Dog movies! “Youjuu Mame Shiba” & “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story”

This year there have been a few movies with dogs as lead characters.

“Youjuu Mame Shiba” has its official site here: http://mame-shiba.info/movie/index.html(Sorry, Japanese only!)  

It’s a story that unfolds when the unemployed, antisocial Jirou Shiba, who still lives with his parents, meets Ichirou, a tiny mame shiba dog that Jirou’s mother has arranged for him to encounter in an attempt to turn his life around. Through meeting Ichirou, Jirou makes a variety of acquaintances, finds his family bonds strengthened, and gradually discovers independence. This is a heartwarming story that will especially appeal to dog lovers!  

(Not to be outdone in the cuteness stakes, here’s a photo of Kotaro when he was young.)
  

Incidentally, “mame shiba” (literally “bean shiba”) are a special breed of small toy shiba. Their pedigree has a history of some 60 years.  

As mame shiba are rare and thus highly prized (in addition to being popular simply for their cuteness), there have been problems with breeders passing off small regular shiba as mame shiba, or even “creating” mame shiba by starving shiba to restrict their growth. When looking to purchase a mame shiba, one has to be careful of tricks like these.  

Another move, “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story,” opened in Japan on June 13.

Here’s its Japanese website: http://www.hachi-movie.jp/  

Hachiko is famous in Japan: he was an incredibly faithful dog who continued to wait at Tokyo’s Shibuya Station for his master’s return from work ten years after his master had passed away.  

Hachiko himself passed away at eleven years of age, but a statue of him still remains outside Shibuya Station and is well known by all Tokyo dwellers.  

In this latest retelling, the setting has been changed from Japan to America. I was a bit unsure about the concept of taking a famous Japanese true story and turning it into a Hollywood remake starring Richard Gere…but I like dogs, so I actually ended up being so moved I cried. :~(  

Here’s a photo of the statue of Hachiko.
  

And here’s Kotaro, doing his best Hachiko impression.
  

Hachiko was actually an akita, another breed of Japanese dog. The six recognized Japanese breeds include the akita (like Hachiko), the shiba (like Kotaro), and the kai, the kishu, the shikoku and the hokkaido.  

The distinctive features of the Japanese breeds are their triangular ears, their tapered nodes, their wedge-shaped faces and their tails that curl (or sometimes point back over their bodies, as we mentioned in a past entry).  

Personality-wise, artlessness, loyalty and bravery are considered to be traits that epitomize Japanese dogs, so it’s no wonder that they’re popular overseas (including in America) as well as in Japan.  

If you know of some other good films with dogs in lead roles, be sure to let us know!  

(References: Wikipedia Japan)  

Eri
Editor, Kotaro’s Blog  

[Photos: Eri]  

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