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Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (6th June 2010). |
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The Film
 My thoughts on remakes have been well documented here, but when I approach something like “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”, which barely constitutes the term, and is a new take on a film that I doubt many people outside of Japan have seen, myself included, I’m a little more forgiving and tend to be even more lenient in Hachi’s case because both this film, and the one that it’s a loose remake of – “Hachikō monogatari” (1987) – are based on real events which occurred some 80 years ago. I’m sure many have heard the story of Hachiko and his master, better known more simply as the story of the dog who waited for his owner at the train station everyday for nine years, even after the owner's death. The Akita would accompany the man, a professor of agriculture, to the nearby Shibuya Station in the morning, and return to greet him upon return later in the day, until one day the owner did not return, having died, while giving a lecture, from a cerebral hemorrhage. Producer Vicki Shigekuni Wong and screenwriter Stephen P. Lindsey then adapted the well-known story into a new film, moved the setting to Rhode Island, change it take place in the late 90's, and the rest, as they say, is history. Parker Wilson (Richard Gere) is just a nice guy, with little going on in his life. That is, until the professor of music and theater at the state college in the city, finds a lost Akita puppy at the rail station on his way home from work. He brings Hachi home with him after unsuccessfully trying to find its owner, or anyone who will take the pup in, and much to the chagrin of his wife Cate (Joan Allen), wishes to keep him. There really isn’t much else to the story. At 93 minutes with credits, the film doesn’t really need much in the way of complex storytelling or dense plotting, and instead we get a simple character study – a glimpse of a man, his family and his dog. With that plot, and the subject matter, “Hachi” could have been a disaster – an excessively sentimental, listless, sappy mess of a film. But in the more than capable hands of director Lasse Hallström, it isn’t. The film doesn’t force anything on the viewer; it doesn’t play for tears or overtly manipulate the audience. It just tells a simple story, well, and with meaning. The acting is solid too, which helps sell the otherwise simple film. Gere plays the straight man well, but his character has little emotional depth and because of that he’s easily outclassed by on-screen wife Allen, who’s always great, but really surprised me, especially towards the end, after Parker has died, and she has returned to the small town to visit the theater she was renovating before his death. She unexpectedly meets Hachi at the station, thinking that he’d long since passed after running away from her now-married daughter’s home, and just sits with him as she waits for her train. She cries and hugs the dog that she begrudgingly allowed in her life, but always a little resentful of, I admit that I lost it. Or almost lost it. Her expression, and the deeper meaning behind the scene, just packs an unexpected emotionality. Gere gets points for his relationship with the dog. In the supplements he talks about how he wanted the viewer to feel that Hachi really was his dog, and I have to admit that whatever training they did behind the scenes worked exceptionally well – their dynamic was perfectly sold. And it makes the final act, a sad, but well packaged conclusion, all the more effective, because the feelings of loyalty, love, longing and loss displayed on screen seems totally genuine. I assume that Sony did, at one point, plan on releasing “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” to US-based cinemas, but for whatever reason, that never happened. Outside of a few festivals, the film – also known as “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story” or simply “Hachiko” – never saw a wide-release in the Americas. It didn’t get much press here either and was only recently dumped onto DVD and Blu-ray last month rather unceremoniously. Theories abound as to why a film starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen, and brought to life by an Oscar winning director, got the shaft in distribution. The least complex answer could be that “Hachi” just isn’t good, but despite by initial impression of the film based only on a truly awful trailer that I saw a few months ago on a Blu-ray that I don’t remember, I don’t think that’s true. In fact it’s a very decent film – if not exactly award-worthy – that deserved to be put in theaters, and not to be neglected the way it was. Perhaps most of blame for the absence of a US theatrical release can be placed on critics from the United Kingdom, their comments, and Sony’s apparent lack of confidence in the film because of them. Most absolutely blasted the film during that countries theatrical engagement, for being an overwrought film for the feeble-minded, from a man who is, as one critic said, “…now the Hallmark greeting card of movie-makers.” I won’t say that those critics were wrong, as, despite what I (and many others) would like to think, an opinion is only an opinion, and not a fact, and thus there is no right or wrong answer. I can say that I disagree with their assessment, though. I think “Hachi” is a much better film than they didn’t give it credit for.
