Customer Reviews

Dog Bite Dog

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

 

 

Soi Cheung's ultra-violent "DOG BITE DOG" is the antidote for people who are a bit tired of the usual stylish "bullet ballet" action films from Hong Kong. At first glance, it may remind you of Jet Li's "Unleashed"; but the premise is done with more realism and brutal graphic violence that it really earns its Category III (NC-17) RATING.

Overview partially derived from the dvd back cover:
A young Cambodian assassin named Pang (Edison Chen) arrives in Hong Kong to kill the spouse of a judge. After completion of the dire deed, he is pursued by the local police force partly headed by Inspector Wai (Sam Lee) who has his own demons to combat. Like a caged animal, fighting and fleeing like a cornered beast, Pang wipes out all of Wai's men. Along the way, he comes across a girl named Pei-Pei (Weiying pei), who is being abused by her stepfather. He rescues her from her ordeal; the chase goes to overdrive with an obsessed Inspector Wai...

Intensely brutal, gritty and seedy, director Soi goes for the throat and pulls out all the stops when it comes to (very)graphic violence. No style, almost no fight choreography is shown as the two protagonists pummel, bludgeon, and beat each other with everything but the kitchen sink. (I think there was a scene that they did use a kitchen sink) They even bite each other as the title suggests. Unrelenting violence is the lure of this film; it seemed to me that Soi has found his true calling in filming very dark, seedy and depressing thrillers.
DOG BITE DOG may turn off some viewers; the pessimistic portrayal of humanity and the lack of characters seeking redemption. There are no heroes of any kind here, even the emotional scenes have a feel that it is ready to implode on itself with unexpected violence. All the characters are "victims" of the challenges of life. However, I am certain that this film will find fans with its dark, unrelenting violent nature and movie-cults will be glad to say: "NOT A FAMILY MOVIE". The main theme of the film is; SURVIVE, by any means necessary.

The set designs are awesome. Soi does a tremendous job portraying the dark, dank alleys of Hong Kong as another character in the film. The set designs are well-designed; the dump sites look so real that I could almost "smell" the dirt and grime. The music has that depressing feel with almost a "sense of death" Edison Chen and Sam Lee do a decent job in their portrayal of Pang and Wai. I still had some issues because I still look at them as "teen idols". The film is NOT perfect, it has its faults (I didn't like the final act), but thankfully, the great direction by Soi overshadows its shortcomings.

I have the 1-disc UNCUT edition by Joy Sales (Hong Kong release)
VIDEO/AUDIO: Anamorphic Widescreen. (Sorry, I saw this film mid-last year, can't remember the aspect ratio) The transfer is intentionally shot with a grayish hue, colors are a bit dull but the contrast is extremely sharp. Black levels are solid. 5.1 Dolby/5.1 DTS Cantonese track with very good English subtitles.

Final remarks:
Dog Bite Dog is a harrowing account of the darker side of man. It is not for the faint of heart, it is a world that everything just doesn't work out and is so pessimistic that "Cute Stuff" collectors should stay away. It is over the top and dare I say, a bit nihilistic a lot of times. This film will not disappoint fans of this type of movie...
Highly Recommended! For those who love challenging violent cinema. It is ANYTHING but cute! (4 Stars)

This review is for the 2006
Joy Sales Films (unrated, 109 min.)
release of the film.
***************************************

Dark, relentless, brutally violent.

The pursuit of one man,
a policeman completely out of
his mind with rage, after another,
a homicidal maniac with
little more left than a will to
survive, fleeing from him.

And "survive" he does as a result
of one of the most bizarre love stories
ever with an unbelievably horrific and
strangely hopeful ending.

There are fleeting moments
when one thinks that perhaps
the extremely damaged people
in this tragedy will find
some redemption and salvation,
but ultimately the only thing
redeemed is their one way ticket
to oblivion.

This is the real thing movie fans.
This is what you've been waiting for.

The images, the sounds, the characters,
the acting, the action, the plot...
the beginning, the middle and the ending.

Taking film noir to a new level.

A unique, mature and masterful
work of film art.

I loved it.

This is a piece of pure cinema. Uncompromising, unapologetic, as raw in its portrait of violence as it is disgusted by it. Here, violence has reasons (not justifications, mind that), and is a spiral that sucks your entire life if you let yourself be gotten into it. It is not a mindless form of entertainment, as in the endless american "movies" that have tortured cinema lovers for such a long time now. But, there is always a place for love and tendernesss, even in the most extreme environment. The screenplay is simply perfect, it should be taught in universities and academies. Add to that a magnificent acting (the expressions in the eyes of the lead actors are breathtaking) and a fresh, innovative, straightforward, honest direction...the result? A pure cinematic enjoyment, and a deep experience about the meaning of life. Both are things that are missing from US movies for many, many years already. I might say that I don't get the negative reviews, but I do, indeed: this is yet another masterpiece from Asia, showing, once again, that american mainstream "cinema" is simply trash, and that all interesting movies are made in the Far East for quite a number of years now. Yes, it will not please pop-corn eaters, because it requires some effort from the audience and makes you think about the violence in contemporary society, and about life at its deepest...too bad, isn't it? US movies RIP.

