Quill

Dir: Yoichi Sai
2004
The poster may show a labrador puppy, but Quill is much more than a cute widdle doggie film. Instead, Quill is something that has yet to be achieved in the west, methinks: a realistic portrayal of a dog’s life. The Quill of the title is a labrador than is chosen, because of its calm nature, to train as a seeing-eye dog. We follow Quill from puppy through academy graduation to being in the service of a irascible blind man, Kaoru Kobayashi, and how their relationship unfolds.
In America, we seem unable to have a film about a dog unless it has super powers, can play sports, or rescue children trapped down wells. Though director Yoichi Sai is better known for gangster films, he brings the right lack of sentimentality to this story, though there’s plenty to get choked up about. No CG mouths, no talking dogs, no humans falling on their ass (“D’oh! That darned dog! WhyIOughta…!”). Just straight ahead dog behaviour.
There is one slightly amusing diversion to the realism, where Quill falls asleep and dreams of his old squeeze toy, now walking by itself and tormenting him–which is probably what dogs do dream about. But for the most, we see Kobayashi and Quill interacting as owners and dogs do. His wife doesn’t like the dog at first, but we never get the obvious “Quill does something daring and wins her affection” scene that some hack would write, we just get a quiet admission later on in the film that you might miss if you’re not paying attention.
The film also deals bravely and clearly with death, and as I said, this is a dog’s life story, so we encompass all. No, Quill doesn’t die saving the owner from an oncoming train, but instead the film simply observes the facts of life. There’s more, but I don’t want to spoil it.
By the end, Jessica and I were wiping away tears. This would be a good film for all the family, especially if you want your children to accept that we don’t all live forever, and that dogs have more to offer than just making dunk shots.