Dog Star

Man is this film depressing! It's like Macbeth or something!It's all about Shiro, a dog for the blind, who is caring for a veteran boxer. Within the first 10 minutes of the film the ex-boxer drinks too much and gets hit by a car. That's just a start to the deaths in this film! So apparently this blind boxer wasn't a very nice man because he is sent back to earth as a ghost who needs to perform a good deed or two to be allowed into heaven. Hence he visits Shiro like some kind of Genie and offers to grant Shiro one wish. Shiro wishes to be a human (he can't talk mind you, so this scene was quite amusing) and naturally Shiro's ex-master uses his celestial and gives Shiro the body of a man who had just killed himself (yes, that's another dead person).
Shiro choose this wish out of a desire to find the family who raised him as a puppy. Although most the family died in a plane crash (that's another 2 or 3 dead bodies) he manages to sniff out Haruka's scent and begins to stalk her. A few more deaths later and Shiro finds out that he's old for a dog and that it'll soon be his time to die so he tries to distance himself from Haruka. But there's a chemistry between the two which makes it impossible for the two to part. Alas, it's a love that can never be, and Shiro has to return to his doggy form.
Through out the film, Shiro's former owner appears to offer guidance or consolation (usually quite bad). Sounds quite sweet but in reality he's just an invisible old man who just gets in the way. True, it would be weird if he didn't hang around but his presence really doesn't add anything to the film.

But what what I really don't get was the conclusion. At first I thought Haruka and Shiro were re-united as a human/dog pair but then it was implied that Shiro was dreaming so I thought, maybe Shiro's going on up to doggy heaven. But the very final scene shows Shiro and Haruka living the human life they were living before Shiro had to leave. I guess it's up to interpretation, but to me it just felt like I was being shown three different possible endings not one conclusive one. If any one's watched it and what care to give their opinion on the conclusion I would definitely love to hear it!
It's a very quiet film. The speaking is quite minimal and always soft. As such, I found myself listening to the soundtrack a lot more intently than I usually do. Although the tracks are beautiful and very powerful there wasn't enough to fill the many quiet sections. It just sounded really repetitive (like my reviews), which kind of drew away from the possible loveliness in the film. Another thing with quiet films is that they usually have beautiful cinematography, pretty backgrounds or smooth swooping pans. But the film looked rather low-budget so to get any pies it has to have a story that I love.
So, although I do love bittersweet stories like Dog Star this one is really depressing (seriously, so many people die you could play a drinking game) and there's no dynamics to the story. By dynamics I mean there's no variety; the whole film has one mood: sad. It doesn't really have any happy moments (unless you count the scene at the end, but even that's bittersweet!). Thus, it's not a story I love.

"Sirius?" "Yes. It's called the Dog Star in English."

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