Black Dog
狗阵
China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 115 mins.
Director: Guan Hu 管虎.
Rating: 8/10.
Elemental story of re-birth and renewal in a run-down town in northwest China is weakened by a too-level tone but truly delivers by the end.
STORY
Chixia township, on the edge of the Gobi desert, somewhere in northwest China, 30 Jun 2008. Due to a large pack of dogs running wild across the scrubland, a small public bus overturns just outside Chixia township. No one is injured but one passenger (Yang Weiguo) noisily complains that he has had RMB1,000 stolen from his bag. The police arive and escort the bus to Chixia. One of the passengers is Lang Yonghui (Peng Yuyan), 38, a former singer and circus motorcyclist who was sentenced to prison for 10 years on suspicion of manslaughter and has has now been let out early on parole; he refuses to speak and prefers to walk behind the bus. Chixia is a run-down, former industrial township abandoned by oilfield workers and much of the population; the streets are full of dogs left behind by their owners, and one, a thin black dog, has reportedly bitten people and has rabies. Next morning Lang Yonghui goes to his favourite noodle restaurant, where the owner (Yin Yuanzhang) recognises and welcomes him. An old neighbour, Camel (Niu Ben), tells him his father is not at home; he’s now living at the small zoo where he works, and which, like many buildings, is due to be demolished soon for redevelopment. Lang Yonghui retrieves his motorbike from home. The circus he used to work for has since closed, but a friend offers to help him find work. He phones his married elder sister to tell her he’s out on parole; she tells him to tell their father to stop drinking. After noticing there’s a R<B1,000 reward for catching the black dog, he tries but is bitten in the backside. He next visits an old welder friend, Qu Sanjin (Zhang Jianya), originally from Shanghai; he confirms that work is hard to find. A policeman friend, Liu (Wang Yiquan), signs him up for a dog-patrol team; led by Yao (Jia Zhangke), its purpose is to make the township more attractive to business investment by rounding up all the stray dogs. Also, all dog-owners have to register their pets, for RMB150, or the animals will be taken away. Butcher Hu (Hu Xiaoguang), who runs a kebab restaurant, and who still hasn’t forgiven Lang Yonghui for the accidental death of his nephew, hunts him down and forces him to bow in apology. Meanwhile, the dog patrol captures the black dog; but Lang Yonghui, who’s one of the drivers, secretly takes it into the desert that evening to set it free. However, his vehicle is blown over by a sandstorm, and man and dog spend the night together. Despite sometimes being friendly, the dog bites Lang Yonghui. Next day he’s rescued by a touring circus on its way to Chixia. Lang Yongui is given an anti-rabies injection and stays with a friend, who recommends he and the dog isolate themselves for a week to see if either has rabies. During that week together Lang Yongui and the black dog become fast friends, and neither of them dies. Grape (Tong Liya), a friendly woman in the circus, offers Lang Yonghui a job with them as a motorcyclist. But Butcher Hu still hasn’t finished with him yet.
REVIEW
After a PRC anniversary film (My People, My Country 我和我的祖国, 2019) and two war movies (The Eight Hundred 八佰, 2020; The Sacrifice 金刚川, 2020) – all of them billion-yuan grossers – Beijing-born writer-director Guan Hu 管虎, now in his mid-50s, goes for something more personal and intimate with Black Dog 狗阵, an elemental story of re-birth and personal renewal via the friendship between an ex-con and a stray dog. Set in a once-flourishing, now run-down industrial town on the edge of the Gobi desert, northwest China, it’s a characterfully cast light drama that ironically takes place just prior to the splashy showpiece of the Beijing Olympics some 2,000 kilometres away. At almost two hours, it’s a tad too long and also suffers from too level a tone; but it’s redeemed by a final half-hour that truly delivers.
Despite having two earlier films shown at the Venice festival (Cow 斗牛, 2009; Mr. Six 老炮儿, 2015), Guan is still hardly known in the West. Black Dog was successfully premiered at this summer’s Cannes festival, but only in the official sidebar Un Certain Regard, not in the main Competition. Shot over two years ago (Sep 2021-Apr 2022), it was finally released in the Mainland a month after the Cannes showing. Local box office was only RMB33 million, respectable for such a non-commercial project. Guan has since directed his first romantic drama, A Man and a Woman 一个男人和一个女人, starring Huang Bo 黄渤 and Ni Ni 倪妮, which premiered in competition at the Shanghai festival four days after the local release of Black Dog.
Even when working on large-scale projects like The Eight Hundred or The Sacrifice, Guan’s focus has always been non-didactic, on a simple human level. His snappily directed segment which opens the My People, My Country anthology took that to the limit, with a lightly comic story about two obsessives working through the night to perfect the electric flag-raising gear for Chairman Mao’s historic declaration in Tiananmen Square on 1 Oct 1949. Guan’s wry, very northern sense of humour percolates through many of his movies – even in the outwardly serious Black Dog, which casts a very sardonic eye on its setting and characters. As the once prosperous, now shabby township of Chixia tries to attract new business by giving itself a facelift, one of its first goals is to round up all the stray dogs left behind when people first started moving away. Nature – symbolised by the desert and the packs of strays – has already started to reclaim Chixia, but Man is now fighting back.
