Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui gae, 2000)

Bong Jun-Ho

Korea

106 mins, color, Korean (English subtitles)

The debut feature of director Bong Jun-Ho, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE is also one of these rarities that Korean indie films are. Supposedly a wicked comedy about the life of a frustrated graduate student on the academic job market, the film mostly fails to deliver good laughs, and even the ones it does get, are snickers at best. It may be that Korean culture allows far more liberties with cute furry animals than its over-sensitized Western counterpart does, as evidenced by the stunned silence of the audience throughout the scenes where dogs flew sans wings, or found their maker amidst the ingredients of a good stew. It is not just the implied (not shown) cruelty to dogs that was a turn off, but the (lack of) acting talent as well.

Take, for example, the protagonist Yun-ju (Lee Sung-Jae) who vents his anger at dogs. Now granted, he is a miserable lecturer in humanities, whose pregnant wife rides him like Genghis Khan, and whose integrity is measured, weighted, and found wanting by the travails of academia. Yet, he is curiously inactive, even apathetic --- presumably because of his disappointment and loss of hope --- and this makes him less than likeable. One would hope that with a child on the way, the future father would sleep less, goof off less, and work more. No wonder his wife is so pissed. On the other hand, the young girl Hyeon-nam (Bae Doo-Na) who works for the building management, was inspired. In fact, had the director concentrated more on her and her equally funny friend, the comedy would have worked much better. Oddly enough, it is when seen through their eyes that Yun-ju's behavior goes from gross and bizarre to hilarious.

The film misses many potential laughs, especially in the subplot with the maintenance guys, who are also gourmet cooks of special dog stew. The twist with the boiler repair man, long in the making, falls short with no consequence. It was impossible for me to tell exactly what sort of social commentary these scenes were supposed to make. (There is no doubt that the director intended to comment socially: the entire film is one long search for identity by the main characters.) In the end, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE falls short of astute look at contemporary Korean social and private behavior, does not quite make it as a black comedy, and is easily misconstrued by Westerners to an extent that makes it lose all innocence and acquire the unenviable aura of a film that animal rights activists might want to see banned.

September 5, 2001.