A PLEASING SYMMETRICAL LANDSCAPE, USA — Sources report that another quirky white man is interested in Japanese culture. Wes Anderson, a 48-year-old American director, expressed his fascination with Japan by setting his new stop motion movie, Isle of Dogs, in the country.

 

The film features a 12-year-old Japanese child and his dog, Spots, whose name is Japanese for "lol, these white people." The two characters are joined by a cast of dogs who also have traditional Japanese names: Rex, King, Duke, Boss, and Chief.

 

Anderson's obsession with Japan started when he was young. Reporters found the director's childhood journal, a Muji notebook, in which he described his inspirations as Japanese anime and Atari video games. Writing neatly in yellow Futura font, Anderson said that his favorite food was a California roll and that he found everything Japanese to be incredibly “kawaii.”

 

The director's Paris apartment is decorated with an antique 16th-century katana, which lies over the living room fireplace. Shelves of neatly organized and color-coded VHS cassettes of Hayao Miyazaki films surround his television.

 

When asked for comment on Isle of Dogs, Anderson's friend Owen Wilson said that the director "really knows Japan," citing the movie's feature of sake, sumo wrestlers, and "those red drum things" as proof. Wilson, who could only be reached through the quaint exchange of handwritten letters, responded on a Polaroid of a Pantone 686 C paint chip.

 

A Tokyo resident who was pressed for his opinions on the film merely sighed. "Gaijin," muttered 28-year old Akihiro Tanaka, whose inclusion in this article represents more Japanese voices than the film itself has.