11/37
After being released from prison, Lang returns to his hometown in northwest China. As a member of the PAW Patrol tasked with removing stray dogs ahead of the 2008 Olympics, he develops a bond with a stray black dog. Two lonely souls set off on a new journey together. Eddie Peng [the main character] developed such a strong bond with Xin, the dog in the film, that he adopted him after filming wrapped. Mentioned in Close-Up: The Best Movies and Other Scores of 2024 (2024). The minibus heads toward a small, isolated town on the edge of the Gobi Desert. A pack of stray dogs charge toward it, startling the driver and overturning the bus. Enter Lang, an ex-convict and former motorcycle stuntman, who has now returned to his hometown after 10 years in prison for the murder of a local gangster’s nephew. After some conversations with the police, the title screen appears and the magic of Black Dog begins. A poetic, minimalist film about healing and moving forward, shown through the friendship, bond and spiritual connection between man and dog. The man is Lang and the dog is the infamous, skinny black dog that terrorizes the city. Rumor has it that the black dog has rabies, so he goes around defending his territory by pissing on walls and biting people, so everyone wants to catch him. Black Dog is a story about two lonely, homeless dogs, trapped in a world that doesn’t understand them. Two lost souls alienated by the society around them. Two black sheep who don’t belong. Lang is marginalized due to his past as a «killer», and the black dog is also alienated from other stray dogs because he is the biggest, strongest, fastest and most aggressive of all the dogs. One of Guan Hu’s main messages in Black Dog is that no animal is evil. People can be, but dogs are not. Stray dogs are aggressive because they live in constant fear, trying to survive in a changing environment where they don’t belong. Lang is similar to a stray dog. He’s not like the others. He only speaks a few words throughout the film because he’s so quiet and introverted. As a black dog, he’s trying to make a life for himself in a city that’s undergoing modernization. After his time in prison, Lang has changed, as have the city and the people he’s met. So now he doesn’t speak, he just exists and goes with the flow. That’s why Lang and the black dog are so perfect for each other, and that’s why they got together in the first place – they’re both just trying to survive in a world they no longer know, a world that doesn’t want them anymore. Black Dog is set at a pivotal time for China, a time of urbanization and change. And this small town is deeply affected. Most of the inhabitants have fled, leaving behind their dogs, who now roam freely through the streets and hills of the desert. The zoo runs out of money to keep the animals, so they too are released into the desert. The circus tries to survive, but business isn’t going well. The old circus is torn down to make way for the new, which is a clever parallel to the end of the film, where the black dog dies but leaves behind a new generation of black puppies. The cinematography in Black Dog is beautiful, with Guan Hu adopting Bi Gan’s new Chinese “slow cinema” style, which made me fall in love with the film almost immediately. Long panoramic shots of beautiful landscapes, quiet scenes of motorcycle rides and slow walks through dusty roads and abandoned rural villages are complemented by a solitary atmosphere. Scenes like Lang and the black dog calmly walking among stray dogs in the desert and the solar eclipse sequence with the zoo’s tiger roaming freely through the city streets are two of my favorite scenes of the entire year so far. And the final scene of Black Dog is so beautiful and meaningful. Through his canine companion, Lang finally learns how to move on despite his dark past and how to find happiness in life’s misfortunes.