulb. Matsuko helps herself to Noboru's light.

The family watches TV while Matsuko does the dishes. Everybody wants tea, but nobody wants to get up from his cozy spot. They play "rock, paper scissors" and Noboru loses. He gets up to the kitchen to get Mom to make them the tea. At the kitchen Matsuko is ready with the tea, but while she takes the tray to the table she makes Noboru stay and finish washing the dishes.

Mr. Yamada announces they have surprise guests coming in. There is no time to clean the house, so Matsuko goes and empties drawers and closets contents onto the floor: she hits on the idea to make an even bigger mess, and claim she is spring cleaning.

MARRIAGE YAMADA STYLE

Mr. Yamada phones from the office to have his wife look for an envelope he left at the house. She cannot find it, but as they are still on the phone, a secretary brings the envelope to him. It was in the office all along. "Never mind, if it is lost, it is lost", Mr. Yamada tells his wife.

Mr. & Mrs. Yamada fight over who gets to read the newspaper.

Mr. Yamada is going out of the house, the Missus asks him to get some groceries. She tells him she will write down a list. He won't forget, he says and recites the list. He comes back, and, obviously, he didn't get the requested groceries. But he didn't forget: he recites the list again.

Mr. & Mrs. Yamada are dining out. Mrs. Yamada has a tough time deciding on the menu. Mr. Yamada impatiently hurries her. When she is ready she orders from the waiter. Mr. Yamada then orders the exact same thing she did: the Shanghai Special.

Mr. Yamada is in the house on holiday. He won't go out to play pachinko, like he usually does. He interferes with Mrs. Yamada's housework with his constant requests, he wants tea, and also some noodles. And the bathroom needs cleaning. And better make that coffee, not tea. And could he also get some cigarettes.

When he goes out to look for his wife, Noboru informs him she has gone out to play pachinko.

Mr. Yamada is watching a baseball game. Mrs. Yamada walks in and requests he change the channel so she can watch her program. He refuses, but she gets a hold of the TV remote control. She tries changing the channel, but he blocks the remote control's signal with his newspaper. They do this several times with varying poses and strategies from Mrs. Yamada much to the amusement of Grandma. "But nobody can watch any show now", says Nonoko. "This is more entertaining", says Grandma Shige. And we segue into. . .

. . .A tango danced by Mr. & Mrs. Yamada.