Hachiko: A dog's story

There's a statue in Edinburgh to Greyfriars Bobby, the Skye terrier who sat by his master's grave for 14 years in the 1860s. His tale has been filmed, as has that of his Japanese equivalent, an Akita dog called Hachiko, whose years of waiting for his late master at Shibuya station in the 1930s is also commemorated by a bronze statue. For no very good reason Hachiko's story has been re-created in an idyllic Rhode Island community, where a Japanese puppy turns up one day by accident and is adopted by commuting musicologist Richard Gere and his wife.

Gere, who appeared as an American visiting his Japanese relatives in Akira Kurosawa's penultimate movie, Rhapsody in August, and in Shall We Dance, an American version of a Japanese picture about ballroom dancing, is clearly attracted by Japanese and Chinese culture. But Hachiko: A Dog's Tale is pretty pointless, and the director, Lasse Hallström, who made his name with the remarkable Swedish movie My Life As a Dog, continues to punch below his weight with another candied slice of sweet-natured Americana.