According to Guy Dixon’s Globe and Mail review, this film comes the closest to answering the question of what is about Anne of Green Gables that attracts the attention and devotion of the Japanese. According to film’s director, Takako Miyahira, the movie goes beyond looking at the touristic appeal of the island and into the more deeper questions about life and morality that Anne addresses.

“Now in the world, people are confused with so many values about happiness or aiming for success. Anne of Green Gables teaches how to find happiness,” she says. Along with her producer, she was more interested in looking at the philosophy in Anne, rather than the commercial aspect.

Dixon writes, “…when Miyahira talks about the Japanese love of the original book’s philosophy, she doesn’t mean some rigid Green Gables moral code. The appeal is simply about distilling life down to certain essentials, and picturesque ones at that, she says. And that’s what keeps Anne of Green Gables so popular.”

The film was actually already released in Japan last year and is still drawing audiences there. To read the full Globe and Mail article, click here.

Photo courtesy of Google Images.