I saw Guan Hu's “Black Dog” during the first weekend of this year's MIFF, where it immediately became one of my favourites. The film is about a guy, Lang, who returns to his home town after spending a lengthy period of time in jail for manslaughter. When he arrives, he notices that everything has changed; most of the houses have either been demolished or are in line to be and the place is something of a ghost town......with the exception of the large number of stray dogs roaming the streets. When people fled the town, they left behind their dogs to fend for themselves, to the point they have now overrun the place. From a personal point of view, Lang's father is a shell of the man he once was, now sickly and frail. Whilst he still works at the local zoo, most of the animals have already been relocated or set free. Lang, who was once a local celebrity due to the band he used to play in, is not welcomed home with open arms, instead the gangland uncle of the man he killed is after his blood. Lang, himself, is unhappy and rarely speaks. He is totally bereft of emotion, and appears to care little about living. Needing to survive, the only job he can find is one where he rounds up the stray dogs of the village. He particularly becomes enamoured with a feisty “thin, black” dog who is very sneaky but has more character than any of the humans living in the town. While Lang attempts to catch this dog, he is bitten on the bum by it, and is soon told that it is a dog that has rabies. His friend says that the dog needs to be put down, but Lang disagrees and wants to capture the dog, which they do together. Lang and the dog quarantine together, where Lang's friend says if the dog is still alive in a week, he doesn't have rabies and you are both fine. During this week, Lang and the dog form an unbreakable bond, as they both find in the other someone to love and someone who will love them back. With the dog now in his life, Lang sees a future worth living again, and he starts to grow once more, with his emotions free again to come out.
I know that it probably seems like a gave away the whole film there, but I would say that I have talked up until the halfway point of “Black Dog”, as there is a lot more that happens from this point onward. I thought “Black Dog” was an absolutely beautiful film, and the dog in the film is extraordinary. The dog's real name is Xiao Xin, and he won the Palm Dog's Grand Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival for best dog in a film, and it is so deserved. Not only does he have character and cheek, but all the things he has been trained to do in the film, like ride in the sidecar of the motorbike are both brilliant and hilarious. There is a very funny sequence when Lang and the dog first meet, as Lang urinates on a wall of a dilapidated building. Once he is finished, he walks away and the dog runs out and urinates on the wall himself to re-mark his territory. It becomes a daily ritual for Lang to urinate there, and each time the dog runs out after he is finished. It is very funny. As good as Xiao Xin's “tricks” are, he actually gives a genuine “performance” as well, because early on he comes across as very aggressive and territorial, but the longer he spends with Lang you can see a real connection between the two of them. Just in the way the dog looks at him later in the movie, you can sense a real love.
The other member of this duo is Eddie Peng, who is just outstanding as Lang, in a near wordless performance. Peng rarely gets to speak in “Black Dog” but is brilliant at showing his character's state of mind through eye contact and body language. Early on, he rarely makes much eye contact with anyone, and he kind of shuffles through life. He doesn't feel worthy of a life with any good in it, so keeps to himself and says nothing. After the dog enters his life, and he feels like he has something to live for, he straightens up more, and starts to look people in the eye. He is also bolder in the decisions he makes in life, because he actually wants to start living again. However, Peng never smiles throughout the film........until the film's final shot, and it is totally worth it; it is such a great moment, that is well earned too.
While overhearing people's conversations at MIFF, the talk about “Black Dog” was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone seemed to love it, but something else that most people noted was that it was a very slow film. This shocked me because I never once thought the pace was slow or that the film was overlong. My brother saw “Black Dog” later on in the festival and when I asked him what he thought, the first thing he said was “It was slow, but really good”. Again, I just never felt this slowness, which is either a sign that I was totally entranced by the film, or that I thought “Black Dog” was perfectly paced. The only section of the film that seemed extraneous was the romantic subplot with the circus performer which ultimately led nowhere, but which did add a female presence to the film that was sorely missing.
“Black Dog” was actually the second Chinese film I saw at MIFF this year that brought up the destruction of these smaller towns, all in the name of progress (the other film was Jia Zhang-ke's “Caught by the Tides”). Both films actually use the Beijing Olympics of 2008 as a backdrop for this change. It is really sad seeing these villages disappear slowly, bound to be forgotten one day. The abandoned zoo in this film just gave a real sense of sadness and melancholy of what once was, and this sadness permeates through “Black Dog”. That said, the desert locations of “Black Dog” are quite beautiful, with cinematographer Weizhe Gao making the most of the location with his lovely widescreen images.
Overall, I thought “Black Dog” was a really beautiful film about a man's love for his dog, without the need for sentimentalism. Watching this man, who previously was bereft of happiness, finding the joy of life once more through his connection to a dog was really touching. Thinking back on “Black Dog” though, there is so much that happens in the film that I have not even touched on, so if you are worried about spending two hours with a man and his dog, do not fret, there is a lot more going on in “Black Dog” then just that. On a lovely side note to finish this review, I have to mention that after filming had finished on “Black Dog”, Eddie Peng had so fallen in love with Xiao Xin that he ended up adopting him, and he is now his dog, so the love story between man and dog extended beyond what was onscreen into real life.
4 Stars.
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