【转贴】《绑架门口狗》——Collected English Reviews

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:07

相关连结之主题整理：
http://www.krdrama.com/bbs/viewt ... gr6dETjS#pid1125301

http://www.subwaycinema.com/fram ... movies/barking1.gif

A low-ranking university lecturer (Lee Sung-jae), strained by the pressures of money and his wife's pregnancy, snaps one night at the incessant barking of a neighbor's puppy. After seizing the dog and exacting a cruel revenge, he nonetheless fails to secure the peace and quiet he so desires. Meanwhile, an employee at the apartment office (Bae Doo-na) receives a notice from a young girl about her missing dog...

Barking Dogs Never Bite is hard to characterize: part comedy and part cruel social satire, the film is spiced with scenes and characters which seem unique to the film of Korea, or perhaps any country. The film neither looks nor feels like an art film, and yet on closer viewing, the aesthetic it creates is both complex and extremely well-executed.

Part of what makes this film stand out is its characterization. The women characters, for one, contrast sharply with the naive, pretty image that dominates Korean film. Our male lead arouses both sympathy and horror in turn, leaving the viewer unsure of whether to identify with him. Characters like the janitor, with his penchant for Korean dog soup, also leave an unforgettable impression.

My favorite part of this film, though, are the small details scattered throughout: an erratic jazz soundtrack; the predominance of the color yellow; rolling pears; abrupt cuts to airplanes or imaginary cheering crowds; a dispute resolved by a roll of toilet paper; and the hauntingly-narrated tale of "Boiler Kim."

The strength of this, Bong Joon-ho's debut feature, was foreshadowed in 1995 by his amazing short film Incoherence, in which a series of professors are caught in shameful acts unbecoming of their status. Incidentally, here too we see a searing indictment of academia, where rampant drinking parties predominate, and bribery remains the only path to a promotion.

Every time I watch this movie I'm impressed more and more. With so many films made all over the world, it's become rare to find a work that feels like it's writing its own rules. Nowhere to Hide (1999) was one such film, with its wild visuals and stripped narrative. In a much more subtle way, Barking Dogs Never Bite may stake a similar claim. (Darcy Paquet)

koreanfilm.org

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-8-13 at 04:30 AM ]

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:10

Directed by: Bong Jun-Ho
Starring: Lee Sung-Jae, Bae Doo-Na

106 minutes, 35mm
in Korean with English subtitles

"Beneath the mix of daily routines, ghost stories, deluded characters and pet rescues lurks a social analysis as savage as anything in Pasolini. But I don't recall Pasolini ever being as droll as this."
-Vancouver International Film Festival

Personal Note:

When we at Subway Cinema write these blurbs and reviews we try to figure out an angle that we'll use to market the movie and attract the widest possible audience. We try to choose words that appeal to any number of people, and we eliminate opinions that will alienate potential viewers.

I can't do that for this movie.

This is my favorite movie in this festival, and I don't know how to market it, and I suppose that makes me a bad person, but sometimes if a movie's good enough do you have to market it? Does it all have to be boiled down to a sound bite?

http://www.subwaycinema.com/fram ... movies/barking2.gif

Because BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE can't be boiled down, and that's what makes it great. Set in a LOGAN'S RUN apartment complex stuck out in the suburban boonies this movie is a rallying cry for all of us humanoids. Humanoids - human beings beat down by dead end jobs, living in maximum security apartment blocks, isolated from everything good, exposed to everything bad, paid just enough to put food in our mouths so we can show up for work the next day, but never enough to actually get anywhere, we're complacent, placid, easily manipulated and, as long as we punch the clock, we're nothing to be afraid of.

But sometimes a humanoid will go off the rails, and that's when everyone needs to find some cover.

Marketing robots can't figure out what to do with a movie this contradictory: a repulsively funny, horribly beautiful, hilariously human, nastily sweet, thrillingly pathetic orgasm of all the worst and best things you've ever done. It's a comedy, but when you laugh you're laughing at something real, not an empty pratfall. You're watching other humanoids scamper about onscreen, trying to sort out their messy, mixed-up humanoid lives and failing, just like humanoids everywhere.

