FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

NAME: TAN CHIEW NEE

STUDENT ID NO: 0303531

FILMS SELECTED: HACHI : A DOG’S TALE & MARLEY AND ME

WORD COUNT: 1066 WORDS

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

Pre-writing

Hachi : A Dog’s Tale Marley and Me

Main character - Professor Parker Wilson who worked as a music teacher in his university.

- Had a lovely family with a wife and daughter.

- Found Hachi at the train station and brought it back home

- Kept Hachi as pet, loved and cared for Hachi with all his heart.

- John, relocated from Michigan to South Florida after getting married to his wife, Jenny.

- Was hired as a reporter who only wrote about mundane news most of the time.

- Bought Marley with the intention of getting ready to be parents.

- Had a big turn in his life after he started writing a column about the misadventures of his pet dog, Marley.

Moral values - Love- Parker Wilson showed his

love to his spouse by respecting her decision.

- He shared her daughter’s joy of pregnancy by hugging her.

- He loved and cared for Hachi, always played with Hachi during his free time and sometimes brought Hachi along to work.

- Trust and loyalty- Marley trusted the couple

John and Jenny with all his heart.

- Marley always seemed to be more calmed when the couple is around.

- Marley is also faithful and loyal to his owner and helped to take good care of the couple’s children till the very last day of his life.

Story background - Drama filmed back in 2009.- Based on true story of a

faithful dog named Hachi.- Happened in Japan, at Shibuya

train station.- It was about the dog Hachi

that continued to wait for his owner’s return for 9 years even after the owner’s passing.

- Based on the novel “Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog” written by journalist John Grogan which was published in 2005.

- Original story was written by John Grogan about 13 years of his and his family life spent with their pet dog Labrador Retriever, Marley.

- The book portrayed the

relationships, time spent and lessons learnt while spending all these 13 years with their pet dog.

Settings - Japan, where the puppy was sent all the way from there to the United States by a monk in the temple.

- Small town in the United State where Professor Wilson lived in with his family.

- Train station which Professor Wilson took the train every day to work and also the place where Hachi awaited for his return

- First house in South Florida which the couple got in after their wedding, the place they spent their first time with their dog, Marley.

- Second setting will be the house they moved in after the birth of their first son,

- It was also the place which Marley was buried by John and the family beneath the tree of the front yard after its death.

Essay

Everything in life happens for a reason. They create beautiful memories and teach

us lessons that should be remembered for a lifetime. Some stories are just worth to be

shared and to be looked upon to. The two movies which I have chosen are “Hachi : A

Dog’s Tale” and “Marley and Me”. Both of these movies are based on true stories which

differ in terms of the main characters in them, moral values, story background and the

settings.

Firstly, the main character in the movie “Hachi : A Dog’s Tale” is Professor

Parker Wilson, a music teacher in his university. He had a lovely family with a wife and a

daughter. He was passionate and enthusiastic when he guided his students during music

classes. Through the movie, he found a dog, Hachi at the train station and brought it

home, thus acknowledging the audience that he was loving towards animals. In addition

to that, he respected his spouse when he decided to give away the dog once he knew that

his wife did not like it. The main characters in “Marley and Me”, are John and his wife,

Jenny. John and Jenny were hired as reporters for a competing newspaper but John

started to dislike his job as he was only offered to write about mundane news while his

wife had already gotten the prominent front page assignments. He was then offered to

write a column about his everyday life. There, he started his first piece by writing about

the misadventures of his pet dog, Marley, which turned his life around.

The moral values that can be learned through “Hachi : A Dog’s Tales” is love.

Parker Wilson showed his love to his wife by respecting her decisions. This can be

reflected through his action of giving away the dog when his wife told him she did not

want it. His love towards his daughter can be seen when he hugged her happily when she

told him about her pregnancy. Lastly, his love for Hachi was pretty obvious as he always

looked happy when spending time with Hachi. He loved everyone around him and always

showed appreciation for them. He even brought Hachi to class sometimes and always

looked forward to seeing Hachi waited for him at the train station whenever he returned

from work. In “Marley and Me”, the moral value we can learn is trust and loyalty. When

John and Jenny first brought Marley back home, he was reckless and insecure, chewing

everything he saw. After spending time with the couple, Marley started to trust them and

always seemed much calmer with the couple around especially during stormy nights.

Even though he loved running around, forcing John to chase after him through a few

blocks, he would never run away from the couple. Despite his incorrigible character of

destroying everything in the house troubling the couple, Marley was very loyal and loved

their children very much. He would stay up all night for the couple’s children and was

there for the family even till the very last day of his life.

The movie “Hachi : A Dog’s Tale” was a drama filmed back in 2009 based on the

true story of a faithful dog, named Hachi. In 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at the

University of Tokyo owned a golden brown Akita as a pet dog. During Professor Ueno’s

life, Hachiko would greet him at the Shibuya Station where the owner would take a train

back and forth to work there. Hachiko continued this until May of 1925, when Professor

Ueno passed away and never returned to the station. Every day for the next 9 years,

Hachiko waited for his owner’s return by appearing at the station when the train returned.

In April 1934, a bronze statue of Hachiko was erected at the Shibuya Station as a

memorial of his act of loyalty after his death on the 8th of March, 1935. While the story of

“Marley and Me” was based on the novel “Marley & Me : Life and Love with the

World’s Worst Dog” written by journalist John Grogan which was published in 2005.

The original story was written by John Grogan about 13 years of his and his family life

spent with their pet dog Labrador Retriever, Marley. The book portrayed the

relationships, time spent and lessons learnt while spending all these 13 years with their

pet dog. From the book, it said that Marley was a reckless and sometime uncontrollable

dog, he was always hungry and active. This story showed a strong contrast between the

problems caused by Marley and also the love and trust shown towards the family in these

years they spent living together.

Lastly, the settings for the movie, “Hachi : A Dog’s Tale” started off in Japan,

where the puppy was sent all the way from there to the United States by a monk. After

that is a small town in the United State where Professor Wilson lived in with his family.

The main setting of this movie is the train station where Professor Wilson took the train

every day to work and where Hachi waited for his return from work. The setting for the

movie, “Marley and me”, is the first house in South Florida where the couple got in after

their wedding. It was also the place they spent their first time with their dog, Marley. The

place where the couple started off as a family, where Jenny got pregnant but went

through a miscarriage. Another setting is the house they moved in after their first son’s

birth, at which Jenny started having the symptoms of postpartum depression. It was also

when Marley was buried by the family beneath the tree of the front yard after its death.

After watching these two movies, they both taught me things about the strong

bond that can be formed between human and animals. These two stories reflected on how

one should always appreciate everything around and never stopped showing love to the

others even if they are animals. Besides, the genre of these movies is something different

from the western movies we watched, they both emphasized more on humanity and love

instead of violence, super powers and imaginary stories that the usual movies portrayed.

The way they differ in the terms of main character, moral values, story background and

settings offered me different kind of enlightenments.