The Tibetan Dog

This movie has a really weird place in my heart. 

It's not my favorite movie. I found this 2011 Chinese/Japanese animated film while searching animated movies featuring animals (because what else would I be searching??). The story, how should I say it, feel very basic but at the same time very different. It's like I can't form an opinion about this movie outside the fact that I like watching movies about dogs! I've seen this movie multiple times before, but I rewatched it again to make this blog post. Before I'd only watched it in Chinese but this time I watched the Japanese version... It took me a while to get used to the different voice actors.

I'd say the main part of the story is about a boy named Tenzing who has to move from the city to the prairies to live with his father after his mother's death. He has a difficult time blending in and he doesn't necessarily even want to. He is not close with his father and has a hard time understanding him. But since he is a young child, he has no other choice than to learn to live in the village. He gets bullied and the first thing similar to a friend he gets is a stray Tibetan Mastiff. Tenzing sympathizes with the dog because it is an outsider just like him. 

The second part of the story is where things get kinda messy and weird. There is this Yeti monster murdering people and the village suspect that Doogee Yongzhi, the Tibetan Mastiff Tenzing named and is now keeping, is the culprit. The boy ends up escaping the villagers but instead meets the real murderer. It turns out Yongzhi was actually tracking the Yeti because it killed his previous owner. Yongzhi fights the Yeti and then later rescues Tenzing from an avalanche. The movie ends with elderly Tenzing reminiscing his childhood and Yongzhi.

One big thing I realized while watching the movie was that I can't stand Tenzing's father. He is just horrible! I understand why He and Tenzing's mother decided to live apart. He was the village's only doctor so he had to stay in the prairie. Tenzing's mother was from the city and couldn't handle living in the middle of nowhere and that's why she took the baby Tenzing with her back to the city. She got sick and died when Tenzing was 10. 10 years!! And the dude never went to see his family! His own son doesn't know what his father even looks like! And Tenzing's father is a DOCTOR. He knew his wife was sick and dying but still, he didn't go see them. He didn't even go to the funeral! And then he is nasty and mean to his son on purpose because he wants Tenzing to become strong enough to live on the prairie. Bullshit! The movie tries really hard to make him a sympathizing character but fails quite badly in my opinion.

Even after this movie again.. I don't know if I like it? I like the animation and character design. I like how the creators of this movie clearly studied the area and animals they were animating. But the story... I have no idea how many times I have to watch this movie to decide if it's good or bad!