movie review - Hachiko: A Dog's Story
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Toronto, 2016.09.30
This is the story of Hachiko, the dog who is immortalized with a bronze statue at Tokyo's Shibuya station. The dog would go to the station every day to greet its human, Hidesaburoo Ueno, and continued to do so for ten years after Ueno died. In this version, New England substitutes for Shibuya, and of course (of course!) Richard Gere substitutes for Ueno. Because whenever Hollywood makes a Japan-centric story they turn to Richard Gere.
Anyway, the movie focuses on everything that happens to the dog after Gere's no longer coming. And it turns out that that's rather a lot. But, I didn't find this engaging enough that I can imagine re-watching it. It was touching but... Not recommended.