sharon quinn

I went to see the Chinese movie, Black Dog (with English subtitles) because I’m passionate about dogs and fascinated to observe the relationship between dogs and humans in different cultures. This was a redemption movie on many different levels. The central character, Lang, comes out of prison having committed manslaughter in circumstances we don’t fully understand. The grainy and brutal, desert and city panoramas are almost characters in themselves with stray dogs on every street corner and forming packs in the desert mountains. There is nothing menacing about the dogs, they are abandoned pets, fluffy, lean, tall and short but waggy-tailed and endearing as dogs generally are except for the black greyhound who is suspected of carrying rabies and has a price on his head. Lang is required by the terms of his release and rehabilitation to join a dog catching gang who are clearing the streets for the coming Olympics and regeneration of the poverty-stricken town. The methods of the gang are sometimes brutal and Lang (although he cannot or does not speak but communicates so effectively with his actions) cannot continue… He comes across the Black dog… It sneaks up behind him to urinate on the corner of an abandoned housing block where Lang has just urinated! After trying to catch the dog to get the prize money, Lang grows to be quickly soul-bonded to this dog and the emotional journey of redemption for both of them continues. This is a panoramic journey of a movie with several powerful characters such as that of gangster Hu (whose nephew was killed by Lang) who continually and violently seeks revenge, Lang’s alcoholic dad who is drinking himself to death in the decaying and nearly empty city zoo but trying to care for the animals that are left, the exquisite Manchurian zoo tiger who can not kill and lives on porridge in the visually stunning zoo with its Great Wall of China in miniature and the cast of the exotic circus which comes to town and whose beautiful hard-thinking and hard-drinking belly dancer falls in love with Lang. There are shades of Louis Bunuel (surreal film director of the early 20th century) in this Epic. It’s incredibly emotional. The Black dog acts so well and the film credits stress that no animals were hurt in the making of the film however, a central theme is the casual cruelty that humans show towards both fellow humans and animals while trying to survive in our brutal human society. I saw this film in the new Epsom picture house and felt comfortable sitting and drinking coffee alone in their lovely cafe/bar prior to the movie. #adoptdon’tshop