Dog Bite Dog

B

Directed by Pou Soi Cheang

Brutal and relentlessly intense, Pou Soi Cheang's "Dog Bite Dog" is a bucket of cold water to the faces of movie viewers expecting a run of the mill "Infernal Affairs" knock off. The dark undercurrents of Pou's blood soaked thriller contribute in making "Dog Bite Dog" a mostly solid and compelling film that would have been excellent had its final ten minutes been left on the cutting room floor.

Pang, a hit man from Thailand (played with surprising aplomb by Edisen Chen), sees his attempt at a rapid and complication free hit foiled when a local crew of Hong Kong cops pick up his scent and start pursuing him throughout the city. Cornered, Pang commits a series of brutal murders which spark a massive manhunt led by detective Wai (Sam Lee, intense), a ruthless cop with a bent towards violent confrontations. While on the lam, Pang saves a young girl living with her abusive father in a landfill on the outskirts of town and the two take off together, hoping to flee the long arm of Hong Kong's law.

"Dog Bite Dog" was marketed by Dragon Dynasty as a no holds barred, Hong Kong action flick in the mold of "Hard Boiled." This, it certainly is not. Rather, "Dog Bite Dog" is a brutal, relentless and at times jarring psychological survey of the numbing effects of violence. There is action to be seen for sure, but it largely manifests itself in short, ugly bursts that are shocking and at times disturbing more so than exciting or titillating. Pou's use of violence is never gratuitous (save perhaps for the film's final scene) and is never glamorized and violence is never shown as particularly useful or necessary. The point of the violence in "Dog Bite Dog", in essence, is to appears in essence to highlight its ultimate uselessness and destructive capabilities, a lesson that appears to have flown right past many critics and viewers who watched "Dog Bite Dog" and saw in it nothing more than wanton bloodletting and nihilistic undertones.
I have a special degree of hate that I reserve specifically for films that are purely misanthropic in their message. Although I understand that life can be filled with relentless ugliness, it nonetheless remains that entirely nihilistic and negative portrayals of humanity are most often at odds with reality and put to the screen by individuals who simply love to watch their characters suffer. Everything I had read about "Dog Bite Dog" led me to believe that Pou was this type of director and I approached the film with a serious degree of apprehension. Despite my skepticism, however, and despite the fact that "Dog Bite Dog" is relentless, brutal, and for the most part quite depressing, Pu nonetheless infuses his film with enough hope and enough empathy for some of his characters, especially Edison Chen and Wiying Pei's characters, that calling "Dog Bite Dog" nihilistic or hopeless, as some have suggested, completely misses the point. The tragic end of the film overshadows the fact that Pang and Pei have, despite their respectively horrible pasts, found a measure of happiness even through it is ultimately fleeting. Pou doesn't acquiesce to a happy ending but he doesn't simply beat his audience into a sullen submission either by bombarding the screen with negativity.
The film's strong message is significantly weakened by a third act that attempts to be theatrical but simply comes off as ham fisted, a disappointing choice from Pou who up to that point had crafted a fairly solid piece. The final act almost appears as if it were tacked on by Pou in lieu of the happier ending that not only would have benefited the film more as a whole but also would have been much more believable. The disappointing finale doesn't succeed in completely derailing the film and "Dog Bite Dog" remains an interesting film that is worth watching, especially for those who think that Hong Kong cinema has lost its edge.