Hachi: A Dog's Tale

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) is a Lasse Hallström drama you can watch online on iFILM. Music professor Parker Wilson, played by Richard Gere, finds a stray Akita puppy waiting alone at a commuter train station.

His wife (Joan Allen) wants no part of a dog at first, yet the pup wins the house over within days. Every morning Hachi walks Parker to the platform; every evening he trots back to meet the same train. That small daily habit is the whole story — no twists, just a loyalty that outgrows anything either of them could say. Then comes a day when Parker boards the train and does not return.

The film moves the famous 1920s Japanese tale to a quiet American town, and Hallström — the director behind Chocolat and What's Eating Gilbert Grape — plays it restrained rather than weepy, which is exactly why the ending lands so hard. Sarah Roemer, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Jason Alexander round out the cast. Eighty-five minutes that will change how you look at the dog by the door. Stream Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) online on iFILM.