Japanese style sensational force too much, embarrassing performance ~ Joe Hisaishi? Overpowered music.

The director's ability can't keep up with the composer~ Embarrassing literary lines~ In the face of cute dogs and children, give it seven stars~

All the other supporting actors, young or old. 10/10 for the earthquake special effects, 2/10 for lousy screenplay, 3/10 for the annoying blend soundtrack background music, 9/10 for the beautiful camera work. The dog that played the real dog is amazing, she acted better than all of the Japanese in this film. The little girl is also fantastic. She deeply moved us. The father actor is not good, the grandpa actor is a little better. Worst are the screenplay, the directing, those supporting actors, but worst of all is the soundtrack, so annoying and irrelevantly remote from the on-going of the storyline.

The young brother and his little sister took off to rescue their dogs without taking anything is okay, cos they were young, they didn't know how to prepare their trip, no food, water, no flashlight, no medical stuff, no proper rain gears. But how could their adult father not knowing these basic common knowledge and common sense. He just took off with a flash light and what (a phone or what?) He didn't even wear rain gears, no backpack containing food, snacks, water, medicines or medical stuff just in case he might need them...he just ran off. What a moron!

All of the supporting actors, male or female, young or old, they were not good, very pretentious and awkward. We must blame the lousy sceenplay and the director.

We know it's based on a true story that really happened in 2004 in Yamakoshi villiage, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. If this screenplay could be crafted and scripted by a better screenplay writer or a script team, it might be one of the great movies in 2007, but this screenplay was very bad. The Japanese production company simply missed a great opportunity to make a great movie. What a waste of all of those manpower, choppers and all of the settings and beautiful scenes of Yamakoshi village in Niigata Prefecture!

I should have given this movie a higher 9 or even 10 out of 10, but all the negative parts were too many, except the dog and little girl actors saved it for 7/10.