Movie Thoughts: Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

• Released: 12 March 2009
• Directed by: Lasse Hallström
• Running time: 1 h 33 min
• Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Based on a true story, this movie showcases the immense loyalty a dog can have to their owner.

My Thoughts

Sorry for the not-so-in-depth synopsis, but this movie really is the best going into it blindly. Like all Movie Thoughts, this post will have spoilers, so I'll just say it now: go watch this movie. It's fantastic. And even if you know what happens in it, I'd still heavily recommend it. It doesn't lessen the emotional impact any. With that, you've been warned, as from now on there'll be spoiler talk.

Hachi tells the tale of a dog who waits for his owner to return from a train trip for 9 years after the owner died, something the dog can't understand. This is indeed based on a true story, of a dog in Japan who also waited for his owner for this long in a similar scenario.

Now, if you want an accurate adaptation of these events: don't look here. This movie pretty much fictionalized everything except the premise (a dog waiting for 9 years for his deceased owner at a train station). The real event took place in Japan, when this movie is set in the US. Hachi's owners and the people around him are all characters made up for the film, so not (based on) actual historical characters of the actual events.

That said, I kinda don't care that it isn't accurate? It's still a fantastic movie, even if it very much Americanized the events and story. 

I honestly just love how the main focus of the movie is really where it should be: the bond between Hachi and the professor. There's other characters in the film, but they're usually pretty one-note and basic. And that's totally fine. The focus is where it should be. The bond between Parker and Hachi just feels so tangible and real. They very clearly love one another so much, making Hachi's undying loyalty to his owner feel totally earned. If there'd been a big focus on the side characters, this really would've taken away from the bond between Hachi and Parker.

That's not to say that the side characters aren't good, by the way. Parker's wife goes from not wanting a dog at all to loving Hachi (albeit not as much as Parker). Honestly, the scene where the finds the dog (now all elderly and battered) at the train station again after having moved away for nine years after her husband's death just broke me. Another heartwarming aspect is how the people around the train station, most of them old friends of the professor, just pretty much adopt Hachi after the dog starts making waiting for his owner a daily occurrence. No taking him away to the pound to be re-adopted or anything, they just respect that this is what the dog has to do. And of course the core of the story is the emotional bond between Hachi and Parker, and how Hachi is willing to wait the entire rest of his life for his owner who would never return from his train trip. Sometimes you just really wish you could explain the concept of death to an animal, man.

Overall: great film, very emotional each time I watch it and I'm glad to now finally own a physical copy. If you want a historically-accurate adaptation of the events, look elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that this movie isn't gripping, heart-warming and fantastic in and of itself.