The directorial debut of Oscar-winning Korean director Bong Joon-ho.
Ko Yun-ju is a young, unemployed academic who is having relationship problems with his pregnant wife, Eun-sil. Despite this, Eun-sil tries to help him find work at the local university. Work is not Ko Yun-ju’s only problem. He suddenly become incredibly irritated by a dog barking in a neighbor’s apartment in his enormous residential building. Ko Yun-ju become obsessed with getting rid of the dog. This aim turns his life into a series of absurd events involving the most unexpected participants: a gloomy janitor, the crazy and idle bookkeeper Park Hyun-nam, and a whole pack of dogs.
Barking Dogs Never Bite is an absurd dramatic comedy that defines the key themes of Bong Joon-ho’s future films. These are social hierarchies, detective stories, and radical black humor. His debut differs from the later movies Snowpiercer and Parasite, for which he became famous, thanks to its intimate subject and warm eccentricity. These features are more typical of western mumblecore released at the same time as Barking Dogs, such as Andrew Bujalski and Richard Linklater’s movies. Ko Yun-ju, Park Hyun-nam, the janitor, and other random characters in the film are infantile dreamers and weirdos who have ended up in the adult word but do not fit in or accept the rules of the game. This overlap with young American cinema of the 2000s also appears in the means of depiction. Cinematographer Jo Yong-gyu captures them playing on the roof, hiding in a cupboard or playing hooky from work. Their world and the miniature universe of this film is colored in warm, pastel tones that seem to come from the faded analogue shots that western indie authors are famous for. Bong Joon-ho’s first feature won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The film will be shown in Korean with Russian subtitles.
Barking Dogs Never Bite
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea, 2000. 110 min.
18+