Barking Dogs Never Bite

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🎙️ EPISODE 296: 09.27.2020 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝙾𝙽𝙶 𝙹𝙾𝙾𝙽-𝙷𝙾 𝙳𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝙵𝚘𝚌𝚞𝚜 I think it's telling that Bong Joon-Ho's first feature is a pitch black comedy. He has a perverse and underrated sense of humor which shines through, to varying degrees, in all his films. The other running theme in his oeuvre is the concept of class. It would become THE central theme in his later, most well-known works, but it's a big part of this film, which — on the surface — is about a serial dog murder. Nobody is content with their lot in life, and in a thread that runs straight through the Academy Award winning Parasite, it's not quite as simple as System = Bad; Working Class = Good. BJH's characters are flawed at all levels, as is the idea that there's always a lower level waiting. Is it the struggle that turns us into monsters, or are our monstrous sides always fighting to be unleashed?

BJH is a master of plotting and pace, and those skills are on full display here, right out the gate. There are two leads here whose lives intersect only briefly. They are both unhappy with their inability to get ahead in life. One, the dog killer, chooses to see only the worst; he can't ignore the sound of a barking dog. The other dreams of being a hero and reaping the rewards that come with it; she always see the best in every person and situation, even if the dark truth is right in front of her face. When their paths cross, and the latter attempts to reveal his horrible secret, she can't help noticing that he's lost his shoe, and returns it to him. Perhaps Tilda Swinton's comic shoe metaphor in Snowpiercer is a callback to this?

A truly special debut film that sets the table for the wild ride of delightfully twisted Bong Joon-ho movies to come...

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 295A - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 296B ⫸

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