Coastal View News
Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” is based on a legend. Or, I
guess, that there is such a legend is probably itself a legend. But,
regardless, the story is that, in ancient Japan, two factions—the cat people
and the dog people—were at war. The cat people were being mean, maybe just
because they hated dogs. But then a child hero decapitated the cat people’s
leader and, thus, saved the day for the dogs.
Now present day. The cat and dog people are still
fighting like, well, you know what. Only now the battle is more subtle. Instead
of an all-out samurai melee, the very evolved, very noble cat-loving leaders of
Megasaki City are taking it to their canine counterparts through
misinformation, political maneuvering, ad campaigns, and fear tactics.
The truth is: There is an outbreak of dog flu among the
dog population. The pups are in a bad way. But Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura),
rather than pushing for treatment, or a cure, or rather even than expressing
politician-brand sympathy (of the Grade A sanctimonious sort), instead, exploits
this sad state of affairs to justify shipping all of the dogs in Megasaki City
to Trash Island (which is exactly what it sounds like).
This includes Rex (Edward Norton), who is thoughtful and
bossy; Boss (Bill Murray), who isn’t bossy at all; Duke (Jeff Goldblum), who isn’t
nearly as tough as his name suggests; and Chief (Bryan Cranston), who is
tougher than all of the others combined (he was, after all, a stray).
Evidently some of the humans of Megasaki City are all
right with their pets being banished to an island full of garbage. But not
everyone. Atari (Koyu Rankin), for example, isn’t having it. Atari is the
distant nephew and ward of Mayor Kobayashi. So he’s important. But his dog,
Spots (Live Schreiber), was sent to Trash Island, and Atari wants his pal back.
So Atari commandeers a small aircraft and heads for
Trash/Dog Island. Things don’t go quite according to plan, though. And Atari
makes all sorts of waves he didn’t intend to make. Atari just wants his dog
back. Kobayashi, on the other hand, wants his nephew back. But he still hates
dogs. Meanwhile, a growing pro-dog resistance simmers to a boil back in
Megasaki City.
“Isle of Dogs” is dry. And methodical. Even slow. But it
is also witty, charming, and funny. It elicits the kind of quiet chuckle that attests
to amusement beyond its decibel level.
Part of this movie’s charm is its quirkiness. Consider, for
example, that one of the main characters—Atari—only speaks Japanese, and his
lines aren’t subtitled. So us non-Japanese speakers don’t know what he’s
saying. We are left to guess, or clumsily infer, what’s up with Atari—maybe something
like we do for dogs, or they do for us, but also like what we do for each other
to varying extents.
There’s all sorts of nice metaphor here and throughout
the movie. But the metaphor is subtle, artful, and subdued—it doesn’t distract
from the story or come off as some ham-handed political commentary.
Director Wes Anderson is well known for his visual
aesthetics. But there’s also quite a bit more to his work than meets the eye.
He manages, in this movie as in others, to make a movie that is beautiful, fun
to watch, and also thought-provoking.
Like I said, “Isle of Dogs” is dry. And slow. But it’s
also primetime Wes Anderson—quirky in all the right ways and rewarding to watch
and think about.
