Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

Barking Dogs Never Bite

• I’ll start off by saying that although this is definitely the weakest of Bong Joon-ho’s films, it’s still a strong start to an extremely powerful filmography. Just by this first film alone, you can see the ambition and creativity that he has. You can tell that nearly every film after this one takes inspiration in it, mostly by his masterful way of combining drama, tension, and comedy. This one specifically, to me, is probably his most comedic, while still being dramatic. Not necessarily hilarious or anything, but the kind of dark comedy the Bong is so good at. In many ways, this reminds me a lot of Wes Anderson’s ‘Bottle Rocket’, in the sense of mixing crime, human relationships, and edgy humor. The story for this, while simple and easy to follow, still remains packed enough with great dialogue and sticky situations. It did feel a little long to me, especially towards the end, but by the time it was done, it didn’t really matter. The story deliverance was great either way. I didn’t really care much for the characters, besides Hyeon-nam. She was definitely the star of this for me, but everyone else was kind of whatever. The performances were all very solid, though. The score was really good, with a fantastic jazz tone, and at times, an almost Lynchian sound. I’m gonna need Bong to make another film that has jazz in it, because he really makes it work. Overall, for a feature film debut, this was strong and he comes out swinging with his iconic style. As I said at the beginning, it’s the weakest of his films, but in no way does that mean it’s bad. I don’t know if I’d watch it again anytime soon, but should I rewatch it, I could probably see it going up, rating-wise. I’d probably recommend it to most dark comedy fans. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go watch it now!