There's Bae Doo-Na, a female member of an apartment building's custodial staff who yearns to do something brave, but is terminally lazy. Crowned with a bad haircut, she lounges around her friend's convenience store, avoiding work and dreaming of fighting robbers. Stuck in suburban hell, the airless days pass and she's caught trying to expend the minimum amount of energy to keep her boss off her back, while trying to stay entertained. Drinking, goofing off, taking naps, it all blurs into one, long, stifling afternoon. The other side of the apartment complex is dominated by Lee Sung-Jae, a part-time lecturer whose pregnant wife brings home the paycheck while he struggles to find some kind of employment that'll use the big old brain he just spent thousands of dollars getting a degree for. Trapped in his apartment, he's slowly driven berserk by the incessant barking of a tiny yip dog that someone has stashed in their apartment, in direct violation of the building's "No Dogs" policy.

http://www.subwaycinema.com/fram ... movies/barking3.gif

By the end of the movie one of these characters has lost their job, and one of them has lost their soul, but before they get to that point they must confront the ghostly tale of Boiler Kim, the mysteries of the length of toilet paper, the number of cracked walnuts that can fit into a glass, lost dogs, good stew, the price of binoculars, and dog-napping of the highest order.

I don't have words to do justice to this movie. Watching it with an audience and hearing genuine laughter break out after seeing so many movies where the audience is expected to be just a laugh track, demurely guffawing at lame onscreen antics, is like a restorative for your soul. BARKING DOGS is a tonic, a hair ointment, a moisturizer, a can opener, a comedy, a tragedy, it's AMERICAN BEAUTY on laughing gas, it's everything you've ever wanted from a movie but were afraid to ask. One of the few independent movies from Korea, and the director's first film, this is a movie that would more than live up to its hype, if anyone who watched it knew how to hype it. But I'm disarmed when faced with a movie this good. I don't know what more to say than: in every sense of the word, this is one of the best movies you'll ever see.

Awards:
Winner, Best Editing, Slamdance Film Festival 2000.
Winner, Best New Actress, Bae Doo-Na, 21st Chongryong Awards, Korea.
Co-Winner, International Film Critics Federation Award for Young Asian Cinema, 25th Hong Kong International Film Festival.

http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/archives/kfest2001/barking.htm

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-8-13 at 02:34 AM ]

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:13

Michael Kerpan (kerpan)
New England

Date: 19 May 2003
Summary: A comic masterpiece (but dog lovers beware)

Flandersui gae a/k/a Barking Dogs Never Bite (BONG Joon-ho, 2000)

Perhaps the funniest movies I've seen since "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". The first thing one sees in this film, before even the credits is the reassurance "No animals were harmed in making this film" -- and the warning is needed -- at least for dog lovers or overly-sensitive souls.

The movie tells the tale of a would-be professor (LEE Sung-jae), currently laid off until he can bribe his way into a permanent appointment, who grows increasingly fed up about yippy dogs in his rather down-scale apartment mega-complex. He decides to "do something about this" -- which leads to a chain of increasingly disastrous events. THEN, his soon-to-deliver spouse buys a poodle of her own -- which he proceeds to lose. While desperately searching for his wife's dog, he runs across a helper (BAE Doo-na) -- who is looking for the culprit who has caused other neighborhood dogs to disappear.

Despite my vast affection for dogs, the "robust" dog-related humor of this film was nonetheless hilarious. The performances of both leads are first-rate (and I would rate BAE Doo-na's gifts as a physical comedian as being in the league of Lucille Ball). Even so, BYUN Hee-bong, a janitor with a very "special" affection for dogs (at least for one specific purpose), practically steals the show. Indeed, at one point he literally STOPS the show -- as he takes five or so minutes to recount (leisurely) the tale of a ghostly master boiler repairman.

The direction and cinematography are as superb as the comic acting and story and dialog. Surprisingly, the film ends on a morally uplifting (non-sappy, non-hackneyed) note -- as forgiveness is delivered with a lost shoe. If I gave ratings, this would get a 10+.

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calculo
Belgium

Date: 13 February 2003
Summary: Interesting to sea how the Koreans live

Joon-ho Bong made this movie as an attempt to give his vision about Korean society. You see the enormous buildings which are just like military barracks and you think at the movie of Mike Leigh "All or Nothing (2002)". The difference is that the South-Koreans find it normal to live in such an environment and they even are shocked to find out that somebody is living in the basement-flat and is eating dogs (?). They sometimes adventure themselves on the roof where they find out that some people are doing strange things there... This movie is a smart comedy but it is not a Korean masterpiece. Therefore the surroundings, the acting is not enough imaginative. Or perhaps this whole society is so boring that the movies you make about it cannot satisfy the people living in the big Western cities. The idea that somebody is collecting dogs from the street to eat them is frightening for everybody no matter where he lives and so the director brought us in a sympathetic way an universal subject with the necessary humour and self-relativity.

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William Ross
Washington, D.C.

