Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

An idle part-time college lector is annoyed by the yapping sound of a near-by dog. He decides to take drastic action.

Director:

Joon-ho Bong (as Joon Ho Bong)

Writers:

Joon-ho Bong (as Joon Ho Bong), Ji-ho Song

Stars:

Doona Bae, Sung-Jae Lee, Hee-Bong Byun

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Sung-Jae Lee	...	Yun-ju
Doona Bae	...	Hyeon-nam
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hee-Bong Byun	...	Janitor (as Hie-bong Byeon)
Su-hee Go	...	Jang-Mi
Ho-jung Kim	...	Eun-Sil Bae
Roe-ha Kim
Jeong-seon Seong

Storyline

The disconnections of urban life. Yun-ju is diffident, almost without affect; his wife is pregnant, and he's wonders if he should bribe the dean to secure a professorship. He's also bothered by a yapping dog that disturbs him in the large block of flats where he lives. Hyeon-nam is equally disengaged; she's a bookkeeper at same block of flats, animated only when she learns of a lost dog. Over the course of a few weeks, three dogs in the building go missing - Yun-ju and Hyeon-nam have a connection to each. So might a janitor. Is it a man-eat-dog world? Is there any cure for this ennui? Can anyone connect?

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | dog | bookkeeper | bribe | lost dog | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

19 February 2000 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Barking Dogs Never Bite

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, Cinema Service, Uno Film

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally the role of Yun-ju was designed for another actor who Joon-ho Bong was drawn to while working on the film Motel Cactus (1997). But when it came to shooting the film, the actor who Bong referred to as "P", disappeared completely and he ended up casting Sung-Jae Lee in the role.

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Connections

Referenced in Growing Up Fisher: Trust Fall (2014)

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Soundtracks

Barking Dogs Never Bite
Composed and performed by Cherry Filter

User Reviews

Bong Joon-ho's mordant debut feature retains a tongue-in-cheek sarcasm and poker-faced jocularity in its core

The disclaimer in the opening reassures us that no dogs are abused in the making of South Korean cinema kingpin Bong Joon-ho's mordant debut feature, however, in second-guessing, it also bears out Bong's tendency of tackling shocking subject matters as we are neither spared with the simulacrum of cute dogs (a Shih Tzu and a chihuahua, respectively) being hung by a rope or dropped dead from the roof of a building, nor a spine-tingling verbalized hearsay that paints a grisly picture in one's mind, told by Byun Hee-bong, a familiar face among Bong's filmography. Yet for all intents and purposes, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE retains a tongue-in-cheek sarcasm and poker-faced jocularity in its core. Ko Yun-ju (Lee Sung-jae) is a university docent who aspires for a professor position to secure his livelihood and earn respect from his henpecking pregnant wife Eun-sil (Kim Ho-jung), a barking dog dwelling in his cookie-cutter apartment building becomes his latest pet peeve, and he has (little) qualms to ascertain the yelping stops, although mistaken identify is par for the course and brings him in a close cat-and-mouse chase (executed with neat exuberance) with Park Hyun-nam (Doona), a valiant bookkeeper inadvertently witnesses his horrible act,

Granted, Yun-ju's casual animal cruelty can be construed as a desperate outlet for a shiftless man's smothered self-regard, and Bong's piquant societal critique of a young generation disoriented by acedia finds a contrasting light in Hyun-nam, who pulls her back into rescuing a kidnapped dog (with Bong's fantastical flourish accentuating her derring-do on the rooftop) which belongs to Eun-sil, and whose wet-behind-her-ear carriage induces a therapeutic affinity that gingers up Yun-ju's impasse and accelerates his mounting guilt, but Bong has no stomach for tacky romance, their paralleled paths only converge tentatively before life catches them up in their separated, designated routes. Under a semblance of inscrutability, the ending augurs well for Bong's directorial voyage, tempering its earthbound conformity with a soupçon of arch resignation, barking dogs might never bite, but Bong proves to be a quieter but more mischievous one with acumen of hitting some raw nerves when he sees fit.