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Also Known As: - |
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| Year of first release: 2018 | |
| Director: Wes Anderson | |
| Actors: - | |
| Country: USA, D | |
| Genre: Adventure, Animation | |
| Conditions of visioning: 02.06.2018, Schauburg, Japanese/English version with German subtitle | |
| Synopsis: An outbreak of dog flu has spread through the city of Megasaki, Japan, and Mayor Kobayashi has demanded all dogs to be sent to Trash Island. On the island, a young boy named Atari sets out to find his lost dog, Spots, with the help of five other dogs. | |
| Review: Still in my Japanese month, I needed to see this American story in Japan by Wes Anderson. The story is very Japanese with the importance of cats and dogs. Remind that one of the most visited monument in Japan is the statue of the Hashiko dog in Tokyo-Shibuya. Here instead of having the dog waiting for the disappeared master, the human looks for his disappeared dog. The human story is a quest in an island plagued by chemical, mechanical and biological pollution. The human story involves a family drama of the orphan Atari. The dog story includes a canine romance, a family story and a friendship adventure. Therefore many sources of tension, of conflict and of climax. The quest introduces some Japanese cultural features such as the fascination for robotics, the controverse on weapon production, . Visually it reminds sometimes a kind of Super Mario (Nintendo) or Alex Kidd (Sega) from the 80's. When Atari lands his plane on Trash Island, it looks like the introduction of the level 1 of a video game. Each each flash back in the history of Megasaki is introduced by one ukiyo-e (painting Edo era) (again!). This is quite nice as well, especially because these are really beautifully painted. The human voices being in Japanese and the dog voices in English makes it even closer to a Japanese movie. The non-translation of the Japanese voices might be to let us focus on the dog stories. The movie sounds almost like a partial hommage to Japanese culture excluding the Kaiju, the animes and the mangas. The story is interesting because imbricating several stories and several usual common themes in Japanese movies. Good movie for Japan fans and for the visual design. |
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Rating: 6 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Isle of dogs (2018)
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After seeing the trailer for this movie and reading you good-but-not-excellent review, I didn't particularly look forward to watch it, but I did on an in-flight entertainment system 10" screen on 27/08/18, and I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI loved it for all the reasons you mention in the post, in particular the many delicious particularities of the Japanese culture. All of that framed by the geometric style of Wes Anderson to whom the papier-mâché animated style fits perfectly. After ramping up with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, the director is for me at his best.
My favorite shot is the one of preparing sushi from above: a perfect combination of Japanese culture, Anderson's maniac geometric style and colorful animation.
As usual he surrounded himself with many famous American actors to voice his creation: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber, Roman Coppola, Courtney B. Vance, as well as some Japanese ones like Yoko Ono and Ken Watanabe.
I will probably watch the movie again in the future to catch more of the hidden details and enjoy again this colorful life show.
My rating: 8/10