Dog Bite Dog (2006)

(Action) A sadistic cop tracks a monstrous hitman over the course of a single day and night. They ruthlessly battle each other through the streets of Hong Kong, bystanders be damned.

Film Noir Extrême - Survival Of The Fittest

This review is for the 2006
Joy Sales Films (unrated, 109 min.)
release of the film.
***************************************

Dark, relentless, brutally violent.

The pursuit of one man,
a policeman completely out of
his mind with rage, after another,
a homicidal maniac with
little more left than a will to
survive, fleeing from him.

And "survive" he does as a result
of one of the most bizarre love stories
ever with an unbelievably horrific and
strangely hopeful ending.

There are fleeting moments
when one thinks that perhaps
the extremely damaged people
in this tragedy will find
some redemption and salvation,
but ultimately the only thing
redeemed is their one way ticket
to oblivion.

This is the real thing movie fans.
This is what you've been waiting for.

The images, the sounds, the characters,
the acting, the action, the plot...
the beginning, the middle and the ending.

Taking film noir to a new level.

A unique, mature and masterful
work of film art.

I loved it. October 31, 2008

Pure cinematic art.

This is a piece of pure cinema. Uncompromising, unapologetic, as raw in its portrait of violence as it is disgusted by it. Here, violence has reasons (not justifications, mind that), and is a spiral that sucks your entire life if you let yourself be gotten into it. It is not a mindless form of entertainment, as in the endless american "movies" that have tortured cinema lovers for such a long time now. But, there is always a place for love and tendernesss, even in the most extreme environment. The screenplay is simply perfect, it should be taught in universities and academies. Add to that a magnificent acting (the expressions in the eyes of the lead actors are breathtaking) and a fresh, innovative, straightforward, honest direction...the result? A pure cinematic enjoyment, and a deep experience about the meaning of life. Both are things that are missing from US movies for many, many years already. I might say that I don't get the negative reviews, but I do, indeed: this is yet another masterpiece from Asia, showing, once again, that american mainstream "cinema" is simply trash, and that all interesting movies are made in the Far East for quite a number of years now. Yes, it will not please pop-corn eaters, because it requires some effort from the audience and makes you think about the violence in contemporary society, and about life at its deepest...too bad, isn't it? US movies RIP. September 26, 2008

don't waste your money

I usually enjoy watching movies by Dragon Dynasty but this movie was not at all what I thought it was going to be (good action scenes, fighting etc..) this movie had a lot of violence (their were parts I had to cover my eyes)I would not recommend this movie to my worst enemy. June 21, 2008

Sadistically brutal killings + Extremely illogical + The main character's too young to be convincing

This movie contains sadistically and explicitly brutal killings. There are also many extremely illogical holes. For example in one scene, a detective could have shot the assasin from afar but he did not do it. He just ran closer to the killer. He's so close that the killer just snatched the gun from his hand and killed him. Yeah right! Another problem is the main character's too young to be convincing.

It's not worth watching. March 17, 2008

Question: Can you keep this dog as your pet?

"Dog Bite Dog" is more hands on than a collective swagger and cool jazz heroism. It's a dark, dense tale of terror told with sharp implements and callousness vs. the supernatural and the creepy. I'm not too familiar with these characters but we are lead into a life of an Cambodian by the name of Pang (Edison Chen) who is high to fight and is hired to commit murder in Hong Kong. Chase by law enforcement agencies, he savagely kills detective Wai (Sam Lee) colleague during his escape. A manhunt between a policeman and a rabid assassin begins.

In the first few minutes of the film, the director-Soi Cheang Pou establishes two things paramount, it does not have the heart to laugh with panache and control his medium. Pang tells the story in images and actions without resorting to unnecessary dialogues. His way to attach his belt, his manners (or lack of) at the table and his trick to carry money speaks volumes about the aggressiveness, lack of education and resourcefulness of the killer. Even the character most brilliant detective cliché grows mainly by his actions. His rebellious attitude and self-destructive transpires in the way of smoking in the chain, cigarettes over cigarettes, even if it displeases his supervisor.

At the level of narrative, "Dog Bite Dog" is breathless as good chasing the bad guy, no matter what the filmmaker had fun scrambling, as much as possible, the boundary between the two. The methods employed by the representative of the Legal nothing: it unfortunate torture of witnesses or gun accidentally innocent while the criminal attracts pity because of his past pathetic, its role as prey and his affection for another lost soul who cross the road to his flight.

This film is obedient at times, however, the drama loses its energy when the two protagonists stop to a dramatic pause. These brief but radical changes in tone, goes to a violent battle with a long clairvoyant monologue on the difficult relationship between the investigator and his father, prepare the audience for a purpose which peaked at unintentional humor. Apart from these few tragic-comic differences, the film retains a good attitude to watch over.
February 26, 2008

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