Review of BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE

 September 23, 2009

This is the first full length Korean movie I have seen. My wife has recently been bitten by the Korean telenovela craze and I would often see her watching "Boys Over Flowers," "Only You" or currently "East of Eden". But I did not really care too much to spend time on these shows. However, when I learned that there will be a Korean Film Festival at the Shangri-La Mall this week, I decided this would be the ideal way to introduce myself to that country's films.

The movie I caught is had the curious title of "Barking Dogs Never Bite." This is another view of Korean life. There is none of the high lifestyle seen in most telenovelas depicting the Korean rich and famous. The setting is just a regular apartment complex. The action already begins even before the opening titles. A henpecked out-of-work Humanities professor-wannabe who was so annoyed with a very noisy dog of a neighbor. He got so fed up that one day, he decided to get rid of it. From there, this funny black comedy of errors unfolds. Somewhere along the way, his path intersects with that of a bored but kind-hearted bookkeeper who witnessed his crime.

There was a lot of light humor regarding the pathetic life situation of the male and female lead characters. There was a joke about a survey about ideal husbands where Humanities grad students ranked 50, even below masons. There was scene where the exasperated husband ingeniously used toilet paper to settle a bet with his overbearing wife. There was also several scenes showing the interaction of the bookkeeper and her chubby best friend which were quite hilarious.

There was however a lot of dark humor as this movie dealt about killing dogs! There were scenes which were definitely uncomfortable to watch as dogs were seen being maltreated. I'm sure the Western audience would protest about scenes where the dogs were seen being prepared to be cooked! If you are a staunch dog-lover, then this movie is not for you. I do hope that among the Korean words in the closing there is a statement that says that no dogs were harmed in the filming of this motion picture.

Now even if you do not think you would like this particular movie as I described it, there should be another featured film that you may like. This Korean film festival is FREE. Films are shown 2PM, 5PM and 8PM. Tickets are given away an hour before showtime. The Korean film festival started Sept. 23 with a special screening of "Old Boy," which has been recently hailed as one of the 25 best foreign language films of this decade. Try to catch it!