Black Dog (2024) Film Review
Black Dog is an impressive and unexpected film experience. At a first glimpse, it’s the story of a lonely man who connects with a black dog, arguably a mistaken symbol of evil in pop culture. Just like black dogs, Lang is socially isolated from society, and he connects with a poor creature that’s also being hunted down because of greedy industrialism. They bond. End of story.
But the film also makes a great counterpoint to a Chinese “legend” of some sort. On this side of the planet, dogs are not seen as furry pets. They’re sometimes seen as product. Almost like vegetables that you can grab and eat, or you can let them rot. In Black Dog, Lang witnesses a city trying to get rid of stray dogs in time for the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008. Lang hates one dog more than anything, the one that angrily bit him, but the creature connects with his broken spirit.
Still, it doesn’t happen quickly. Black Dog takes its time to really begin its story. Director Guan Hu is not in a rush to begin what could ultimately be a film not everyone connects with. When Lang is restarting his life in a system that doesn’t recognize him as a rehabilitated man, he attempts to smile, but this is forbidden. A great presentation of what he feels after he leaves prison. When he finds comfort in the company of the dog, the film could easily portray their relationship as ideal, and flow into a Hollywood-esque resolution. But the film, again, takes its time without rushing into things.
The plot is very simple. Lang is trying to reinsert himself into society. It’s not easy since he’s still regarded as a pariah, and his father’s presence in the community is a burden he has to face and somehow deal with. His town is derelict and not welcoming. It feels everything but fertile. All Lang can do is seek the companion of a creature whose primal instinct is to attack. Slowly, he convinces the dog and himself that life can respawn in the driest of places. All you need is love, understanding, and getting rid of a train of thought that sees dogs as disposable things.One of the best aspects in Black Dog is its resonating cinematography. There’s a reason why Lang still feels trapped in the beginning even though he’s out of prison. The movie opens in a wasteland where direction is theoretical. Yet Lang walks… somewhere. The use of specific lenses is not based on random decisions to make the film look pretty. The geographics in Black Dog follow an idea of a world reborn, and Lang is the protagonist of whatever’s coming for him, because he’s no longer under the control of his past. Hu cleverly uses space as yet another factor clouding over Lang’s refreshed mindset. Everything’s deserted, deep and high. It all works to give the viewer an impression that Lang has arrived somewhere new, a wasteland where everyone had their chance and no one took it.
Black Dog ends on a bizarrely high note that perhaps not many will connect with. One of its last sequences shows our species in complete awe as something astronomical takes place in the aftermath of Lang losing his best friend. But in this renewal of life, a new cycle, new relationships stem. A dog gives birth, and Pink Floyd’s Mother gives a new meaning to the word “legacy.”
Last, but certainly not least: the dog’s work in the film surpasses all expectations. You will fall in love with the furry creature.
