ACF 1466: QUILL: THE LIFE OF A GUIDE DOG reviewed; opens Friday

Music Box Films Presents
QUILL: THE LIFE OF A GUIDE DOG
Directed by Yoichi Sai
Starring: Kaoru Kobayashi, Kippei Shiina,
Teruyuki Kagawa, and Shinobu Terajima
Japan, 2004, 100 minutes
When: Opens in the U.S. on Friday, May 18 in limited release
Where: New York at Cinema Village
& Chicago at the Music Box Theatre
In Japanese with English subtitles

QUILL: THE LIFE OF A GUIDE DOG lovingly tells the life-story of a Labrador Retriever seeing-eye dog. His mistress wants all the puppies from his litter to become seeing eye dogs. The trainer she contacts, Satoru Tawada (Kippei Shiina) is reluctant to accept any of them because only their father was a seeing-eye dog, and it is difficult to train a dog to be a guide for the blind or visually handicapped unless both parents had this training and experience. Tawada reluctantly agrees to try to train one from the litter and by an interesting test procedure, the puppy who comes to be called Quill, after the unique marking on his flank that resembles a bird with spread wings, is selected.

Quill as a puppy. (Note the marking near his left hip)

The first of several separations Quill will experience in his life occurs when 'Tawada picks him up and takes him to live his first year with the Nii's, Isamu (Teruyuki Kagawa, star of Tokyo Sonata) and his wife Mitsuko (Shinobu Terajima. They are experienced "puppy-walkers" and their role is to lay the groundwork for Quill's future training. Primarily this involves nurturing his love for and trust in humans. To accomplish this they do not to scold the dog under any circumstances. On a practical level, they begin using words to familiarize Quill with objects he comes in contact with, such as cherry trees, birds, snakes, etc.

When Quill is one year old, Tawada again comes and takes him away. His training begins in earnest. but is far from auspicious. He is much slower than the other dogs being trained, and it begins to look as if he might not be suitable, that he might not "make the cut" so to speak. Then, he quite unexpectedly displays an ability to calmly "stay" for a remarkably long period of time, a most important attribute for a guide dog.

Watanabe (Kaoru Kobayashi) and Quill

His training proceeds and Tawada decides to pair Quill with Mitsuru Watanabe (Kaoru Kobayashi), a rather unpleasant and irascible blind man with a wife, a daughter and a younger son. In fact, Watanabe initially says that he would rather stay in bed than be pulled around by a dog. But after some difficulties learning how to work with and trust Quill, Watanabe accepts him as his partner and the pair begin their training together with other seeing-eye dogs and their new masters.

In a most touching scene, Quill consoles Watanabe after a failure in the training program. The two eventually manage to overcome Watanabe's difficulties, and Quill experiences another separation (though not his last) when he leaves the training camp and goes to live with Watanabe and his family. The dog has clearly won the heart of his new master.

Based on a true story, QUILL: THE LIFE OF A GUIDE DOG is a warm and wonderful tale, beautifully told. At the press screening I recently attended, the  puppy scenes at the beginning had me in stitches. And there was more than one moment when, for me at least, it got quite a bit misty in the screening room, a genuine emotional reaction that the film earned through honesty, not melodramatic manipulation. While the entire cast and crew can be proud of what they've created, I want to give special kudos to Tadami Miya, who trained the dogs used in the film.

ACF Rating 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.