Dec
1
2008
10 Promises To My Dog
Posted by luna6 1 Comment
Movie: 10 Promises To My Dog
Release Date: March 15, 2008
Country: Japan
Director: Katsuhide Motoki
Starring: Rena Tanaka, Mayuko Fukuda, Etsushi Toyokawa, Ryo Kase
Runtime: 117 Min
Editor Rating: 5.0
Users Rating: 6.13 
(8 votes)
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If there is another country that loves dogs more than Japan I certainly haven’t come across it. The amount of love Japanese dog owners have for their furry canine friends surpasses anything I have seen stateside . As an example, the next time you are in Tokyo, head on over to the artificial island named Odaiba and check out the Aqua City shopping center. You’ll find there an exact replica of the Statue of Liberty standing behind the shopping center. But, what’s even more surreal than finding a miniature Statue of Liberty placed in the back of a modern Japanese shopping mall (just a stone’s throw away from the equally insane Fuji TV building) and situated on a man made island, is none other than the dog park behind Aqua City. You’ll find couples, single individuals, old & young people, all walking their dogs in this area, with over half of them pushing their dogs around in baby carriages!
And with this type of love for dogs, we get the next major Japanese motion picture about a dog, “10 Promises to My Dog” (just in the last couple of years alone Japan has produced such canine centric films as “All About My Dog” “Berna,” “Quill,” “Inogue,” and “A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies”). Before you dismiss this movie as a small niche film, just remember that the movie was produced by major studio Shochiku, directed by Katsuhide Motoki (Gegege no Kitaro films / Free and & Easy / Drugstore Girl) and such features A-list Japanese actors as Rena Tanaka, Mayuko Fukada, Etsushi Toyokawa, Ryo Kase, and Chizuru Ikewaki. The movie itself is based on a novel by Hare Kawaguchi, which covers approximately 10 years in the life of Akari Saito, her father Yuichi Saito, and their faithful dog Socks.
Young 12-year old Akari (Mayuko Fukuda) finds a dog in her backyard one afternoon. She’s thrilled to have the dog and rushes to the hospital to tell her sick mother the good news. In actuality, Akari’s mother placed the dog there so Akari would have someone else in their home. Akari’s mother then brings forth 10 promises Akari should make to her new found pet.
A few months later, Akari’s mom passes away and her father Dr. Yuichi Saito (Etsushi Toyokawa) gets transferred to another hospital in another city. Unfortunately, Socks isn’t allowed to move with them (they will stay in a hospital dormitory). Akari leaves her dog with best friend Susumu Hoshi (Shota Sato). A short while later, Susumu finds out that he has been accepted to a musical school overseas and must leave Socks behind.
7 years later, Akari (now played by Rena Tanaka) is on the doorsteps of womanhood. She has Socks back as her faithful companion and soon finds herself with another longtime friend. Susumu (now played by Ryo Kase) has returned to Japan as a successful musician. But, as Akari tries to venture out into the adult world, she finds Socks to be more of a hindrance.
“10 Promises to My Dog” is an awfully sweet movie that will appeal to animal lovers who like to drive their cars with Hello Kitty steering wheel covers and replaces the charms on their cellphones bi-weekly. The film is set in a near fantasy world of nice people and nice things (something like “Always – Sunset on Third Street” set in the present day) and should make you one happy camper if that kind of thing fits your temperament. Problems do arise if you don’t fall within this narrow category.
Rena Tanaka, who stars as the adult Akari, is a popular actress that has never been able to transfer her natural charisma into the characters she has played onscreen. Her performance in “10 Promises to My Dog” didn’t change this impression and, in fact, solidified my lukewarm impressions of her as an actress. As an example, when Socks lays on his death bed, Rena Tanaka unleashes this combination of whiny high pitched squeals, potty expressions, dry tears, and “I think I got a summer cold” type of sniffing that made me want to hurl vomit at the screen. It was an incredibly painful moment to endure. Meanwhile, her younger counterpart, Mayuko Fukudo, was more like a human Prozac pill (in a good way). The amount of joy that this girl unleashed on screen was something to be seen. Always so cute, with her eyes nearly shut closed from smiling so hard, she made the puppy seem rather downright pedestrian.
Meanwhile the 7 year gap between the first half’s young Akari and the second half’s adult Akari didn’t work as well as expected. Surprisingly, a lot of the blame can be place with Ryo Kase (Huh? your asking yourself “did I read that right?”, Ryo Kase one of the better actors in Japan?). Yes you read that right. This is the rare case where Ryo Kase was miscast for a film and actually hinders the film. The main problem is Ryo Kase’s age. He’s 34 years old, but is asked to play a 19 year old. Maybe some won’t notice this age disparity, but for me, it was an obvious distraction. Storywise, the movie sputters forward with episodic moments that are predictable to say the least. Often, the bright retro looking cinematography made the flat story feel livelier than what it actually was, but whenever the film hit a melodramatic peak the nice visuals couldn’t hide the lack of originality found in the script. After watching the movie I came up with my own 5 promises to my future dog.
5 Promises to my Dog:
1.) I won’t ever make you watch another Rene Tanaka film again.
2.) I won’t let you watch another film with 34-year old Ryo Kase playing a 19 year old.
3.) I won’t let you watch another film where the talents of Chizuru Ikewaki are completely wasted in such a limited role
4.) I won’t make you watch another film with Etsushi Toyokawa wearing so much tanning cream again.
5.) I will let you watch as many Mayuko Fukudo films as possible.
Buy 10 Promises to My Dog from YesAsia
Cast:
Rena Tanaka – Akari Saito (adult)
Mayuko Fukuda – Akari Saito (young)
Etsushi Toyokawa – Yuichi Saito (Akari’s dad)
Reiko Takashima – Fumiko Saito (Akari’s mom)
Ryo Kase – Susumu Hoshi (adult)
Shota Sato – Susumu Hoshi (young)
Chizuru Ikewaki – Yuko Inoue
Akira Fuse – Shinichi Hoshi (Susumu’s dad)
Akiko Aitsuki – (Susumu’s mom)
Akane Osawa
Takashi Sasano
Pierre Taki – Zookeeper
Mina Fujii – passerby on beach who took Akari and her mom’s photo
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2008 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
1 Comment so far
haha i LOL’ed so hard at your list of 5 promises. what a lucky dog you’ve got – if it survived watching the tragic climax of this movie.