Date: 3 November 2001
Summary: I almost skipped this one because of the comments above...

and that would have been a real shame. This movie was thoroughly enjoyable. I think this would make an excellent introduction to Korean cinema because it was MY introduction to korean cinema and I didn't find it inaccessible in any way.

It was not as gruesome or hard to stomach as I was expecting, nor was it really as dark as mentioned above. If you could sit through Fargo, you could certainly sit through and really enjoy this film.

To say it does not have many jokes misses the point, because some of the situations that characters find themselves are quite hilarious--especially the chase scenes. The acting and directing are excellent. If you get a chance to catch "Barking Dogs Never Bite" don't miss it.

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theorbys
new york city

Date: 24 August 2001
Summary: A ten plus comedy noir about zero sum lives

This is something of a rarity, a indie Korean film. It's also Joon-ho Bong's directorial debut. It's brilliant. Slow, but impeccably paced and broadly intermixed with multiple levels of wonderful comedy, acting, atmosphere (a kind of existential (and cement) wasteland), and directing. Be warned. Pet lovers are going to be shocked, and maybe outraged. But really, don't take this too literally, Joon-ho Bong knows he is playing with your sensibilities and he knows that you know it (or you should know it by now, if you have been watching film, tv, and advertising for your entire life). This is real cinematic virtuosity.

The promotion for this film compared it to American Beauty and that was a somewhat surprising but very apt comparison. American Beauty would be a fine double bill with this. But, if you have not seen any other Korean films you should give some a try. I saw this as part of a festival with JSA (Joint Security Area), The Isle and some others, but those two were very good and would also be good for a double bill. A little farther afield might be Tsai Ming Liang's the HOLE, or even farther, (and certainly not for the fainthearted) Go Go Second Time Virgin by Kosi Wakamatsu. Both intense looks at life in barren modern times and barren apartment complexes.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0269743/usercomments

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-8-13 at 03:27 AM ]

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:17

Review by Alison Jobling

You can guess by the synopsis that this is a difficult film to write about: it wriggles about like a live thing, refusing to be pinned down by genre, plot, or style. And that alone makes it interesting. Add in a simple yet unusual plot, a ghost story, realistic characters played ably by a talented cast, and you've got a fine film.

First, though, I must make a confession: it took me three sessions to get through this film. Yes, three. Count 'em. The reason for this was an aspect of the film that might put you off altogether: there's a strong sub-plot of cruelty to animals. Dogs, in fact. And while I'm more of a cat person, I still get quite unhappy at the thought of those innocent critters being supposedly hurled from rooftops (for example). A disclaimer states that no dogs were harmed during the making of the film, but it still looks real enough to disturb me. If you're less of a sook than I am, this won't bother you in the least.

Anyway, back to the story: we have Lee as Yoon-Ju, a rather introverted part-time lecturer, striving to find sufficient funds for a bribe to gain him a lecturing position, and Bae as Hyun-Nam, a rather dreamy accountant. Hyun-Nam works in the office of the managers for a large apartment complex in suburban Seoul, which complex contains the apartment where Yoon-Ju lives with his pregnant wife. Yoon-Ju dreams of being a lecturer, a dream interrupted by the barking of the weeny dog, while Hyun-Nam dreams of performing some heroic act that will get her on TV.

Now I have to say that the highlight of this film must be Bae Doo-Na, recently spotted in Take Care of my Cat at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. She invests her character with all the attributes necessary to make her credible, and manages to be incredibly funny (in a very odd sense), without straying into the realm of comedy. Sounds odd? Okay, let me explain, using a scene for illustration.

There's a scene where Hyun-Nam spots the mysterious dog-napper throwing a pooch off the roof of a neighbouring building. She becomes fired with passionate fervour, and races over to the building to confront the evil-doer. We see her leaving the lift, girding her limbs for battle by pulling her hood over her head and pulling the cords tight. Sounds ho-hum? Yep, but you really have to see it to appreciate what this girl can do: she is Everyman (or -woman) on a mission, she's the avenging angel in a yellow tracky top. In that one scene, she manages to encapsulate all our half-formed dreams, and all our little silliness.

The supporting cast also carry their roles with conviction, especially Hyun-Nam's friend, who's played by the same girl who played the fat ghost in Ghost In Love (sorry, can't find the name). But for me, this is Bae's film by a long chalk. A challenging film, not always comfortable, but filled with interest and talent and an experience you'll never forget.

