Barking Dogs Never Bite
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Korean: 플란다스의 개, also known as A Higher Animal and Dog of Flanders) is a 2000 South Korean independent dark comedy film directed and co-written by Bong Joon-ho in his directorial debut. The film's original Korean title is a satirical take on the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders, a European pet story that is very popular in parts of East Asia.
| Barking Dogs Never Bite | |
|---|---|
 Promotional release poster | |
| Hangul | 플란다스의 개 |
| Revised Romanization | Peullandaseu-ui Gae (Flanders-ui Gae) |
| McCune–Reischauer | P'ŭllandasŭ-ŭi (Flanders-ui Gae) |
| Directed by | Bong Joon-ho |
| Produced by | Cha Seung-jae |
| Written by | Bong Joon-ho Song Ji-ho Derek Son Tae-woong |
| Starring | Lee Sung-jae Bae Doona |
| Music by | Jo Seong-woo |
| Cinematography | Jo Yong-gyu |
| Edited by | Lee Eun-soo |
| Distributed by | Cinema Service (South Korea) Magnolia Pictures (United States) |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
Barking Dogs Never Bite stars Lee Sung-jae as an out-of-work college professor who is irritated by the sound of barking dogs in his apartment building, and eventually resorts to abusing, kidnapping and killing them. Meanwhile, a young woman (played by Bae Doona) working at the apartment complex decides to investigate the matter after she starts receiving notices from the tenants about the missing dogs.
Plot
Ko Yun-ju, an unemployed academic, lives in a large apartment complex with his pregnant wife Eun-sil. Yun-ju is struggling to become a university professor and grappling with his strained relationship with Eun-sil. Searching for the loudly barking dog of one of his neighbors, which is driving him crazy, he finds an unattended Shih Tzu. He tries to drop the dog from the roof, but is stopped when an old woman comes to dry radishes there. He takes the dog into the basement instead and, after being unable to hang it, locks it inside a cabinet.
Park Hyun-nam, the lazy bookkeeper and custodian of the apartment complex, longs to be famous like a bank teller she and her friend Soon Jang-mi saw on TV who was rewarded for stopping a robbery. A little girl comes to Hyun-nam with flyers she wants to hang up in order to find her missing dog, the Shih Tzu. Yun-ju continues to hear barking, and sees the old woman from the roof with her chihuahua, the actual source of the noise, and reads on the flyer for the missing dog that it was unable to bark because of a throat operation. Realizing his mistake, he goes to the basement at night to free the dog from the cabinet, but hides when a janitor comes in. Yun-ju watches in horror as the janitor pulls out the dead Shih Tzu and cooks and eats it.
The next day, Yun-ju sneaks up on the old woman and steals her dog. Hyun-nam witnesses Yun-ju throw the dog off the roof. Seeing an opportunity to achieve her dream of gaining fame, Hyun-nam chases Yun-ju, but is knocked unconscious when she is hit by an opening door, allowing Yun-ju to escape. The old woman comes to Hyun-nam with lost dog flyers, and when Hyun-nam shows her the chihuahua's body, she faints from shock and is hospitalized. Hyun-nam gets the janitor to bury the chihuahua, but as soon as she leaves, he digs up the body and takes it to the basement to make into a stew. When he leaves to get some seasoning, a homeless man living in the basement is lured by the smell and tastes it. The janitor comes back to discover his stew gone.
As Yun-ju struggles to come up with the money to buy his way into a professorial position, Eun-sil, who has lost her job, comes home with a toy poodle. Eun-sil shows more affection for the dog, which she names Baby, than her husband, and treats Yun-ju like a servant. While in the park, Yun-ju becomes distracted and loses Baby. When Eun-sil scolds him for losing the dog, Yun-ju snaps and accuses her of wasting money. Eun-sil tearfully tells him she bought the dog with a small portion of her severance from her job, and planned to give the rest to Yun-ju so he could become a professor. Shocked, Yun-ju makes up missing dog flyers and takes them to Hyun-nam, who offers to help him, but he gives up his search after nobody, not even the dog-eating janitor, seems to have Baby.
While being berated for her sloppiness at work, Hyun-nam learns that the old woman died from the shock of losing her chihuahua, her only family, and left her a letter telling her she can have the dried radishes she left on the roof. When Hyun-nam goes to get the radishes, she discovers Baby on the roof with the homeless man, who kidnapped her after developed a taste for dog meat. Hyun-nam rescues the dog and the man chases her through the apartment building. Jang-mi arrives and knocks out the homeless man, who is arrested by police, and Hyun-nam brings Baby back to Yun-ju.
Hyun-nam watches a TV broadcast on the missing dogs, but sees no mention of herself, leaving her distraught. Later that night, Hyun-nam finds a drunk Yun-ju on the sidewalk. Yun-ju, overcome with guilt about the trouble he caused, confesses to her that he killed the dogs.
Some time later, Yun-ju has succeeded in becoming a professor and his marriage has improved. Hyun-nam goes on a long-awaited hike in the woods with Jang-mi.
Cast
- Lee Sung-jae as Ko Yun-ju, a young academic struggling to become a professor
- Bae Doona as Park Hyun-nam, an ignorant maintenance worker and bookkeeper for the apartments who aspires to become famous
- Kim Ho-jung as Eun-sil, Yun-ju's pregnant wife
- Byun Hee-bong as the janitor, who steals lost and dead dogs and uses them as stew meat
- Go Soo-hee as Yoon Jang-mi, a toy store owner and Hyun-nam's friend
- Kim Roi-ha as the homeless man, who lives in the apartment basement
- Kim Jin-goo as the old lady, a resident of the apartment who owns a chihuahua
Release
Magnolia Pictures acquired the American distribution rights to the film in the late summer of 2009.[1]
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 67% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 8/10.[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 7 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]
Lead actress Bae Doona stated in 2019 that the film contained the most memorable scene of her career, in which she is being chased by a homeless man throughout the apartment.[4]
See also
- List of Korean language films
References
- Saperstein, Pat (31 August 2009). "Magnolia acquires Bong's Mother". Variety. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
- "Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui gae) (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- "Barking Dogs Never Bite Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- Hartzell, Adam. "Women's History Trilogy (2000-4)". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 5 September 2013.