Barking Dogs Never Bite

by Bake Snaker December 29, 2006

I had this DVD on my shelf for awhile and finally popped it in.
Wanted to see it because Joon-ho Bong directed “Memories of
Murder”..one of the best films to come out of Korea over the last five
years. And recently he directed “The Host”, which is supposed to be
an amazing horror/sci-fi film.

So this is sort of a romantic comedy that never really gets to the
romance. It is more of a comedy of errors. If you laughed at the
Yorkshire Terrier offings in “A Fish Called Wanda”, you’re going to
love this film. And it is for this very reason that Hollywood will
choose to pass on the remake of this one. Just when you think they
will shy away from killing off a small dog…bam! So animal lovers
keep this in mind.

Synopsis from IMDB – The movie tells the tale of a would-be professor
(LEE Sung-jae), currently laid off until he can bribe his way into a
permanent appointment, who grows increasingly fed up about yippy dogs
in his rather down-scale apartment mega-complex. He decides to “do
something about this” — which leads to a chain of increasingly
disastrous events. THEN, his soon-to-deliver spouse buys a poodle of
her own — which he proceeds to lose. While desperately searching for
his wife’s dog, he runs across a helper (BAE Doo-na) — who is looking
for the culprit who has caused other neighborhood dogs to disappear.

Pretty brave and different for a film to make its lead so unsympathetic.

The film opens with the disclaimer – “No animals were harmed in making
this film”…yeah right. Not killed but there is no way to hang a dog
and watch him squirm for a few seconds without putting him through
more than a little discomfort.

See it if you are impressed with director’s other stuff.