8.5 weeny dogs out of 10

http://www.heroic-cinema.com/review.php?ID=barking

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-8-13 at 03:26 AM ]

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:20

Barking Dogs centres around two occupants in the same set of apartment buildings, both of whom desperately want to escape their surroundings. One is Yun-ju (Lee Sung-jae, Attack The Gas Station), a part time college lecturer with aspirations of becoming a professor with his own department. The other is Hyeon-Nam (Bae Du-na), a secretary in the super indendant's office she spends her spare time getting mashed with her best friend in the local shop (which fortunately rarely has any customers), daydreaming of becoming famous.

Yun-ju spends most of his time in the apartment, being driven crazy by the yapping of a small dog in a flat nearby. His relationship top his very pregnant wife becoming increasingly strained. One day he decides to take out his frustrations on the animal, finding it and locking it away in the buildings basement. Only it's not the right dog. In fact, it can't even bark. Yun-ju realises his mistake too late, the dog has already become victim to the janitor with a taste for dog stew.

Still bothered by the barking, Yun-ju decides to get it right, only this time he's witnessed by Hyeon-Nam throwing the dog off the roof of an adjacent apartment building. Could this be her chance for 15 minutes of fame, if she can be the hero and catch the dog murderer?

With Korean movies, perhaps more than with other Asian countries, it's the similarities rather than the differences which surprise. The films themes have much in common with 'slacker generation' movies from the states like Trees Lounge and Ghost World. It also has much in common with Mike Leigh's films, not only in its social commentary but the full blooded way each character is portrayed. Not just the leads but each cast member is a real three dimensional character - due a great script by director Bong Joon-ho, Song Ji-ho and Tae-woong Derek Son, and also a wonderful ensemble cast. Meaning the dramatic edge can be played with as conviction as the comedy, again much like Leigh.

Not that Bong Joon-ho lets the story get in the way of style. Together with cinematographers Cho Yong-kyou and Jo Yeong-gyu, Bong films quirkily and imaginatively, playing much of the humour from a distance and more quietly, rather than in broad in your face farce (much like the other recent great Korean comedy, The Foul King) - and ultimately it's funnier.

A great, thoughtful comedy. Even if you're a dog lover!

http://www.easternkicks.com/films/barkingdogs3.htm

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:22

Tragi-comic study about loneliness, in which two people who have nothing to do keep themselves busy, one kidnapping the other finding dogs in their district. Bizarre developments represented as commonplace.

Barking dogs don't bite, but they severely irritate the young university lecturer Yoon-Ju. He spends a lot of time in his apartment, in a quiet high-rise district, that he shares with his pregnant wife. He has plenty of time to allow the background noise to annoy him. When he sees an old lady taking a dog for a walk, he is sure that this is the animal that annoys him so. He manages to kidnap the beast and locks it in the cellar of the apartment building. Some way off lives Hyun-Nam, who works as secretary at the local housing association. Hyun-Nam is bored stiff. Nothing happens in her life. When she sees a little girl in the area putting up a poster about her missing dog, she decides to help. She is sticking up posters everywhere, but more and more dogs disappear in the following days. One day through her binoculars she sees a man throw a dog from a block of flats across the road. Barking Dogs Never Bite is a tragi-comedy in which the novice director - one of the great talents of Korean cinema which is already having a very good year - manages to present bizarre developments as mundane. This precise and tranquil study about loneliness and communication problems turns out to be funny and, thanks to the inventive approach occasionally reminiscent of Manga films, is a joy to watch.
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/film/6423.html

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:29

Reviewed by Rebort

THIS twisted social comedy is an accomplished debut feature from young South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho. On the surface there is not much of story, but the film works as a drily amusing human interest comedy.

An indolent university lecturer, lying in his apartment weighing up how he will find the money to bribe his way into a professorship, is driven to distraction by a yapping dog somewhere in his block. In a fit of anger he takes extreme action to deal with his tormentor, an action that will come to haunt him.

The rest of the characters in this doggie drama fall into two camps, although their lives become intertwined: there are those that love dogs and those who don't. A kind-hearted girl at the local shop and the lecturer's pregnant wife, who buys a poodle after being laid off work, are among the dog-sympathetic, while on the other side of the fence is an old janitor who sneaks into the basement to furtively cook up stews made from unfortunate pets.

Bong Joon-Ho doesn't rush the telling of his story, but the barbed humour is intelligent and he has a good command of the cinematic medium. Particularly striking is just how good the film looks in terms of its composition and aesthetic. An enjoyable piece of world cinema.
http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/b/barking_dogs_never_bite_2000.shtml

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 02:51

Asian Cinema Thrives
- Why is Korea so powerful?

