Oh my, hold everything. You want to be prepared to watch this movie with plenty of Kleenex on hand. It really does resonate for viewers who have a special bond with their pets, but I think it probably moves a few hearts of those who don't share hearth and home with a favorite canine. It's a bit ironic actually, to think about the picture's impact on a person, when a dog's reaction to it's missing owner invites more sympathy than one feels for the owner himself, who died of a heart attack.
Well, not to get too morbid, this was a sensitively told tale that one finds astonishingly hard to believe when it's revealed that Hachi celebrated his master for ten years after the man's death by showing up daily at a train station at the end of the work day to greet him. Based on an actual event that occurred in Japan in the 1920's, the film has been Westernized for an American audience with Richard Gere in the lead role as a university professor who adopts a wayward Akita puppy found wandering around a train station. But the real star is the pup who matures into the adult Hachi and takes full possession of the viewer's emotions on the way to a heart tugging finish. It's a family friendly film that you're not likely to forget for a long time once you've seen it.
Well, not to get too morbid, this was a sensitively told tale that one finds astonishingly hard to believe when it's revealed that Hachi celebrated his master for ten years after the man's death by showing up daily at a train station at the end of the work day to greet him. Based on an actual event that occurred in Japan in the 1920's, the film has been Westernized for an American audience with Richard Gere in the lead role as a university professor who adopts a wayward Akita puppy found wandering around a train station. But the real star is the pup who matures into the adult Hachi and takes full possession of the viewer's emotions on the way to a heart tugging finish. It's a family friendly film that you're not likely to forget for a long time once you've seen it.