Look for a Japanese movie, probably about an earthquake, a story about a little girl and a dog. .

Shiba Inu Miracle Story

Shiba Inu Miracle Story A tale of Mari and three puppies Also known as: Heartbeat Miracle

Director: Ryuichi Inotama

Starring: Funakoshi Eiichiro Matsumoto Akiko Hirota Ryohei Sasaki Mao

Type: Drama

Region: Japan Length: 124 minutes Premiere: 2007-12-08 Dubbing: Mandarin

Video introduction

The Ishikawa family has lived in Yamagushi Village, Niigata Prefecture for generations. Ishikawa Yuichi, who is now in charge, is a civil servant. He lives with his young son Ryota, daughter Aya, and his stubborn father Yuzo. His wife Sachiko has died long ago, and Sachiko's sister Saeko will visit Ishikawa's house from time to time and cook for everyone.

When Ryota and Cai were playing outside, they found an abandoned puppy. The puppy was so cute that the children couldn't put it down. However, they knew that their father always hated dogs and would definitely not agree to take him in. The two had to go door-to-door on their way home to ask for someone to adopt it, but they couldn't find anyone willing to adopt it. Cai couldn't bear to throw away the puppy and took it home: "It's so young. It has no father or mother. It's so pitiful." Ryota asked his grandfather to help him speak. Yuichi agreed to the brother and sister's plea, and the Ishikawa family A new member has since been added.

The puppy was named Mary. It quickly became the brother and sister's best friend. Soon after, Mary grew up and gave birth to three puppies. Ryota, Cai, Mary and their children were running together in the mountains, very happy. However, a sudden natural disaster shattered this little happiness. That afternoon, Yuichi was on a business trip out of town, and Ryota was not in the village to participate in extracurricular teaching at school. A 6.8-magnitude earthquake suddenly occurred in the Chuetsu area of ??Niigata Prefecture. Cai and Yuzo were pressed under the beams. Yuzo, who was hugging Ai tightly, heard a familiar voice in the haze. It turned out to be Mary! Mary placed the puppy in the dog house and dug and scratched until she was covered in injuries before she found the trapped two people. Mary was too weak to pull Grandpa and Cai out, so she had to keep licking their faces to show comfort and encouragement.

The landslide cut off the land transportation between Shanguzhi Village and the outside world. The Self-Defense Force came to the rescue in a helicopter. Mary led team member Yasuda to Ishikawa's house, and Cai and Yuzo were finally rescued. However, out of the principle of putting human life first, Mary was unable to get on the helicopter with them and leave the disaster area.

Mary was left in the deserted village, struggling to find food and protect her children. At the same time, Aya and Ryota who are in the Nagaoka shelter are also thinking about Mari very much. Hearing that the typhoon was approaching Shanguzhi Village, the brother and sister could no longer sit still and decided to rescue Mary by themselves.

In the end, can Mary and her children survive? Can the Ishikawa family be reunited again?

Highlights from the shooting: Xiao Yi, who plays Mary, particularly likes canned tuna. When filming her licking Ai's cheek, the camera crew smeared tuna juice on the face of young actress Sasaki Mao. Bullfighting is a major feature of Shangu Shicun. The film specially added a bullfighting scene, and five hundred extras were used in this scene. Before filming started, Akiko Matsumoto, who plays Saeko Hasegawa, made a special trip to Yamagushi Village, where there are still cars and houses buried by landslides during the earthquake. This scene shocked Matsumoto, and he deeply felt the impact of the earthquake on people. Because the puppy was being lovable, the actors gave it a lot of milk during rehearsals. Unexpectedly, when filming started, the puppy couldn't drink the milk, which made the staff very angry. The film crew built two open-air sets owned by the Ishikawa family, one in Toho's studio and the other in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture. The scenery of the Ishikawa family is carefully crafted based on the typical residential styles of Yamagushi Village, and the detailed decoration shows local characteristics. In order to cope with the filming process, such an exquisite set had to be collapsed and turned into ruins in the second half after the big earthquake. There is a vibrator under the Youzao room, which can simulate a 6.8-magnitude earthquake. Once it shakes, it is difficult to maintain balance, and it is not easy to act in this situation. It took Sasaki Mao and Utsui Ken several times to gradually get used to the feeling of vibration and successfully enter the performance state.

