No matter how awful your week is going, take a moment to be grateful that you aren’t in the middle of a bloody conflict with a man going by the name Butcher Hu who sells snake venom. However, not everyone is as fortunate as we are.
After being released from prison, Lang (Eddie Peng) has undergone a transformation. You would never believe that he was formerly a well-liked performer who performed rock music and rode motorcycles in the neighbourhood circus, given his callused emotions and deliberate silence. However, upon departing from the establishment and arriving back at his tiny birthplace in the Gobi Desert of China, he finds nothing but negative energy awaiting him. His village is plagued with rabid dogs, his father is drinking himself to death at the local zoo, and his neighbours are angry with him for what they see to be crimes and believe his popularity let him off easy. To exacerbate the situation, the kebab and snake meat tycoon in the area is prepared to unleash his henchmen on Lang and his family as payback for past transgressions.
This is how “Black Dog,” Guan Hu’s story of redemption set in a desert, opens. It combines a romantic idea that occasionally a decent dog may make all the difference in the world with a pulpy drive for vengeance. Lang falls victim to the classic neo-noir protagonist fallacy, believing that if he just keeps his head down and mouth quiet while he forges a new life, the ghosts of his past would go away. Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he accepts a position on a team charged with gathering up all stray dogs. This is an arduous duty made more difficult by the town’s phobia of a black dog that is thought to be rabid. Despite the fact that everyone has been told to avoid the hazardous animal at all costs, Lang chooses to ignore the warnings and become friends with it because of a mix of sympathy for an outsider and contrarian impulses. Let’s just say that turns out to be a smart decision when his surroundings begin to close in on him.
It’s been clearer in recent years that allocating government resources to the massive construction projects needed to host an Olympics is rarely in the best interests of the majority of the populace. Maybe this explains why so many of the most recent games have taken place in autocratic nations, where it is simpler to advance large-scale projects without the annoying will of the populace getting in the way due to political corruption. “Black Dog” tackles head-on the conflict between China’s intense pride in hosting the 2008 Olympics, which many saw as a coming-out party for a once-authoritarian country that had made the decision it was ready to join the West, and the cost of hosting the extravagant event for its own people.
The backdrop of “Black Dog,” which takes place in the shadow of the Olympics and follows the lives of those displaced by the pomp in a state of quiet desperation, turns into its finest feature. Guan creates a world of fading neon signs, snake meat stalls, and roadside circuses out of the limited backdrop, giving evil plenty of places to hide in the desert. With the passage of time, a group of mechanics, carnies, alcoholics, and other misfits with secrets slowly start to appear from the seemingly deserted town. Among them is Jia Zhangke, who makes a particularly notable supporting role. Peng has the ideal setting for his silent wanderer performance amid the harsh surroundings, which are reminiscent of both Westerns and film noir. What is ultimately a straightforward man-and-his-dog story is ironically complemented by that noir-like intensity, but Peng’s compelling camera presence acts as the glue that pulls everything together into a cohesive narrative of redemption in the most unlikely of locations.
Even though the storyline eventually runs out of steam and looks like it might go crazy, Guan’s superb visual direction keeps “Black Dog” engaging throughout. The film’s director exhibits a good sense for framing the desert landscape, and several of the action scenes are choreographed with Jacques Tati-esque geometrically intricate density. As the two lost souls try to stitch together something approaching a new life, “Black Dog” deftly switches between dark comedy and hardboiled crime.
Depending on your point of view, “Black Dog” is either the most wholesome neo-noir film in a long time or the most savagely wicked feel-good animal film in recent memory. Even though Lang’s story does not have the most happy conclusion possible, we may still learn that even in the deepest abysses of corruption, there can be hope for redemption because of the faint light beams that start to appear on Peng’s face.
