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Black Dog

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Black Dog

Name: Black Dog
Director: Guan Hu
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 2024
Duration: 1 h 49 min
Cast: Eddie Peng, Liya Tong, Jia Zhangke

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Drama
Thriller

2024
Guan Hu
109 mins
12A

Summary

Drama starring Eddie Peng. After spending time in prison for manslaughter, taciturn former stunt rider and musician Lang returns to his home town in remote north west China. He joins a local team rounding up stray dogs in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. One mutt proves particularly problematic, but Lang slowly begins to strike up a bond with the animal.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Kevin Harley

Chinese director Guan Hu deftly dodges sentimentality with his downbeat but absorbingly off-centre drama about a loner and a misunderstood dog. Eddie Peng plays Lang, a taciturn former musician returning to his rundown home town in remote north west China after time inside. When he takes work rounding up stray dogs to help clear-up operations for the 2008 Olympics, Lang finds a bonus awaits if he catches one problematic mutt in particular. While the slow-growing affection between the two feels inevitable, Guan's narrative digressions and tonal swerves prove altogether less rote. The diffuse plot takes in circuses, a near-romance, a gangster's vengeance and Lang's visits to his dying father, all set against blighted landscapes that seem almost post-apocalyptic. Mixing elements of film noir and western, Guan splices social realism, bone-dry humour and surrealism to beguilingly enigmatic effect. Featuring fine turns from Peng and his canine co-star Xin, Guan's fable of healing bonds in harsh times unfolds as a measured tale of hard-won recovery in progress, keeping redemptive clichés smartly muzzled.

imdb-square

7.1/10