Video
Shot natively in HD with the Panavision Genesis, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” looks good on Blu-ray. The 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer (framed in 1.85:1 widescreen) is confined to a single layer BD-25, but as it shares those cramped confines with less than a half an hour of bonus material, the A/V qualities of the disc remain unaffected. Visually, the film is shy of perfect, but is still satisfying. Black levels remain solid, and shadow delineation is strong too. Colors are of the subdued variety, with a colder, less colorful palate taking center stage, but a few bright primaries are sprinkled throughout adding pop every once in a while. Definition is clean and facial as well as clothing texture is good, although at times the picture does have a mildly defused, softer appearance (which is, from what I can gather, intentional). Technically speaking this is a superb disc with no instances of noise, even in the darkest of scenes, no banding, no artifacts, edge halos, evidence of noise reduction or any other issues. If there’s a fault here it lies squarely in the intentions of the filmmakers. While the Blu-ray gets an “A” for faithfully representing the director’s vision, Hallström’s style, which is a bit too bland and ordinary to really make me say “wow.” Honestly, at no point is “Hachi” a truly noteworthy disc, thus the “B.” Make no mistake – it looks good, just not great.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is surprisingly strong, if not in pure terms of power or bombast, at least in clarity and detail. Not surprisingly, as the film is primarily a personal drama, the mix is reserved, with few moments of room filling immersion or full 360-degree surround use. Nevertheless, dialogue is clear, the score and music by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek is crisp and rich, and overall, the film’s audio has a warm, inviting quality. Optional English (both standard and for the Hard of Hearing) subtitles are included.
Extras
“Hachi” isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with bonus content, but considering the film barely saw theatrical release (and never made it out of the festival circuit in the US) I guess it’s a miracle that we have a Blu-ray version at all. Extras are nothing too substantial, with only a brief making-of featurette and a handful of bonus trailers, BD-Live, bookmarks included and "MovieIQ" interactive feature. A closer look at the supplements below. The only real special feature we get is “A Bond of Loyalty: The Making of ‘Hachi: A Dog’s Tale’”, which is a decent, if ordinary, making-of featurette. Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Jason Alexander, director Lasse Hallström, producer Vicki Shigekuni Wong, animal coordinator Boone Narr, and others talk about the work that went into making the film. It’s a little on the fluffy side of things, which means it’s typical, with a lot of plot recap and film clips, but a few interesting nuggets are tucked throughout the piece, including discussion of the inspiration for the film, a little bit on the animal training, a few interesting tidbits about what drew certain people to the project and some (rather limited) b-roll. Unfortunately to find any of that, you have to sit through a bunch of self-congratulatory comments about how amazing everyone involved in the production is. In 1080i, 17 minutes 50 seconds. Bonus trailers that appear are for: - “Open Season 3.” 17 seconds. - “Planet 51” on DVD and Blu-ray. 1 minute 46 seconds. - “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” on DVD and Blu-ray. 32 seconds, in 1080i. - “Open Season 2.” 1 minute 51 seconds. - “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.” 2 minutes 32 seconds. - “Facing the Giants.” 2 minutes 12 seconds. Also included is Sony’s BD-Live web portal. The usual array of standard-def and high-def trailers for other films in the companies catalogue comprise the contents of the portal. “Hachi” also features a “Movie IQ” interactive feature, which is a trivia track; the BD-Live based pop-up feature allows viewers to look up cast and crew filmographies, biographies, information about the soundtrack and other topics of interest about the scene at hand. Lastly, Sony offers the ability to bookmark your favorite scenes at the push of a button.
Overall
I expected the worst, and was presented with the near opposite. Sure, the film’s charms are best set upon dog lovers – which I definitely am – but even those who aren’t might see some merit in “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale.” Despite its “G” rating, because of its more intimate and mature nature, not to mention a complete absence of talking animals, this is definitely not a kid’s movie. It is a film that can be enjoyed by the whole family though, assuming that the little one’s aren’t too young (if they are, they’ll probably just be bored) and because of that this is definitely worth, at the very least, a rental.
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