Hachi: A Dog's Tale (4½ Stars)

The concept of this film is unusual. It's a remake of the 1987 Japanese film "Hachiko". That's not unusual in itself. Hollywood often makes English language versions of successful foreign films. What's unusual is that "Hachiko" is a true story, but the remake is a fictional story, copying events from the original story and setting them in small town America. Has that ever been done before? Remaking a true story as a fictional story? I can't think of any other examples. If you know of such a film, please leave a comment in the comments box below this post.

The film was supposedly made on the recommendation of Richard Gere. He saw the Japanese film and was so moved that he called his friend, the director Lasse Hallström, and asked if he could appear in a remake of the film. Obviously, Richard Gere doesn't look Japanese, so it was necessary to relocate the story to America. A Japanese connection is given by having Hachi delivered by mail from Japan and lost at the Bedridge train station. The word Hachi is found in a tag on the dog, which could either be the name or a number. ("Hachi" means eight).

Before you rush to Google Maps, the town Bedridge doesn't exist. The film was made in Woonsocket in Rhode Island.

In this version of the film Parker Wilson, a music professor, finds a dog wandering alone at the train station in Bedridge. He takes it home temporarily until someone claims the dog. Nobody replies to the posters he hangs up, so he keeps the dog. Over the next few years Parker and Hachi become close. Hachi always accompanies Parker to the train station in the morning, and he goes to the train station at 5 pm every day to welcome him back.

Parker dies. For the next 10 years Hachi waits at the station every day for Parker to return. He waits until he too dies.

This is a difficult film for me to rate. For the first hour I was comparing every detail with the original film. Some changes were significant, some were trivial, but in all cases the changes made the film inferior to the original. The last half hour (after Parker's death) was very emotional, just as good as the original. I couldn't stop myself crying. Normally I'd give a film that makes me cry five stars, but I reduced the rating to four and a half to signify that it's not as good as the original.

I doubt I'll watch this film again. I prefer to watch the original.

There's one curiosity in the film. It seems like a mistake, but it's so obvious that the director couldn't possibly have blundered. He must have had a reason for it. Throughout the film the dog is called Hachi, but whenever we see his name written it's Hachiko. In Japan this wouldn't be a problem, because the Japanese know that -ko is a suffix that (among other things) signifies affection. Americans don't know this, so they would have no reason to mix up Hachi and Hachiko.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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