Grand yet intimate, this Cannes Un Certain Regard award winner, about a man who strikes up a friendship with a black stray dog in a small town, mostly avoids overt sentimentalism in its portrayal of changing times in rural China.
Review #2,837
Dir. Guan Hu
2024 | China | Drama | 110 min | 2.47:1 | Chinese
PG13 (passed clean) for some coarse language
Cast: Eddie Peng, Tong Liya, Jia Zhangke
Plot: Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray.
Awards: Won Un Certain Regard Award (Cannes)
International Sales: Playtime
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Man and Dog; Small Town Politics; Changing Times
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: The Projector Cineleisure
Spoilers: No
A stunning opening scene sets the ball rolling in this Cannes Un Certain Regard award winner by Guan Hu (best known for the 2020 war epic The Eight Hundred).
While vehicles seem to suffer some kind of mishap throughout the film, it is the stray dogs that adorn the picture which will propel the narrative forward.
Many of them also suffer from neglect as most people have moved out of this soon-to-be-deserted town in need of a mini-economic miracle. But before that can happen, it has to be rid of the hundreds of dogs that roam the area.
Set near the Gobi Desert, Black Dog is both grand and intimate. It is grand because of the generous number of extreme wide shots that showcase the unforgiving terrain of dirt roads; it’s also ‘grand’ because of its temporal context as China readies herself for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
While Guan Hu’s work isn’t primarily about the ‘two Chinas’—one highly developed and paraded to the world; the other marginalised and best kept out from the public eye—it is still about changing times.
“I want to keep this dog.”
It is no surprise then that Jia Zhangke, the GOAT screen chronicler of modernising China over the last two decades, has a supporting role.
But this is the Eddie Peng show, who barely speaks as Er Lang, a man recently released from prison who strikes up a friendship with a black stray dog that the authorities want to capture.
The man-dog relationship is the intimate part of the film, grounding it in some kind of unspoken emotion that occasionally stirs the heart.
If you love dogs but are still not quite into more ‘arthouse’ Chinese cinema, Black Dog might just be that sign to try. In fact, I feel the film has more mainstream appeal than most critics would give it credit for.
A few inexplicable moments aside, including two of Er Lang abusing his bike by attempting to cross a broken bridge, Black Dog generally works with the director mostly avoiding overt sentimentalism.
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 