Finally! After Infernal Affairs, The Ring, The Uninvited and all the rest, here's a Hollywood remake of an Asian movie where the main character's ethnicity isn't magically changed to white... I'm speaking, of course, of Hachiko: A Dog's Story, starring Richard Gere. Wait, what?
Based on the 1987 Japanese film Hachiko monogatari, it tells the famous, heartwarming true tale of a loyal Akita in Japan who remained faithful to his master, even many years after his owner's death. When I say Asian, I'm definitely not talking about Richard Gere -- I'm talking about the dog!
Sure, all of the actual Japanese humans in this production have been magically wiped from history and replaced with white actors (save for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who is the lone Asian name listed in the IMDb credits), but hey, at least Hachiko is still played by an Akita, a breed that originates from Japan.
Yes, Asians finally get to play Asians... when they're dogs. So we can all stop complaining, I guess. The battle is won. We finally have our Asian in a starring title role. (Thanks, Greg.)
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