"Dog Bite Dog" is more hands on than a collective swagger and cool jazz heroism. It's a dark, dense tale of terror told with sharp implements and callousness vs. the supernatural and the creepy. I'm not too familiar with these characters but we are lead into a life of an Cambodian by the name of Pang (Edison Chen) who is high to fight and is hired to commit murder in Hong Kong. Chase by law enforcement agencies, he savagely kills detective Wai (Sam Lee) colleague during his escape. A manhunt between a policeman and a rabid assassin begins.

In the first few minutes of the film, the director-Soi Cheang Pou establishes two things paramount, it does not have the heart to laugh with panache and control his medium. Pang tells the story in images and actions without resorting to unnecessary dialogues. His way to attach his belt, his manners (or lack of) at the table and his trick to carry money speaks volumes about the aggressiveness, lack of education and resourcefulness of the killer. Even the character most brilliant detective cliché grows mainly by his actions. His rebellious attitude and self-destructive transpires in the way of smoking in the chain, cigarettes over cigarettes, even if it displeases his supervisor.

At the level of narrative, "Dog Bite Dog" is breathless as good chasing the bad guy, no matter what the filmmaker had fun scrambling, as much as possible, the boundary between the two. The methods employed by the representative of the Legal nothing: it unfortunate torture of witnesses or gun accidentally innocent while the criminal attracts pity because of his past pathetic, its role as prey and his affection for another lost soul who cross the road to his flight.

This film is obedient at times, however, the drama loses its energy when the two protagonists stop to a dramatic pause. These brief but radical changes in tone, goes to a violent battle with a long clairvoyant monologue on the difficult relationship between the investigator and his father, prepare the audience for a purpose which peaked at unintentional humor. Apart from these few tragic-comic differences, the film retains a good attitude to watch over.

Ignore the bad reviews. This film is one of the best made in the past thirty years. The end sequence is unlike anything you've seen before. This movie is how violence should be used in film, unlike the wanton violence of typical action and horror movies.

This movie started with a great premise, some cool characters, and some great action... then it's all downhill from there. Supposed to be a brutal look at the dark side of man if he is pushed to his limits... or something. This movie set off to a great start, but soon loses steam, and by the end of the movie you have characters you don't care about, a paper-thin plot, and not enough action to justify it. Oh wait, it is pretty brutal, tons of blood for all those who care.

*Spoiler*
in the end, true to Hong Kong cinema style, you know everyone's going to die anyway, the difference here is that you kind of want them all to. Oh, and cutting out the unborn baby...yeah, I get that it was supposed to be emotional and poetic, but as the credits rolled, so did my eyes.

I generally appreciate or excuse the eccentricities of Asian cinema, and love the genre as a whole, but this movie was neither poetic or thought provoking as some would lead you to believe, it's just cheesy and stupid.

this movie was a waste of time.

This is not an action film don't let the trailers fool you. If you buy, rent, or download this film thinking you are going to get wall to wall fist fights and shoot outs you will be disappointed. This is more of a film in the vein of To Live and Die in LA. A cop pursues a criminal who has killed his partner by any means necessary. A criminal tries to evade the police and get back home. It is a simple plot but it is the performances of the actors, the lighting, and the direction of the film that makes it compelling. The action is served up in short intense bursts of almost animalistic savagery. The commentary with Bey Logan and Edison Chen is also terrific.

This is a dark movie but it is different from all the movies i have ever seen it had action sequences which were weird but yet entertianing
great movie a must buy for dragon dynasty owners

This film doesn't contain any martial arts. Instead they go for a more realistic and gritty feel. It seems to work.

Dog Bite Dog is far from a great film but it has it's moments and is worth a look.

I'm not really sure what audience Dog Bite Dog is aimed at... I mean it doesn't sport nearly enough action for adrenaline junkies (about 3 minutes of hand to hand combat!?) and the characters are so unlikable and poorly written that it won't appeal to anyone looking for the type of compelling cinema found in other drama/action mixes (Chan-wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy or Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs being great examples). What you get with Dog Bite Dog is mean people doing mean things to each other and to anyone else who gets between them... for instance, how about a scene that features cops beating a woman in the hope it flushes out the man that they are after to which one receives a blow to the head with a cement block while the other gets shot. Now the problem with the aforementioned scene isn't that it's so violent, but rather that by the time you get there in the movie you've come to expect this kind of behavior from everyone involved and just don't care very much no matter what they do. There are attempts at emotional reasoning for why the two main leads are the way they are (one was forced into savage child slavery while the others... father was a jerk?!) but it doesn't make you like the characters or their actions anymore than you already do (or rather don't). The movie is also completely devoid of any levity or even mild use of humor and plays it cold and dark all the way to the bitter end. I think my fellow reviewer Woopak said it well (if not understated) when he refers to the movie as "a bit nihilistic a lot of times" (for a completely contrasting view, check out his review). So what audience is Dog Bite Dog aimed for? My guess is people (such as myself) who buy every Dragon Dynasty release expecting, as they put it, "the best in Asian cinema." Between their previous release of Dragon Heat and now this... I may have to rethink collecting from here on out (or until Fist Of Legend!).