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.

A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies is based on a true story of 2004 in Yamakoshi Village, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. This Story is very touching, It show us the mutual trust and love between humans and animals. It teach us how a dog is a true fighter and the unconditional love for their owners and her own puppies, If you like or love dogs you would not be disappointment watching this movie,after all is a true story. Personally I cried with this movie and make me realize how amazing are animals, they give us much more of what we give them in return. Finally to say that A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies is a lovely and inspiring story. Japanesse movies always leave a positive message( Hachiko, 1 litre of tears,etc)

'The Adventures of Yellow Dog' meets 'My Neighbor Totoro'. There's a reason to say that. This movie is very much similar movie to 'The Adventures of Yellow Dog'. The place where the movie shot was kinda reminds the village with trees and paddy fields from the movie 'My Neighbor Totoro'. The brother-sister combo as well resembling two sisters. If you liked these two titles you would love 'A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies' for sure.

Definitely it is an inspiring movie. But many scenes were not realistic especially rescue operation stuffs looks clearly a fake with amateur stunts. Just like seeing a commercial movie where story had caliber to deliver a fine product. I think they missed as opportunity to make this movie as an wonderful drama. For a story like this it would have been slow in pace to development required artistic presentation. But character emotions had a strong hold on the important scenes. Yes it is a tearjerker movie with lots of commercial elements.

The little girl and the dog's performances were excellent and in few parts grandfather role as well. There were sufficient humours to make us laugh in few portions. As they say it was based on real events but a fiction story. The story follows as a family with two kids and a father and a grandfather who live in a village next to a big city which divided by a river. These kids find a puppy which comes across from nowhere on their way to go and play in a place called moon. With a struggle they finally get a permission to raise the dog. The days go on, after a few years the village get hit by a major natural disaster which disconnects from the outside world. The rest of the story tells how the people who were trapped get escaped from the tragedy.

I was a little disappointed for the product's final output and I could not resist mentioning it. This movie traveled in one direction, sometime that did not make any sense. Like, this story had no surprises and only had a happy ending as expected. On two occasions they had a chance to make a deep emotions by eliminating characters like the movies 'Hachiko' 'Red Dog' and 'Star Watching Dog'. Sentiments easily attract families so they missed to do that magic.

There's two reasons why you must see the movie. If you are a animal or dog movie fan you should go for it. And of course if you like emotional stories that mean a tearjerker movie fan then it the right movie to choose.