For the main character, Lang Yonghui, a 38-year-old, once-famous musician and circus motorbike rider who was imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter, the town has changed out of all recognition since he was imprisoned. He, too, tries to hitch a ride on its planned redevelopment, with mixed fortunes. Based on an original story by Guan, the film, deliberately, is not just about a town left behind by China’s rapid development. Its more fundamental theme is re-birth in general – not just of a town but of an ex-con, a thin black dog whom people claim has rabies, a man still bitter about the loss of his nephew, and a circus woman in her early 30s who feels life is already passing her by. It’s also about the self-delusions of people living in a remote bubble who look for any sign of hope. Guan and his co-writers Ge Rui 葛瑞 (who worked on his previous four films) and writer-director Wu Bing 吴兵 (who co-wrote with Guan the political biopic The Pioneer 革命者, 2021, directed by Xu Zhanxiong 徐展雄) have penned a film that only looks simple on the surface.
The first images in Black Dog are of endless desert scrublands – across which a vast pack of dogs suddenly runs, causing a small public bus to overturn. As the travellers crawl out of the bus, the camera still remains remote, emphasising their insignificance in the landscape. It’s a while before the audience is allowed to see any faces, and one of the first is that of Lang Yonghui, a prisoner out on early parole. He is to be the audience’s main conduit into the story but he’s hardly the protagonist of the film. He’s more reactive than proactive; the main character, which shapes everything, is nature itself. In the final, very elemental section, nature and the animal kingdom seem to retake the town as the small population goes outside to observe a solar eclipse; and Lang Yonghui, gifted by nature with a new companion, goes in search of a fresh beginning.
Given that Lang Yonghui is the viewer’s main guide, an early problem with the film is the decision to make him virtually mute throughout, making some scenes awkward and unrealistic, even for a man of few words. The decision may have been prompted by the inability of Taiwan actor Peng Yuyan 彭于晏 [Eddie Peng] to do a convincing northwest accent; whatever the reason, it makes it harder to get emotionally involved in the film during the first hour, if less of a stumbling block as the movie progresses and other characters share the limelight. Best known for lighter, rom-commy roles, Peng has essayed tough-guy roles during the past decade with varying success; here he makes a good fist of the laconic ex-con without bringing the extra grace-notes that a real character actor could. The only major female role is taken by Uyghur actress Tong Liya 佟丽娅 (so good as the wife in domestic violence drama The Woman in the Storm 我经过风暴, 2023), as a circus performer who shares a heart-to-heart scene with Peng’s character that leaves one wanting more. Other roles are colourfully etched (or grunted) by several film-making pals of Guan, including directors Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯 (as the leader of the dog patrol) and Zhang Jianya 张建亚 (an old sign welder). As Lang Yonghui’s bitter nemesis Butcher Hu, Hu Xiaoguang 胡晓光 is especially notable.
Technical credits are tip-top, with the striking widescreen compositions of d.p. Gao Weizhe 高伟喆 (My People, My Country; The Sacrifice; The Pioneer) underlining the film’s elemental feel, as does the slightly folkloric score by English-Australian composer Breton Vivian (a former UK-based punk guitarist, now best known for the US TV series Yellowstone, 2020-22). The film is dedicated to Guan’s father, actor Guan Zongxiang 管宗祥, who died on 13 Jan 2023, aged 100; the original Chinese title means “Dog Formation”.
CREDITS
Presented by The Seventh Art Pictures (Shanghai) (CN), Huayi Brothers Pictures (CN), Momo Pictures (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN). Produced by The Seventh Art Pictures (Shanghai) (CN).
Script: Ge Rui, Guan Hu, Wu Bing. Story: Guan Hu. Photography: Gao Weizhe. Editing: Li Weiwen. Editing advice: Matthieu Laclau, He Yongyi. Music: Breton Vivian. Music supervision: Yu Fei. Art direction: Li Chang. Costumes: Chen Dian. Styling: Li Zhou. Sound: Fu Kang. Action: Fu Xiaojie. Car stunts: An Bo. Visual effects: Yin Duanyang. Artistic advice: Huo Tingxiao. Direction of animal cast: Chen Zihao. Direction of big scenes: Li Jinghan.
Cast: Peng Yuyan [Eddie Peng] (Lang Yonghui), Tong Liya (Putao/Grape), Jia Zhangke (Yao, dog-patrol leader), Zhou You (Nie Shili, cook), Hu Xiaoguang (Butcher Hu), Wang Yiquan (Liu, policeman), Niu Ben (Luotuo/Camel, old neighbour with voicebox), Zhang Yi (manager), Yuan Hong (Zhao), Wei Chen (bank cashier), Zhao Yi (madman), Zhang Jianya (Qu Sanjin), Zhang Yang (dog-race boss), Wang Yanhui (garage owner), Sha Baoliang (Jin), Yin Yuanzhang (noodle-restaurant owner), Zhang Li (Yang Da), Mo Tuhongzhe (Yang Er), Wu You (dog-patrol deputy), Da Youwei (Qingpi/Greenie), Chobu Huajie (Hulutou/Melonhead), Wang Naixun (Xiaomaotou/Fluffy), Gang Qiang, Lang Yonghui’s father), Li Jiuxiao (Zhou), Liang Jing (mother at bungee jump), Huang Miyi (married woman), An Jianlin (bus driver), Yang Weiguo (bus passenger who lost money).
Premiere: Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), 18 May 2024.
Release: China, 15 Jun 2024.