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       #Post#: 71--------------------------------------------------
       HACHI: A DOG'S TALE (2009)
       By: agate Date: December 13, 2013, 3:33 pm
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       I wasn’t expecting much from this movie.  I was expecting a
       heart-warming Disney-style film about a dog.
       In a way it’s a heart-warming film about a dog but it’s also far
       more. For one thing, it’s based on a true story. For another
       thing, while it is sad, it’s not sad in a maudlin, saccharine
       way.
       Though I don’t particularly like Richard Gere, and had just seen
       another movie in which he starred, he’s not so hard to take in
       this story. He doesn’t smirk much at all, and that helps. And it
       is the dog, an Akita named Hachi, who is the real star of this
       movie.
       At one point I heard a familiar voice and took a closer look at
       one of the more important characters. Sure enough–it was Jason
       Alexander, the George Costanza of Seinfeld, doing an excellent
       job in his role as a railway station clerk.
       Hachi doesn’t do cutesy things. He’s just being a dog. He even
       ages noticeably as the story goes on.  The story revolves around
       one simple fact–stated by the Japanese friend of the professor
       who adopts Hachi: that an Akita won’t fetch, or if an Akita ever
       fetches, it’s for a reason.
       The original Hachi lived in Japan in the 1930s, and there is a
       statue of him there. What the dog did that was remarkable isn’t
       beyond belief at all, but it is very sad and very remarkable.
       The somewhat insistent and somber piano music in the background
       throughout the movie was somewhat annoying. It seemed to be
       saying, “Watch out! The ending of this is going to be sad!” No
       soundtrack might have been preferable.
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