Busy actor Seiichi Tanabe - lately seen as the gay yakuza in Takashi Miike's Blues Harp - has turned director with this understated, diary-style account of a man experiencing a salutary shock to his system.

Tanabe himself is the protagonist, a man recently left by his wife and about to be posted to Vietnam. He lives alone with his dog and rebuffs all friendly overtures from his neighbour, an Iranian immigrant. It takes the death of the dog to shock this loner into an awareness of the limits of his proud self-sufficiency.

Shot on digital video, Dog Food is about falling apart and picking up the pieces &emdash; an original and promising debut. Tony Rayns