Hachi: A Dog's Tale - The Meaning Of Loyalty

(Richard Gere and Hachi)
(2009) ★★★☆☆

Don’t judge it by its title. This is not a Japanese film. It’s a Hollywood production based on a true story about a dog named Hachi’s unbelievable loyalty to its owner Parker (Richard Gere). It keeps waiting for almost 10 years outside a train station for Parker to come back even after his death at work. How unbelievable, don’t you think?

To stay loyal to someone or something, one must have strong faith. Strong faith comes from the ability to love and be loved. So loyalty isn’t a bad thing or a good. It could be hurting yourself or others if you push it too far. Say, if you believe that killing your enemies could accelerate you to Heaven (I guess that’s what suicide bombers all believe), your loyalty’s destroying you. But if it’s based on love and care for others instead of selfishness or extremism, it’d help you become a holy figure like Hachi itself, and eventually enlightened, meaning you’d no longer suffer from any kind of pain. That’s why I believe Hachi is gone to Heaven to meet his owner in the end. Parker and Hachi are both very lucky indeed to run into each other.

I’m not sure if Hachi should keep waiting for that long. Maybe from our point of view, his loyalty or say, stubbornness is kind of unnecessary and a bit stupid. Does it know the true meaning of loyalty; of death? Does it know what it’s like after death? Does it know where people really go after that? Sounds like we do huh? But do we?