Richard Gere and Hachiko in Hachi: A Dog's Story

Hachi: A Dog's Story starring Richard Gere is due for release in August 2009. The film is a remake of a 1987 Japanese movie about a very loyal dog that died in a train station in Japan after waiting for his master who never came.

In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno didn't return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachiko, not realizing the death of his master, kept coming back to the train station for more than ten years hoping that his master would still show up on the same spot where they last met.

Richard Gere said that the movie is all about the dog. ‘I was definitely second class’, he told reporters at a Tokyo Hotel.

Gere complained that the crew would film the dog for 12 hours while it will only take them 10 minutes to shoot his segment.

The story of Hachiko is well remembered by the Japanese people that they built a statue of the loyal dog at the train station which remains a very popular spot in Japan especially for dog lovers.

The movie was shot in Rhode Island and was premiered at the Seattle Film Festival in last month. It is due for release in Japan in August.