First of all, thank you to Wes Anderson for his bold attempt at Japanese political satire, which once again surprised us.
Isle of Dogs is an animated comedy film directed by Wes Anderson that was released on April 20, 2018 in Chinese mainland. The film tells the story of a little boy who, somewhere in the future, where all the dogs in Japan are exiled to a desert island, and a young boy embarks on a long journey to find his beloved pet dog.
The film won best animated feature at the 91st Academy Awards, Best Animated Film at the 23rd Art Directions Guild awards, and Best Animated Film at the Meowska Awards.
It is said that the concept of the movie "Isle of Dogs" is based on the story of a group of dogs abandoned in a garbage dump, the original story is actually in Turkey, but the film is set in the Japanese cultural environment.
"Isle of Dogs" is held in an animated form, but unlike any previous film of its kind in a dark style, he does not have a warm core, and everywhere he tries to portray the ridicule and satire of modern civilization.
First of all, why did the story choose Japan? Because he happens to be the best example of reflection on modern civilization. Economic stagnation, the repression of human nature, the hypocrisy of elections, the solidification of classes, and so on are all problems in Japan and the world.
In addition, his role in the story is a guard dog, just like the samurai in traditional Japanese culture, the meaning of this class lies in absolute loyalty, so he desperately has to defend the safety of his master.
In fact, he did a good job, but subconsciously he could not regard Akari as a friend, because there was an insurmountable class gap between the guard and the master, and as a loyal believer in his own class, he could not do that, he just needed to learn to obey orders. So when he had to leave Acari as a leader, as a father, he could only plead with his master to break the contract with his own hands, otherwise it would be a betrayal of the mission of the guard.
Another very interesting phenomenon is that when Akari came to garbage island, he met five dogs, whose names were monarch, king, boss, duke, chief, these are some positions of authority and status.
And the only connection between the dogs and these positions is that the endless meetings and votes, even when they know exactly what to do, must complete the process before executing, so that the best time to shoot is undoubtedly a mockery of the cumbersome decision-making bodies of modern society.
And Akari, Akari has a Showa-like smell on his body, including his hair, his dress, the plane he flew on, and the mushroom cloud formed when he crashed, all of which have the flavor of that era. So his ideas were also highly compatible with that era, radical and traditional.
He dared and dared to challenge authority and rebel against his adoptive father to save his dog. Judging from his behavior, he also failed to get rid of the set of monarchs and courtiers engraved in the East Asian cultural circles, as the owner of the dogs, his orders must be answered and obeyed, which is why he kept calling the chief to pick it up after he threw out the rubber tube.
A benevolent monarch would not treat his subjects poorly, so when the chief retrieved the rubber tube and swore allegiance, he was obligated to reward him and take a bath. The setting of this kind of plot is also a kind of irony of the director's class solidification.
The movie "Isle of Dogs" seems to be about the tragedy of dogs, but in fact, director Anderson wants to express to people:
"Dogs actually represent people, they talk, they think like people... But society turned against them, and some people manipulated the people to kill them. It's obviously not entirely about the life of a dog."
So the official recommendation to watch this movie is over the age of twelve, which is actually worth watching more adults like us. Although I think twenty-year-olds don't necessarily understand it either. But perhaps, you can find a different animation world in it.