Movie: Haw

Movie: Haw (ハウ)
Director: Isshin Inudo
Writer: Hiroshi Saito (novel & screenplay), Isshin Inudo
Producer: Kentaro Koike
Release Date: August 19, 2022
Runtime: 118 min.
Distributor: Toei
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

SCMP review.

A story of Haw and a young man. Haw is a young puppy, who can’t howl. The young man has a timid personality.

Tamio Akanishi (Kei Tanaka) works at a public office in Yokohama. He is going through one of the worst periods of his life, because he fiancee broke up with him. One day, his boss tells him to take care of a big dog with white hair, which was abandoned by his owner. Tamio Akanishi begins to live with the dog. The dog doesn’t bark and only makes a sound that sounds like "haw." So, Tamio Akanishi names the dog Haw. While living together, the connection between Tamio Akanishi and Haw gets deeper. Tamio Akanishi now can’t think of his life without Haw, but ...

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Went to the movies last night. When I asked my Sis if she wanted to go (coz once upon a time Mom had said "your Sis has no friends so you have to include her in your outings". Yeah. I don't see her including me in her outings) and she said no, I went ahead and went alone.

I didn't realize this was such a new movie. I always thought we'd be pretty slow in getting non-blockbusters.

Welllllll. First things first. Very Important. Don't worry. THE DOG DOESN'T DIE. There be spoilers here.

It's light hearted. It's funny-ish. The kind words stop here LOL.

I don't understand the breakup. So. Your "bigger crush" that married is now divorced... so you dump your fiance? How'd you work out you'd have a chance this time? This to the girlfriend. I thought that excuse a bit flimsy. The Boss too. Announcing everything immediately? Geez.

Haw is a nice dog. The dogs are the best. Nice doggieeeee. How he lost the dog was stupid. Let this be a story for everyone. LEASH YOUR DOG!

So the dog gets transported to god-knows-where (sorry not well-versed in the geography of Japan)... and the dog makes his way home. Sure. Yeah. Haw hardly looks scared all the way. And how does the dog know the exact way back? That might be some innate dog ability, sure, but still I find it improbable. It's not like there's a scent for him to follow. And all the way nobody actually caught him and checked the microchip?

So Haw adventures all over (or maybe just along the coast) and on the way meets verious people. Don't know how each and every single one of them don't think to take him to the vet or whatever local entities there are to check the microchip.

The most absurb is the convent. Nice touch to make St Francis (has to be of Assisi) the patron saint there. I would make a fuss if the Mother Superior had actually kicked the dog out. LOOK AT YOUR PATRON SAINT! How the nuns thought the dog's bark sounded like "Francesco" is a mystery to me. His bark is one syllable. Francesco is three, but in Japanese pronunciation it makes it like five-ish syllables.

Finding his original owner there... jackpot? Then her abusive bf or husband comes and slices everyone and pushes down an old nun and then drives away, DOESN'T crash into the bicycling kids but the car flips over (WT actual F?) and suddenly, Haw does a Lassie and saves the man from the burning car. (I was WTFing so much in this part, WTF).

Finally he gets home, only for the owner to have moved out, and a new family of mom and son move in. So Haw stays with this family. Finally meets up with Tamio over a year later, and Tamio decides to let Haw stay with the new family and not say anything about the dog being his first.

I know, I know, he wanted to do good by the boy. BUT THE DOG WALKED ALL THE WAY BACK FOR YOU, dumbass.

There are two sides to the movie though, while Haw's out there making his way back, we see Tamio going into a slump then picking himself up again. From being timid and shy, to opening up like giving out flyers to look for the lost dog, to retaliating to colleagues ("it's just a dog, you can get a new one"), and later on helping out at the shelter. Bonus for there having a Frankie clone of a French Bulldog... and she got adopted!

So, Tamio also had a journey in his own way.

I liked that the movie was trying to evoke these touchy-feely emotions, but the actual incidents (especially of the dog's) was just too whimsical.

So, a fun, light hearted, maybe not exactly happy-ending, but the dog doesn't die movie.

(Anticipated) Wordless Wednesday 5-October-2022

Since I missed one last week, and I am expecting myself to be pretty busy tomorrow, and it's just... 1.5 hours to Wednesday on my time (Australia is like, already on Wednesday now) so I'll just post it now.

Not quite wordless part: I'm not a fanatic for pumpkin spice anything, but since it's October, and this is a new item: Pumpkin Spice Cream Cold Brew, so I thought I'd give it a go. Too sweet. Prefer my usual Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew.