I find myself giving this film a lower vote than it probably deserves and perhaps through no fault of the film itself. Let me explain. I am lucky enough that in my job I get to take people who I work with to the cinema. After planning on seeing a gangster flick, we ended up going into the wrong screen and ended up watching Hachi: A dogs story. We did not move to the right screen as by my watch the film had started 10 minutes before. The point is, from the start of the film when the 'U' classification came up (Suitable for 4 years +) I was a bit disappointed. Now as an actor I like Richard Gere but for the first few minutes I found his character a bit 'wooden'. At first I put this down to him having a bad film, but the more I think about it I think it was somehow done to emphasise his relationship with Hachi. Anyway, half an hour into the film disillusionment had gone and I was really enjoying the film. What was excellent for me, was that because I had never heard of the film, I had no idea what was to come. The film does an excellent job of surrounding itself around Hachi the dog. The only fancy gimmick is the occasional sight through Hachi's eyes which is done in black and white but this is only occasional. There are no doggy voices or doggy thoughts, but you still get involved with Hachi's emotions and how he is feeling. Towards the end of the film I was that into Hachi's character that I found myself bursting into tears, something that had not happened to me since I was 8years old watching ET. Luckily, we were the only ones in the cinema.
Review of Hachi: A Dog's Tale