Real miracles happen in earthquakes. The touching story of pet dogs

At 17:56 on October 23, 2004, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale occurred in the Chuetsu area of ??Niigata Prefecture. The major earthquake and the subsequent strong aftershocks destroyed Shanguzhi Village. During this disaster, the deeds of a pet dog touched countless people and brought courage to the people affected by the disaster. The protagonist of the story is named Mary. On the day of the earthquake, there was only an old man looking after the house alone. Grandpa was pinned under the cupboard, unable to move, and almost gave up hope of survival. It was Mary who kept encouraging him, prompting him to struggle to break free and slowly walk downstairs to be rescued. Soon after, all the villagers were evacuated by helicopter, and Mary was left in the village. With a lack of food, she worked hard to take care of the three newborn puppies for sixteen days, and finally reunited with her grandfather.

This true story was adapted into the picture book "Sanko Shimura's Mary and the Three Puppies" and the animation of the same name.

The book has sold 150,000 copies, occupying the best-selling bookshelf for a long time, and the animation has further allowed more primary and middle school students to understand Mary's story. Now, this great story has been put on the screen. A few years ago, "Guide Dog Q" made countless viewers cry, and "The Story of Mary and the Puppies" also takes the warmth between humans and animals as its theme, using the most natural and simple things to touch people's hearts. .

Ryuichi Inomata, who directed this film, set foot in the film industry for the first time. However, this name should be familiar to Japanese drama fans. Inoguta was one of the directors of that innocent and tear-jerking TV series "Star Gold Coin". In addition, he has also directed many TV series such as "Island of Glass" and "Little Driver's Last Dream". Zhu Gu is good at capturing the softest part of the audience's heart, and is familiar with various means of "touching". The producers also invited Miyazaki Hayao's old partner Hisaishi Joe to score the film, and the art department's Kyoko Tani is also a winner of the Japan Academy Award. Although there are no popular stars in the cast of this film, they are all experienced and capable actors. Even the two young actors Ryohei Hirota and Mao Sasaki have been in the industry for a few years. I believe that this set of production and performance array, although not gorgeous, is indeed powerful and will not disappoint the audience.

It is not easy for Niigata Prefecture to fully support puppy filming

The film started shooting on February 3, 2007 and was completed on May 10, of which nearly a month was spent in Niigata Prefecture Filming on location. The film crew obtained the full cooperation of Nagaoka City and Sanjo City, and a total of 2,500 local extras participated in the filming.

The 12th Brigade of the Eastern Front of the Self-Defense Forces, which carried out rescue operations during the Niigata Chuetsu earthquake, came to the scene to provide guidance, which enhanced the realism and tension of the disaster scene in the film. Interestingly, the film crew originally only asked the self-defense team members to serve as instructors and consultants to assist in the filming. Unexpectedly, the team members were very enthusiastic and actually walked in front of the camera. Some of the Self-Defense Forces members who appear on the screen are "real people" who went to the disaster relief site in person, and the helicopter in the film is also an actual object that was used in the rescue work.

The real protagonist of this film-Mary is a Shiba Inu. The Shiba Inu is very close to its owner and has a very docile personality, but it is not suitable for shooting work that requires facing a large group of strangers. Photographing animals is far more difficult than photographing people. The film crew really struggled with this and came up with many ideas to get the animals to cooperate with the filming. The filming of this film started in February. The weather was very cold at that time, but the studio could not turn on the air conditioning because when the temperature was high, the dogs would stick out their tongues. There is a heartwarming scene of Cai and Mary sleeping on the grassland hugging each other. This seemingly simple scene took a long time to film. Because the puppy's sleep is very light at first, it will wake up whenever there is a sound. So, after the dog trainer coaxed the puppy to fall asleep, the entire film crew had to hold their breath and not make any sound. They waited until the puppy was completely asleep before letting the actors join in the filming.

There are two actors playing Mary, one is called "Little One", who is one and a half years old, and the other is called "Strawberry", who is four years old. The role of Mary is mainly played by Xiao Yi, and Strawberry is a substitute. He will only take over when Xiao Yi is too tired. Xiao Yi was carefully selected by a dog trainer from hundreds of Shiba Inu dogs. He is outstanding in personality and ability. Before filming, Xiao Yi underwent five months of training and mastered various basic movements such as sitting still, standing still, and barking. Xiaoyi's performance is no less than that of an excellent famous actor. In the scenes of rescuing Yuzo and Aya, and parting with Aya, he showed quite wonderful acting skills.

As we bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, if you want to watch a movie with your family, I believe this movie starring cute furry creatures will be the best choice.