Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) on Netflix
Parker Wilson, a college professor, finds a lost Akita puppy at his train station and takes it home. His wife had ruled out a dog. The puppy meets his train each evening.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb8.1/10348,479 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes64%
Trailer
Plot summary
Parker Wilson teaches at a college and commutes by train from Bedridge. One evening he finds a puppy at the station with no shipping tag, and nobody claims it. Ken, a Japanese professor, identifies the breed as an Akita and reads the collar tag: hachi, the Japanese word for eight. Parker's wife Cate, who had long ruled out a dog, agrees to keep it for now, and the dog is named Hachi. Hachi attaches himself to Parker rather than to Cate or their daughter Andy, sleeps in his own shed, and will not learn to fetch; Ken says an Akita cannot be trained. Hachi digs under the fence to follow Parker to the station and refuses to go home, so Parker misses his train. The dog then walks him to the station each morning and waits for his train.
Cast
- Robert Degnanas Teddy Barnes
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The movie was based on the real Japanese Akita dog Hachikō, born in Ōdate in 1923, who after the death of his owner Ueno Hidesaburō in 1925 returned to Shibuya train station every day for the next nine years until he died in March 1935; a bronze statue marks the spot where he waited.- Animal trainer Mark Harden and his team trained the three Akitas, Layla, Chico and Forrest, who played Hachi. Harden adopted Chico after the movie was completed, and trainer David Allsberry adopted Layla after the shoot.
- Gere said there was "a certain amount of anxiety, of would we get along? They cannot be bought." After about three days one of the dogs came over and put her head on his lap, which he called a big moment: "I was accepted in the pack."
- Sony Pictures Entertainment decided to skip a U.S. theatrical release altogether, bringing the film out on DVD on March 9, 2010 and eventually selling it to the Hallmark Channel, where it debuted on September 26, 2010.
- On May 19, 2012 a bronze replica of the original Hachiko statue was placed at the train depot in Woonsocket Depot Square, Rhode Island, where the movie was filmed, and the depot at One Depot Square was renamed Hachiko Place.
