DVD Release: Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog

DVD Release Date: July 10, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box


Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog movie sceneQuill: The Life of a Guide Dog, the well-received 2004 Japanese drama movie, concerns the life, growth and training of the titular Golden Labrador Retriever.

Directed by Yoichi Sai, the film opens with Quill as a puppy and follows him as he is taken to a professional guide dog school led by the friendly yet firm trainer Satoru Tawada (Kippei Shiina).

Although he’s a little slower than the other dogs at the school, Quill does exhibit a peerless level of devotion and patience for his trainers. Tawada decides that Quill would be the ideal guide dog for Mitsuru Watanabe (Kaoru Kobayashi), a lonely and ill-tempered elderly man who “would rather sleep than be dragged around by a dog.”

In time, Quill gradually helps his new master to open up and appreciate life, while Wanatabe learns not only to trust and enjoy the presence of other humans but the dedicated animal at his side who guides him as well.

A minor hit in its native Japan, Quill, which is considered to be more of a drama than a family film, received a favorably reviewed limited roll-out to theaters in the U.S. in May 2012, eight years after it was produced. It looks like it’s one of those movies that just demands screams of “oooh, puppy!”

The DVD, which does not contain any bonus features, is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

Check out the movie’s sweet trailer:


 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.