Himawari to koinu no 7-kakan (2012) Reviews

• At the Be-Kind-to-Animals Center

  shi6122013-03-28

  If you have a dog, you must not miss the movies of dogs. So don't I. This is by far the most empathizing and moving dog movies I've ever seen. Though I seldom tear on movies, I could not help tearing with it. In Japan, abandoned or stray dogs are gathered to a public facility run by a city, and those animals not claimed within a week are killed. In many cities, such facility is ironically called a "Be-Kind-to-Animals Center". I live in Kumamoto City. Kumamoto is famous for taking many measures aiming "zero killing". According to the manager of the Be-Kind-to- Animals Center of Kumamoto city, one day a young staff said "I joined the Be-Kind-to-Animals Center because I loved animals. Why my job here is to kill them instead?" This question triggered the manager to change the strategy to zero-killing. The lead character Kanzaki Shoji (Sakai Masato) has been suffering the same struggle. He could not tell his daughter the detail of her father's job, particularly what he has to do when nobody claims a dog. Sakai Masato has distinct personality. In this movie, his distinct countenance expresses complicated struggle of a man who is in dilemma between his job and his love to his children and dogs.