Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: HACHIKO MONOGATARI 1987 Hachi-Ko in USA

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-05-2009, 08:03 PM:

HACHIKO MONOGATARI was a very popular Japanese 1987 movie about a Akita inu (Dog) and his devotion to his master, a college professor. The movie is based on a true story about Hachiko who would always accompany his master to Ueno Station in Tokyo and see his master go off to work at a local college and would always be there when he returned in the evening. The master one day suffers a fatal heart attack and dies at work and does not come home that night. Not knowing what had happened, Hachiko would spend the rest of his life at the station waiting for the master to return. Because of Hachko's devotion to his master and how he had touched the heart of the country a statue was erected in his honor at the station and has become a national symbol. HACHIKO MONOGATARI was directed by Shejiro Koyama and distributed by Shochiku pictures in Japan. Because Shochiku pictures was no longer shown in Honolulu due to it's house, the Nippon Theatre had changed ownership and taken over by Pacific Theatres (Consolidated) and turned into an outlet for American films, I believe the picture played in only one US theatre in Los Angeles at "Little Tokyo" I never saw the picture in a theatre but I did purchase an imported laserdisc of the movie and finally got the chance to see it at home with my Japanese American parents. The movie was recently remade by an American company and directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Righard Gere and Sarah Roemer. HACHIKO : A DOG's STORY will have an American setting and a different type of Japanese dog will be featured as Hachiko. The only thing the producer had kept that was Japanese was the name of the dog. I do not like to sound negative but I think the original setting should have been kept and Asian actors used like they did with MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. Hachiko is Japanese and should remain that way.

By the way, I no longer have any need for my laserdisc of HACHKO MONOGATARI because I had disconnected the player from my system so if anyone is interested in it, please send me a email.

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-15-2009, 08:53 PM:

HACHIKO:A DOG'S STORY is scheduled to open this Friday in theatres but our local newspapers did not include it in the list of new movies opening this weekend in Honolulu. Is it a limited run film for selected markets rather than a wide release? Sony had already announced the movie will be coming out on Blu-Ray and DVD next March before it opens in theatres and this is highly unusual.

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-05-2010, 10:51 PM:

HACHIKO A DOG's STORY never had a theatrical run and that was unfortunate. It went straight to home video and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD this coming Tuesday.
If you love dogs like I do and I am sure most of you do, this one is worth buying and keeping. I had the japanese version HACHIKO MONOGATARI on laserdisc for many years until Gerard Cohen purchased it recently from me. The film reviews has all been excellent.

-Caude

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 03-08-2010, 12:54 PM:

Yes, I found the original Japanese laser-disc very moving, but when I invited my wife to watch it with me, when she heard the story, her sympathy for animals overcame her; my neighbor agreed to watch if I provided a full box of crying tissues.

Of course the title character, Hachiko, is the main interest. But increasingly the professor, his adopting master, takes center stage. He is a peaceful, almost shy man in a time of increasing militarism (we see clumsy attempts to drill recruits on the streets from time to time.) His wife runs their large, upper-middle class home, but when he dies, his family is evicted and the house taken over by crude, animal-hating lower-class relatives.

The joyous scenes of the professor's love for Hachiko (to the sad reluctance of his wife) give way to scenes of the dog's abandonment, and the poor wife's descent into poverty.

Like the films of David Lean, Hachiko Monogatari follows the natural cycle of the seasons, beginning with winter snows, spring budding, etc., ending (Alas!) with the almost unbearable return af snow.

You could not end an American film with such unrelieved sadness, and if Hachiko were alloted a G rating, I think angry parents would have to carry their crying children from the theatre. Perhaps that's why the remake (which I have not seen) has not found distribution.

But the Japanese Hachiko Monogatari is beautifully made, and as a Japanophile I treasure it. It provides an exceptional view of Japanese life in the years before the second World War.

Posted by Louis Belloisy (Member # 3836) on 03-09-2010, 02:17 PM:

Hello Claude, I would be interested in purchasing your laserdisc copy. I am unable to email you direct for some reason.

If you can send me an email, please do.

thanks,

louis

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-09-2010, 04:15 PM:

Hello Louis,

I am very sorry but I no longer have the laserdisc of HACHIKO MONOGATARI because as I had mentioned in the previous update to this thread, Gerard Cohen had contacted me as soon as I had posted the original thread and offered to purchase it and he did. The brief review he had posted is from the laserdisc he bought from me. I just returned from Best Buy after I had purchased HACHI -A DOGS STORY this morning. It is a American remake of the film and will post my review tomorrow.

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-12-2010, 03:17 AM:

Five out of Five Stars!!!!!

I must admit I was a bit skeptical when they took a true Japanese dog story and adapted it to an American setting. After watching the movie tonight on a gorgeous Blu-Ray disc, the producers and director Lasse Hallstrom did a marvelous job telling the simple story of the bond between a college professor and his beloved Akita dog. It remained true to the the original 1987 Shochiku film HACHIKO MONOGATARI when it reminded viewers of the original story of Professor Hidesaburo Ueno and his beloved Hachiko at the end of the film by showing photographs of the real Hachiko and his statue at the Shibuya station in Tokyo, Japan Both Richard Gere as Professor Parker Wilson and Joan Allen as his wife, Cate were wonderful and so were the supporting cast including Sarah Roemer, Cary Hiroyoki Tagawa, Eric Avari and Jason Alexander. It took months training the various dogs that played Hachi at different age levels and they did a marvelous job. I have now seen the Japanese original and the American remake and they are both exceptional films.

-Claude

Posted by Louis Belloisy (Member # 3836) on 03-12-2010, 01:47 PM:

Thanks anyway, Claude.

louis