Director Lasse Hallstrom’s new film, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” tells the story of a college professor (Richard Gere) whose loyal dog accompanies him to the train station each day, then returns in the evening to wait patiently for his return. One day, the professor dies while at work, but the dog continues to wait at the station for many years, becoming a local celebrity, until finally he meets his own death.
The plot of the film is based on the true story of Hachiko, a Japanese Akita whose owner, professor Ueno, suffered a fatal stroke at work in 1925. Waiting for his owner at Tokyo’s Shibuya station every day for nine years, Hachiko became a national hero, with a statue erected in his honor.
Astonishing stories of dogged devotion are not strictly the stuff of movies. Here in New York, Nicole Kowalewski’s real-life hero is her English bulldog, Riley. Last June, Riley took a trip to New Jersey to visit Kowalew-ski’s parents for Father’s Day — and wound up saving the entire family from a fire.
Staying with his owner in a guest room, Riley couldn’t sleep, and stood by the door, whimpering. “I opened the door, and he ran down two flights to a door in the family room that leads to the garage,” Kowalewski recalls. “Riley wouldn’t stop circling and barking until I opened that door.”
It was the beginning of a serious electrical fire, and part of the garage was already in flames. The home’s smoke detectors hadn’t yet picked it up. Kowalewski went upstairs to alert the rest of her family, and everyone escaped unharmed. “Riley saved my family,” she says. “I’m so proud!”
Stories like Hachiko’s and Riley’s are “universal stories of love,” says “Hachi” producer Vicki Wong. “This kind of story is so compelling that when it’s told, people get teary — even people who don’t like dogs! Animals grieve for their loved ones, but because they can’t speak, they learn how to intuitively communicate in a much more profound way than humans do.”
“Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” is out on DVD March 9.
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