Customer Reviews

Barking Dogs Never Bite

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After years of graduate work pursuing his dream of becoming a professor of humanities, Yoon-ju finds himself unable to gain employment while his former colleagues continue to advance in the ranks of academia. Of a relatively passive nature and unable to build up the gumption to stand out amongst his peers, Yoon-ju spends most of his time at home where is domineering, pregnant wife bosses him around and reminds him constantly that she supported them while he pursued his graduate studies. To make matters worse, the unemployed academic's nerves are constantly being scraped by a ceaselessly barking dog. With the heap of stress upon his shoulders, the bespectacled Yoon-ju finally snaps one day when he sees a fluffy little dog outside an apartment's door. Thinking that this dog is his enemy, he runs after it and, after catching it, thinks of tossing it off the roof of the building or hanging it by its own leash. Unable to do either of these, Yoon-ju locks the dog within a cabinet down in the apartment building's boiler room. However, a couple of days later, he hears the annoying parking again and realizes that the dog he imprisoned is not the annoying dog that grates his nerves. He rushes downstairs to rescue the imprisoned dog, but when he opens the cabinet the dog is not there. Instead, to both the horror of Yoon-ju and the film audience, the building's janitor soon appears with the dog in a bucket and before Yoon-ju's eyes prepares the dog for stew.

Hyun-nam is a young office worker who is more interested in hanging out with her best friend at the latter's mom's convenience store and sticking her nose into the affairs of others. One day, a young girl comes into her office needing some bills stamped so she can display them throughout the town. The bills are for a missing dog. This little incident soon brings Hyun-nam in contact with Yoon-ju's apartment building, a place where little dogs go missing and get tossed off of roofs.

Barking Dogs Never Bite is the debut film of Bong Joon-ho who gained domestic and international recognition for his films Memories of Murder and The Host. Barking Dogs Never Bite is a dark comedy which becomes a bit hard to watch at times for animal lovers. However, the film is also a good commentary on the trials and tribulations involved for one living inside a large apartment building and some of the unsavory methods involved in trying to improve one's station in life.

Finally! I've been waiting nine years for this movie to come out on US DVD, ever since I saw it at the first New York Korean Film Festival in 2001. I knew it was just a matter of time, since director Bong has gotten a lot of international attention for his three subsequent features, "Memories of Murder," "The Host" and "Mother."

Those are all terrific, but this this simultaneously depressing and exhilarating black comedy on the suburban rat race is still his best. It's got all the stuff that makes Bong distinctive - his caustic cynicism about human nature and human institutions combined with an unfeigned compassion for humans as individuals; an affection for marginal, oddball types that doesn't tip into sentimental idealization; snappy visual wit full of imaginative framing and editing; a finely tuned ear for enormously funny but penetrating dialogue; a glee in booby-trapping the plot with surprises large and small; a daring but exquisitely right mix of contrasting tones - horror and humor, slapstick and melancholy.

The actors are all perfect, particularly the two iconic leads. Handsome superstar Lee Sung-jae plays against type beautifully as a henpecked, career-stalled academic so spineless and full of repressed rage he seems about to curl into himself and vanish. And this was my first glimpse of the enchanting Bae Doo-na, Korea's #1 actress for playing endearing misfits and no-hopers, something she's never done better than here.

I could go on and on - this is a little-acknowledged modern classic. Whatever the hell "modern classic" means.

(But yeah, if you're supersqueamish about harm to cute, fluffy dogs, you might want to approach with caution - it's a major part of the story. That said, there's a disclaimer at the beginning that no animals were harmed in the shoot, and there's nothing onscreen that makes me think otherwise - it's mostly offscreen suggestion.)

