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and life along the winding road

Monday, November 15, 2010

Hachi - A Dog's Tale

As you probably know I love dogs, and the trailer for Hachi - A Dog's Tale looked like a lovely story of a man and dog who found each other. That part was good, however, the ending was sad and I was still hugging both my dogs and bawling an hour after it ended. Even Richard Geer said he cried like a baby after reading the script. The film is based on a true story of a professor at the University of Tokyo and his Akita dog, Hachiko (meaning 8). In 1924, when the professor returned from his work  at the University, the dog met him at the train station. This continued each day until the professor died suddenly. Hachiko showed up at the station the same time every day (this is the sad part) for nine years. Commuters who had known the professor fed Hachi, and when he died a bronze statue was erected in that same spot. Lasse Hallstrom did an amazing job at filming the story using Akita dogs to whom training does not come easy.