44/14
After being released from prison, Lang returns to his hometown in northwestern China. As a patrol dog tasked with cleaning up stray dogs before the 2008 olympic games, a member, he attaches himself to black homeless. Two lonely souls embark on a new journey together. Eddie Peng [the director] developed such a strong bond with Xin, the dog featured in the film, that he adopted him after filming. Close Link: The Best of 2024 movies and other results (2024). The van drives to a small, deserted town on the edge of the Gobi Desert. A pack of stray dogs rushes towards her, scaring the driver and overturning the bus. From this comes Lang, an ex-convict who used to be a popular stunt rider, now returns to his hometown after serving 10 years in prison for killing the nephew of a local gangster. After a few conversations with the police, the title card appears and the magic of the Black Dog begins. A poetic and minimalistic film about healing and moving on, portrayed through friendship, connection, the spiritual bond between man and dog. The man is Lang and the dog is the infamous thin black dog that terrorizes the city. Rumored to carry rabies, the black dog goes around defending his territory by pissing on walls and biting people, so everyone tries to catch him. Black Dog is the story of two lonely misfits trapped in the cages of a world that doesn’t understand them. Two lost souls, alienated by the society around them. Two black sheep that don’t fit. Lang is marginalized because of his « killer » past, and the black dog is also an outsider among the other homeless people 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. Humans may be, but dogs are not. Stray dogs are violent because they are constantly afraid and trying to survive in an evolving environment where they do not belong. The window is like a stray dog. He is not like the others. He only speaks a few words throughout the film because he is very quiet and introverted. Like the black dog, he tries to make a life in a city undergoing modernization. After his time in prison, Lang changed, and so did the city and the people he once knew. So now he doesn’t talk, he just exists and goes with the flow. That’s why Lang and Black Dog are so perfect for each other, and why they’re instantly connected, they’re both just trying to survive in a world they don’t know anymore, a world that doesn’t want them anymore. The dog is at an important time for China, a time of urbanization and change. And this small town is deeply affected. Most of its inhabitants fled, leaving behind their dogs, which now roam the streets and deserts freely. The zoo runs out of money to keep the animals, so they are also released into the wild. The circus is trying to survive, but the business is not going well. The old 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. Black Dog’s cinematography is amazing and Guan Hu embraced the new ‘slow cinema’. Chinese Bi Gan style that made me fall in love with the movie almost instantly. Long panning shots of beautiful landscapes, quiet scenes of motorcycle rides and slow walks through dusty roads and deserted rural villages all add to the lonely atmosphere. Scenes like Lang and the black dog calmly walk through the desert stray dogs. , and the solar eclipse sequence where the zoo tiger roams freely through the city streets are two of my favorites of the year so far. And the last shot of Black Dog is so beautiful and meaningful. Through his canine companion, Lang finally learns how to live despite his dark past and how to find happiness in life’s suffering.