escapades of the elusive kat

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 ...

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.

The Garden of Evening Mists 夕霧花園 (2019)
Wiki Link for the info of the movie

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I really enjoyed it. I think I'll probably enjoy the book as well.

I'm not really a movie buff, so I have no comments about the casting and the actors/actresses. Except that I didn't know Sylvia Chang was actually Taiwanese. I always thought she was a Hong Kong actress.

What I have are some silly thoughts:

I enjoyed the languages used all-around. Cantonese, English, and the tad bit of Japanese. However, the Cantonese spoken was a bit stilted, I thought. Also the older Frederick had very weird dialogue LOL. It was like those forced plot device to help the reader (or in a movie, the audience) to understand what's going on.

I sort of suspected, not the plot, but the "secret" when Aritomo said "I cannot leave Yugiri"... and then after the assault of the Chinese communists at the English House, and when he returned to Yugiri to continue working on the garden, I knew for the fact that what I suspected was correct. (And I was).

The movie also ended in the nice ambiguous way that makes you think about it for some time.

I'm putting the book in my to-read list, though now a quick glance through, I see there's quite a bit of changes.

My friend said she'd be busy tonight so I didn't book for badminton. Nice to have a lazy night. But even on a lazy night, I did quite a lot. I did another unit of the German course I'm going through. I've now decided to copy out the new vocabs by hand as this way it helps me to remember them.

I had already written in my journal earlier today, so I didn't have to do anyting tonight. So after my shower I did a bit of pampering, did first a clay mask, then did another hydrating mask. All the while finally using my Netflix subscription to watch The Secret Life of Pets 2, LOL. It was hilarious. I have so many questions hahahaha. Don't the people of New York see wovles around? Don't they find it strange that a bunny is riding a scooter? Why does the cat lady go out with ALL THE CATS????????? LOL It was a nice light-hearted show. Oh, and LOL I loved Plan B LOL


I'm now just letting Netflix loop a show and I'm not paying much attention to it. But it should be interesting. And I really should use my Netflix subscription more often.

I took some time to actually clean up my "writing desk/piano" today. Have a lookie!


I've cleaned out the level of the shelf that extends from the desk. I figured I wasn't using much of the colouring things, so I relocated them on the lower level. Still reachable, but out of the way. Instead, I'm displaying all of my beautiful writing inks. It now looks a lot more neat and well put together. My drinking bottles also have a space in the shelf, so the piano is more empty now and I technically have better access to the piano now. Hopefully I do make use of that and try to take some more time to practice once in a while.

I still have that headache from this morning, I took some painkillers, didn't help, kipped for a bit, didn't help.... so now I guess I'll just call it an early night and hopefully tomorrow the headache is gone.

Quick update: I went to see a really tragic movie-documentary.
Taiwan's shelter dogs... their having only Twelve Nights to survive the shelter.
It's really very sad, but the all... cinematography (?) was beautiful. They filmed the dingy dirty shabby shelter and there were scenes where they caught the light so well, it was actually beautiful.
But, still, yeah, sad. So very sad....

Official Website

I actually have another post brewing in my mind, but after last night's visit to the movies - Skyfall, I just have to rant.
Ok, I'm almost 30, and this IS my first 007 movie ever. I don't know if it should be a shame or not, but ohwell. Just. Duh.

The opening sequence was beautiful, I'll have to give it that.

The story was a bit stupid, really. I loved that porcelain bulldog haha, and the joke about it too.

Shanghai was really beautiful there. The problem I had was with Macau.

A rant will inadvertly attract spoilers popping in, so I have this under a cut.

( Read more... )


Are all Bond movies like that? If so, I don't think I'll watch any other Bond movie anymore. (Except for the one either in the 60's or 70's that was REALLY shot in Macau, or so I heard)

Because it's Harry Dan Radcliffe. No, scratch that too. Because it looks delightfully spooky?? oh yeah! It took me until Dan Radcliffe's name was shown that I knew it was him LOL how he's aged!