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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The Hunting Party (4½ Stars)

This is a film I discovered by accident. I saw the trailer for it on the DVD of another film I was about to watch. Although it didn't look like my sort of film I thought I would give it a try. And I loved it, it's a real gem. Let that be a lesson to any of my readers who avoid a certain genre. Even if you don't like (for example) westerns, you might come across films that will amaze you. That wasn't a random example. I personally hate westerns. And yet there are a few westerns that I enjoy, and not only the ones directed by Quentin Tarantino. I've always liked "Jeremiah Johnson", and a few years ago I discovered "The Wild Bunch".

"The Hunting Party" is loosely based on a true story. The true story is that after the war ended in Bosnia NATO and the USA accused Radovan Karadzic of war crimes inclding genocide. They sent troops to Bosnia to find him. Five years later he was still in hiding. A group of journalists wanted to interview him, so they travelled to Bosnia and found him in two days. America should have learnt from this debacle when they were hunting for Osama Bin Laden; instead of troops they should have sent journalists. Or better still, they should have sent a salesman selling porn DVDs into the mountains, because I'm sure Osama must have got bored jerking off to the same pornos in his bunker over and over again.

In the film a television crew are looking for a fictional Serbian leader called the Fox. Apart from renaming Karadzic, the characters shown are genuine and the story keeps close to real events. There's one significant difference. The real life journalists were true professionals, whereas the journalist Simon Hunt, played by Richard Gere in the film, has crossed the line. What I mean is, a good journalist is impartial; he withholds judgement and simply tries to report the facts as he sees them. Simon Hunt, on the other hand, is so shocked by the acts of genocide he sees in Bosnia that he decides to take revenge on the Fox.

Richard Gere is a truly great actor. I've never really noticed him before, apart from "Pretty Woman". The same is true of Terrence Howard, who has been in many films, but I've only ever seen him in "Iron Man". These two stars carry the film with their charisma. Jesse Eisenberg doesn't contribute much to the film, he seems like he's just along for the ride.