Based on a true story, Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog is the sweet tale
of a yellow Labrador Retriever guide dog for the blind named Quill. We
follow Quill from the litter to his selection as a guide dog shortly
after his first birthday. After training at a school for guide dogs,
Quill is paired with a blind man named Watanabe who at first is
reluctant to rely on him. But Quill's great patience, gentleness and
skill eventually win him over and they become inseparable friends.
- Director: Sai Yoichi
The curious Japanese drama Quill: The Life Of A Guide Dog
follows a seeing-eye dog from birth to death, as it goes through the
various phases of weaning and training before forming a trusting and
loving relationship with its human companion. Though it would be
impractical to spend 12 or 13 years chronicling the dog’s life, in all
other ways Quill would make more sense as a documentary,
because it could detail these procedures and relationships without
staged scenes or narrative contrivances. But Quill is a fiction
and a uniquely stilted one at that, absent of almost any dramatic
tension and freighted instead with a sentimentality that an adorable,
devoted Labrador can achieve without much help.
