Review: Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

Bong Joonho’s Barking Dogs Never Bite is the film debut of the now-bonkers-famous director, and it shows in its relative unpolishedness. Bong Joonho’s films are well-known for having strong political statements and flawed characters whose good intentions are sometimes little more than means to an end. Being his first film, there are hints at what would come later, what with the complex web of total strangers’ lives unknowingly caught up in one mad-dash of irony (something, something, Parasite mention), and while it's rough around the edges, that style is unmistakable. My guy's got a knack for intertwining black comedy with harsh realities to shine a mirror in his audience's faces to really grind “humanity destroys itself” in good and deep, and while Barking Dogs Never Bite is no different, it's a little harder to piece together.

Opening with a glaring "no animals were harmed" disclaimer, the stage is set—some unpleasantness lies ahead. Yunju (Lee Sungjae) is a hapless post-grad who's been overlooked for a tenure position, and the depression is setting in. Unable to escape his daily anxieties of joblessness and his breadwinning pregnant girlfriend who chides him in each spare moment, Yunju hits his limit with a neighbor's dog's incessant yapping. Desperate to put a stop to the noise, Yunju finally snaps and decides it simply needs to perish. 

Unable to kill it himself, Yunju decides to lock it in an abandoned closet in the apartment building's basement, never to be seen again. Days pass before Yunju, to his horror, hears the barking again—from a different dog belonging to a different neighbor. Meanwhile, a young girl enters the building's admin office to have her missing dog posters stamped by Hyunnam (Bae Doona), who makes it her business to find it. 

Hyunnam has lofty dreams of escaping her poverty-stricken lifestyle by becoming a media sensation, and she intends to get there by becoming a local hero like she sees on the news. She coincidentally witnesses Yunju disposing of the second dog—this guy is crazy—but while she comes close, she doesn't quite catch him, nor does she see his face. Yunju, on the other hand, has solved his problem twice now, until his girlfriend returns home with a dog of her own. When her dog goes missing, Yunju seeks help from Hyunnam to find her, pushing these foes to become friends unbeknownst to one another.

A running theme throughout Barking Dogs Never Bite is the reality that bad behavior is often rewarded, and being a good person is undervalued; but even a good person is prone to altruistic acts still motivated purely by the potential rewards. Yunju and Hyunnam are in different places in life, but of similar mindsets—they're both miserable, and they're more than willing to cut corners in order to move up in a competitive world where it seems that cheating is the only way to win. Dog-eat-dog, you might say. But the difference between the two is that Yunju’s misdeeds end up benefiting him as intended, meanwhile Hyunnam's goal remains a fantasy even after she becomes the hero she strived to be—receiving an old woman's dried radishes as thanks, and her interview cut from the news story. Somewhere in all this is a message about the overlap in capitalism and behaviorism, but as previously mentioned, it's not crystal clear. Such is the way of humanity.

Overall, Barking Dogs Never Bite is very clearly a debut film. Its shining moments are those which stand out as decidedly classic Bong Joonho writing—see: the janitor's spooky story of Boiler Kim, aided by a flashlight after the lights go out. It probably goes without saying, but even with comedic intent, animal cruelty is upsetting! And while it's not graphic, these dogs are obviously mistreated, and they do die. Barking Dogs Never Bite is a must for fans of Bong Joonho's work since seeing the roots of a creator's development is a fascinating experience, but it may just be a sad little slog if that's not your bag.

Edited by Kelly Sipko