Mari to koinu no monogatari (2007)

Mari to koinu no monogatari: Directed by Ryûichi Inomata. With Yoshikazu Ebisu, Eiichirô Funakoshi, Ryohei Hirota, Yukijirô Hotaru. A tale of Mari and three puppies is based on a true story. It tells about the situation Mari and her puppies have gone through after a massive destruction brought by an earthquake that striked Japan in October 23, 2004. Aya subsequently names the dog Mari, and it becomes a part of the family. Mari noticed two such rescuers and eventually led them to Aya and her grandfather. Thanks to Mari, the two of them were successfully extracted from the wreckage. Without its owner, Mari tries all ways and means to protect her puppies and feed them properly. It also waited patiently for the return of its owner. In 2005, the family moved into a temporary shelter and life for them more or less returns to normal. Mari also lives there with her three puppies.

“All the other supporting actors, young or old. 10/10 for the earthquake special effects, 2/10 for lousy screenplay, 3/10 for the annoying blend soundtrack background music, 9/10 for the beautiful camera work.nThe dog that played the real dog is amazing, she acted better than all of the Japanese in this film.nThe little girl is also fantastic. She deeply moved us.nThe father actor is not good, the grandpa actor is a little better.nWorst are the screenplay, the directing, those supporting actors, but worst of all is the soundtrack, so annoying and irrelevantly remote from the on-going of the storyline.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe young brother and his little sister took off to rescue their dogs without taking anything is okay, cos they were young, they didnu0026#39;t know how to prepare their trip, no food, water, no flashlight, no medical stuff, no proper rain gears. But how could their adult father not knowing these basic common knowledge and common sense. He just took off with a flash light and what (a phone or what?) He didnu0026#39;t even wear rain gears, no backpack containing food, snacks, water, medicines or medical stuff just in case he might need them…he just ran off. What a moron!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of the supporting actors, male or female, young or old, they were not good, very pretentious and awkward. We must blame the lousy sceenplay and the director.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe know itu0026#39;s based on a true story that really happened in 2004 in Yamakoshi villiage, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. If this screenplay could be crafted and scripted by a better screenplay writer or a script team, it might be one of the great movies in 2007, but this screenplay was very bad. The Japanese production company simply missed a great opportunity to make a great movie. What a waste of all of those manpower, choppers and all of the settings and beautiful scenes of Yamakoshi village in Niigata Prefecture!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI should have given this movie a higher 9 or even 10 out of 10, but all the negative parts were too many, except the dog and little girl actors saved it for 7/10.”