El Perro Observador de Estrellas 星守る犬(2011) Star Watching Dog --- 老後貧困、冷たい日本の現実

ハッピー ☜ 犬の名です。Feliz。何と皮肉な、何と物悲しい、日本の老人たち。その一例です。

"El Perro Observador de Estrellas" es una película japonesa del 2011 dirigida por Takimoto Tomoyuki.

Cuando el cuerpo de un hombre no identificado se encuentra junto a su perro muerto, la búsqueda para saber como fueron los últimos días del hombre le enseñaran lecciones de vida a el joven que averigua la identidad de éste. En una zona remota de acampada en una montaña en Hokkaido, el cadáver de un hombre de mediana edad (Nishida Toshiyuki) se encuentra en su coche, junto a su perro, un Akita, que murió cerca de seis meses después que su propietario. Okutsu Kyosuke (Tamayama Tetsuji), trabaja en el Departamento de Servicio Social de Bienestar de la ciudad, y la policía le pide averiguar la identidad del fallecido para que un servicio conmemorativo se lleve acabo. Con sólo un recibo de una tienda Kyosuke intenta repasar el último viaje del hombre - conociendo que sufría de una enfermedad crónica y que había perdido su trabajo, su esposa y su familia antes de hacer este viaje con su perro "Feliz" de vuelta a su ciudad natal. Ha medida que va conociendo más cosas, Kyosuke se va recordando el perro de su infancia, Kuro, que él sólo había concebido como un perro molesto.

In the middle of a camping field, an unidentified male corpse is discovered inside an abandoned van, with a dead dog body loyaly resting at its feet. Okutsu Kyosuke, a social worker is assigned to locate the man's family and inform them about his death. As he investigates, Okutsu notes some similarities between the man's life and his own, so he decides not only connduct his investigations the usual way, but also take the opportunity to travel across the country while reconstructing the man's life. In the middle of his journey, a teenage girl named Yuki asks him for a ride. The girl does not provides further information about her, except that she attended to an Idol audition, but after being rejected, she doesn't has enough money to continue traveling on her own. With her assistance, Okutsu continues looking for clues about "Daddy"'s past.

Using a few invoices and consume tickets found in the van, Okutsu and Yui are able to locate some stores where Daddy and Happie spend some time before their death. As their investigation progresses, the couple discovers the deep relation Daddy had with his dog. The man's was a common middle class wielding worker with an average family, but at some point his life gradually deteriorated. He had a heart condition, which caused him some trouble at his workplace for which he's eventually fired. Tired of a long life together without better expectations, his wife requests a divorce. Now Jobless, homeless and with little money in his pockets, Daddy decides to put all the stuff he has left inside the van on a road trip to southern Japan, with Happie as only companion.

A convenience store manager gives Okutsu some additional information: the pair was at his convenience store, where Daddy spotted a dirty-looking young boy attempting to steal bread. He buys it for him instead, and the boy invites himself into Daddy's car. Daddy agrees to take him wherever he wants to go, but the boy is mostly silent. They sleep in the car, and the next morning Daddy discovers that the boy is gone and has taken his wallet.

Not long after, Happie experiences extreme pain while urinating and Daddy rushes him to a veterinarian, where he learns that Happie has kidney stones. They operate, and Daddy is forced to pawn almost everything he owns to pay the bill, leaving him almost penniless. In a final stop at a seaside restaurant, Daddy decides to leave Happie since his health is deteriorating pretty fast, and talks to the restauran owner, who also loves dogs, about adopting him, but the dog refuses to be separated from his owner. They continue on, eventually running out of gas near a campground. They live inside the van for a while, living off the food they can scrounge and catch and sleeping in the car, until one day Daddy dies in his car. Happie assumes he's just sleeping, and loyally stays at his side, and continues scouting for food for both. During one of his patrols, Happie mistakes a camping family for his own, and tries to steal food from their grill. The family man, taking him for a dangerous stray dog attacks him. Fatally wounded, Happie manages to return to Daddy's car to die at the feet of his owner.

Okutsu compares his own life with Daddy's, and finally remembers his own behavior with a lonely dog named Kuro he had when he was a child, bought by his grandpa after his wife died. This dog used to contemplate the stars at night in the sunflowers field for long periods of time, as if he would like to reach them. Eventually Okutsu understands Daddy and Happie's life is a parable of the way as goes the people live, and comes to the conclusion that in the end, we all are like a stargazing dog, always dreaming a way to reach the impossible. Unable to locate any relatives since Daddy intentionally destroyed all traces of his past, Okutsu decides to authorize the cremation of his remains as an unidentified person, and disperses his ashes around Happie's grave, so the couple can finally be together again. Yui confesses she's a runaway girl, but after knowing the complete story of Daddy and Happy, she decides to return home.

この映画のオッサンや Ernesto Mr. T などのような 最貧老人には 日本は住みやすい国とはとても言えません。¡Qué miserables somos!

星守る犬 [ 西田敏行 ] 価格：3365円（税込、送料無料) (2017/11/12時点)

あまりにも物悲しいので，全然関係ありませんが，上野動物園のパンダの赤子のビデオを付しておきます。