When you hear that a classic true story that is beloved in Japan was re-imagined in a westernized setting and released straight to video… What immediately comes to mind? The original story always pulled at my heart strings and was about one of the most loyal dogs around. Does this new film breathe new life into the actual dog’s tale or is it another sugar coated Hollywood cash grab?

Film

Hachiko’s story was one I always loved (Some Spoilers)… A man and his dog’s bond becomes so strong as they spend each day together, that when the man dies on his way home, the dog constantly returns to the train station awaiting for the train with his owner on it. As the days go on and the man didn’t return the dog decided to go looking for his master waiting at different places that the owner frequented.

The story sounded like a cheesy story, but it’s true and due to my love for dogs I may be a little biased. This film takes the story and reimagines it (another film based on the story was made in 1987 and became a huge hit) within America, while taking a few liberties to make it more appealing to a Western audience.

Richard Gere does a great job in this film and although I’ve never been a huge Gere fan, I thought his character was really great. The dogs that play Hachi however should be given an Oscar… That may be my dog loving side of me showing through, but having to watch this dog anxiously wait for something that will never come and how the dog expresses impatience and loyalty is heartbreaking.

The film is definitely one of the few that made me tear up and whether or not you want to sit through a tearjerker is your call, but it’s definitely a well made film for what it is. Luckily they don’t stray too far from the original story or try and sugar coat the reality of death.

If you’re looking for a heartwarming tale about a cute dog to show to the whole family, perhaps a different film is suitable. If you want to see how it feels to have your heart yanked out… go for it.

Video

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale’s video comes at us in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The overall look of Hachi: A Dog’s Story was surprisingly well made for a film with such a modest budget. Initial assumptions could be made that because the film was intended to go to theatres but never did, then the studio made sure it got a worthy blu-ray transfer… However that’s not always the case, most of the time the films get slapped together as fast as possible and shipped out to make a quick buck, but thankfully Hachi: A Dog’s Story isn’t the case.

The details and edge clarity are crisp and well defined throughout, there’s some softness overall but I think it adds to the overall look and really cuts down on grain visibility. I watched the film on my projector so even at 100” it still looked good, my eyes are often tricked while watching a blu-ray on my HDTV because the after watching the projected image, your eyes sometimes play tricks on you… Hachi did stand up against the stress test of my Epson projector.

My only beef with the video quality was the colour grading, at times the skin tones were off a bit, but overall it’s a classic example of colour correction for a family film, safe and pretty.

Audio

The audio in Hachi: A Dog’s Tale comes at us in DTS-HD 5.1 for English and includes English subtitles. They seem to snub French and Spanish even though most Region 1 discs usually provide both and also the lack of a Japanese track seemed odd considering the backstory of the film.

The audio itself is appropriate for the movie but considering the emotional swells that the score tries to encourage within the audience, a more dynamic mix could’ve yielded more results. That’s not to say the score doesn’t work nor am I saying the mix is bad… But there’s very little range in the mix, nothing really goes near the lower frequencies or the higher frequencies.

You might ask if a dialogue driven film such as Hachi: A Dog’s Tale could really prosper from a mix with a lot of range. When thinking back to certain movies where the sound design stood out, it’s mostly epic films like Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers, but if the score really shined through while watching a movie like this when the orchestral score plays, it would emphasize all of the emotional triggering that it does regardless… The natural tone of the piano or perhaps some light strings that come through really suffered in this mix to a musician’s ear, but for the general audience, the mix is perfectly suitable.

The dialogue itself comes through crisp as well, there are times when things get a little quieter but for the most part no complaints, audio-wise.

Special Features

There’s only one special feature to discuss and it’s a behind-the-scenes featurette that discusses the film’s development and pre-production, from the original story’s inspiration to the training of the three dogs from the film (three dog actors, not three dog characters). It’s less than 20 minutes but thankfully is in HD… However considering this is the only thing on the disc besides the movie; it should’ve been more insightful.

There was so many possibilities; from discussing the original story, showing a documentary about the dog, going back and looking at the original film and it’s  impact… This is definitely where the distributor skimped in order to save money.

Final Thoughts

The film is a great watch, but it’s one of the movies you can experience just once, the heartbreaking films are the ones you tend to watch the least so I find with average audio/video quality and the near barebones special features, this is a definite rental.