Barking Dogs Never Bite – Review

Bong Joon-ho’s debut is a remarkably adept black comedy and while it isn’t up to the standards of his later work, he still manages to impress. He even somehow manages to sidestep most clichés and never insults the viewer’s intelligence, a common trap for most first time directors. While no dogs were harmed during the making of this film, I wonder how many overly sensitive viewers were. If you can’t imagine laughing at a scene of a dog being hung by its leash then you should probably consider skipping this one.
 
Yun-Ju (Bong regular Sung-jae Lee) is a part time college lecturer whose life has fallen into a rut. He’s been laid off, his wife is pregnant, and he can’t decide whether or not to bribe the dean to gain guaranteed full-time employment. Making matters worse, there is a terribly yappy dog somewhere in the apartment building that won’t shut up. Hyeon-nam (Doona Bae, another regular) is a book keeper at the same apartments who is very uninterested in everything around her, only coming to life when she learns of a lost dog. There is also a janitor and a homeless man living in the building that have both have developed a taste for dog. Soon enough everyone’s path will cross and intertwine and many dogs shall suffer an indecent end.

The most interesting thing about debuts from accomplished directors is seeing how effective they were from such an early stage; thankfully, Joon-ho does not fall into many of the trappings of an amateur film maker. He might not have his drama/comedy quite down yet but he really manages to make the really dark, comedic moments work when most first timers would stumble into an awkward mess. Hyeon-nam is a definite standout in this film; her comedic styling is just really fun to watch and she really impressed me. The other standout is the janitor and main dog eater Byun (Hee-bong) who at one point literally stops the show to deliver a needlessly dramatic monologue.  Awesome.

What is really interesting is the way he plays off of Korea’s long and troubled history with eating dog meat. Joon-ho could have just made the easy satire on his generation’s dog eating dilemma but he is more interested in posing interesting questions. We have an educated, aspiring professor who becomes increasingly distraught that he is losing control of his life, so he decides to compensate for this loss by killing one yappy dog that has been annoying him. This is a malicious and unjust act. Then we have a janitor who simply enjoys eating some dog stew. He is never seen scheming or committing any acts of treachery, yet he is portrayed as more of a villain in this film then the lead protagonist (though not as much as the homeless man). More interesting, while it is suggested he killed the first dog, this question is never answered.  We are potentially led to hate a man who enjoys a controversial delicacy more than a man who we have seen kill man’s best friend. Then there is the homeless man who lives in the apartment building, unknown to anyone. He is easily the most vilified character with a chase sequence and an attempted dog eating, but he is really just a somewhat dumb, bumbling fool who is down on his luck and looking for a meal anyway he can. So the question is, why do we not outright hate the callous Yun-Ju? He has killed for no reason while the majority of viewers will be damning the janitor who makes stew of already dead dogs and a homeless man who has no other options to eat. Furthermore, if you are morally against the consumption of dogs, why eat things like fast food? The professor is just a small scale stand in for these huge chains that support our ridiculous needs. A sly bit of commentary I did not expect. It’s just supply and demand, Joon-ho understands this well.