Good God, some people are just totally unable to see the forest for the trees! This film is a wonderful little gem from the early days of a director who is now internationally acclaimed as a brilliant young talent. I found it hilariously funny (albeit in a very dark way) -- yes, including the dog-dinner scenes -- as well as witty, quirky, warm, incisive, and ultimately moving in the way it shows the final redemption of the quasi-villain. As the timid dog-killer confesses his crimes to the heroic slacker, I could read the wonderful panorama of complex and conflicting emotions going through their minds on both their faces. I wanted to give them each a hug! In fact all of the actors were wonderful, including the supporting and minor characters (the crazy homeless man was a hoot, and the Amazonian best friend with the unexpected tender streak made me wish I had a pal like her to get my back). If you can't appreciate their excellent work because you cannot get over the dog scenes (even though they're staged anyway) or the 'offensive' satirical observations -- well, I guess you'd better just stay away from anything that's not warm and fuzzy and uplifting in the future (although the ending of this movie could well be called that, too, in its own offbeat way). Oh, and by the way, all the people who found the dog scenes (again, staged) offensive and THEREFORE decided this movie is garbage (yes, I mean you), I hope you condemn any movie that features the killing of human beings (some even do so in the spirit of humor!) in even stronger terms... you do, right?

I didn't understand the point of this movie... unless it's meant to be an indictment of the Korean university system since the central character, a worthless, sociopathic loser, bribes his way into a professorship. There's only one likable character in the movie, a young woman who tries to do the right thing. Her only vice is wanting recognition, and her efforts to help people cause her to lose her job.

The whole thing plays like a student film. A bunch of odd characters and odd situations with a story that goes nowhere. Lots of detail and no insight. Very static and not at all funny.

Maybe I just don't understand comedy. Or maybe Korean comedy is something Americans don't "get". Or maybe because I come from a culture where dogs are considered pets, I'm not laughing about dogs being killed and eaten for food. Or maybe I'm just as thick as a brick. But this was an awful movie and I would give it a zero rating if I could.
None of the characters are likable with the exception of the office worker. The passive aggressive professor who realizes he has to bribe his way into the job, the depressed domineering pregnant wife who is still supporting both of them, the janitor who dines on dog - nothing. The office worker's friend is okay, but not really somebody you would choose to be the heroine.
The want to be professor hates dogs. He suspects one of barking and getting on his nerves and he kidnaps the dog. He thinks about tossing it off a roof but doesn't. So he ends up locking the dog in a closet in the basement of his apartment complex. What a lovely guy. When he finds out that the dog he captured can't bark, he decides to get the dog back. But it's too late. The janitor and one of his friends chop up and eat the dog.
SO he finds the dog that is barking. It's a little old lady's companion. He steals the dog and tosses it off a roof. The office worker sees him and tries to catch him (it's too late for the dog) but he gets away. She shows the dog's dead body to the little old lady. She has a heart attack and later dies.
So the professor's wife gets laid off. Not that the professor notices or seems to care. With part of her severance package, she buys a dog. She intends to use the rest of the money so her wonderful husband can make a bribe for a job. He's just the sort of person I'd want to teach somebody - if I was going to develop some sort of sociopath.
He takes the dog for a walk while the park is being sprayed with insecticide. Yeah, there are clouds and clouds of insecticide and somehow the dog disappears.
I'm with the wife on this event, I believe he purposely "lost" the dog. He searches for the dog because his wife tells him "You're a dead man" if he doesn't find the dog. He searches the basement and catches the janitor getting ready to make a meal. He fights with the janitor just to discover that the janitor has a whole chicken to cook this night, not a dog.
Then there's the homeless hobo (not sure exactly). he had managed to steal the janitor's dog soup before and he has captured the professor's dog. He decides that some puppy stew would be just the thing for him. Through some weird manipulations, the office worker happens to be on the roof of the apartment complex at the same time the doggy prep is going to happen. She manages to save the dog but she needs a little help from her friend.
The upshot? The professor confesses to the office worker. I don't know whether she doesn't believe him or is in shock. The professor gets his position. The office worker loses her job. The hobo gets arrested and the janitor dog napper is still able to prowl on dogs.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from this. A man will do anything if he is pushed to his limits? You can get away with murdering dogs? Trying to do a good deed is a waste of time because you lose your job? I did not see the comedy in this and would advise _no_ one to watch this movie. There is not one funny moment in it.

I've watched many bad movies and this one is up there with the worst movie ever made. I cant even explain it, its just bad. The dark humor, the pace, the acting, the overall script is BAD, BAD, BAD. I cant say enough. This movie is not for animal lovers. If you dont find humor in hanging a dog, throwing it off a roof, or even chopping it up for food....this movie is definitely NOT for you.