登录/注册后可看大图

Korean cinema. It is the most powerful film industry in today's Asia, but what changes have made it so? This forum looked for answers to this question behind the scene in Korea as well as looking at the present situations both of Philippine cinema, a continuously prosperous industry, and Mongolia's endangered filmmaking, in order to examine how Asian films stand out today. The guests were Bong Joon-Ho (director) and Cho Yong-Gyu (cinematographer), both from the Korean film, Barking Dogs Never Bite, T. Sarantuya (director) of the Mongolian A Vanishing Trade, and Rory B. Quintos (director) of Child from the Philippines. The Film Festival Director General Tadao Sato joined as the forum coordinator.
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http://www.focus-on-asia.com/e/r ... es/bong_joon-ho.jpg

Director Bong Joon-Ho
(BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE, Korea)

In Korea, there are now so many directors that belong to young generation like me as well as young investors and producers who are engaged in planning with very progressive ideas. And there are producers who serve as the go-between with investors for this kind of film that is eccentric, odd, small scale, and unlikely to prospect for investment. In my case as well, a producer who had placed trust in me since the time when I was making short films, helped me to realise this film. To give you more detail, this small film was given investment together with a much larger production that was being worked on at the same production company because the investor judged the bigger film would cover cost of the smaller one.

Young-minded producers have multiplied since the early 1990s - they wanted to work with rather younger directors of their generation relishing their fresher sensibilities than veteran filmmakers. Also, there was a kind of movement from the late '80s to the early '90s, places for film study such as film schools, film circles at universities, and sorts of school called cinematheque that were open to the public in towns, were on the increase. So, we've come to have younger producers and younger directors. I don't know myself why so many young people just rushed into the film world around that time regardless of risks.
In Korea, many film courses have actually been set up at universities and colleges and it's now competitive for students to enter. However, I don't think the film industry is capable of absorbing so many potential filmmakers even though it's getting more successful. Nevertheless, those who fail to enter the regular college film courses still study films in their own circles and may end up making short films on their own. It's another mystery what drives them to be enthusiastic.

With short films, there are chances to get subsidised by the government or some organisations if the script is judged as excellent, and to be shown at short film festivals or on cable television. Compared to the situation of about six years ago when I was doing short films, they are produced more actively and enjoy more opportunities to be shown to a much wider audience.
Out of the variety of types of films that Korea has, I recognise many young generation directors want to challenge the world they want to express even though their films might not always appeal to the masses. There are also many young directors struggling between popular appeal and art in order to create new type of film. For example, Shiri was excellent entertainment that demonstrated this clear category with melodramatic elements. Joint Security Area was a perfect, mass-provoking movie. It may be saying it too simply but Joint Security Area was successful in terms of both popularity and art, and symbolises the direction in which Korean cinema is going.

Barking Dogs Never Bite is my first feature film. I was challenged to include my own world, my taste, and my personal ideas that I had wanted to depict in my short films before. Since I thought it was the best way to depict people's daily lives not to lose my colour or individuality, episodes and characters in the film are based on my own experiences. That is probably why the film has become very weird with too many personal colours, and eventually less appeal to the audience. Yet by leaving large-scale works to other directors, I hope to make films that cannot be made by anyone but myself.

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Cho Yong-Gyu
Cinematographer of BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE, Korea)

I took part as cinematographer in six films including Barking Dogs Never Bite, Bad Movie, and Art Museum by the Zoo. They were all films with the exclusion of Bad Movie, in which the director was making their debut. It's probably been three or four years now since half of the productions made in a single year involved debuts by young directors.

I heard that Bad Movie had fewer troubles in the process of planning as the director, Jang Sun-Woo, was one of the directors who formed backbone of Korean cinema and had a long experience. In the case of this Barking Dogs Never Bite, we had to spend time waiting for the investor's final decision because it didn't look like drawing many audiences or give any expectation of being a commercial hit. It also took time to cast; it's a big issue to cast leading characters in Korea.

Yet I think producers, as a matter of fact, count more on up-and-coming young directors rather than on those with more experience.

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Tadao Sato
(Festival Director General,Japan)

It is already common sense that good films exist everywhere in Asia, but as a matter of fact, their golden era came to an end more than 20 or 30 years ago. Despite good world reputation, countries who used to be proud of producing 100 to 200 films a year, now only make ten films. This is because it's getting more difficult to show films to an audience which is threatened by such rivals as television, video, DVD, and piracy that have taken away many people from cinema houses. Of course, it depends on the country - India still has the largest number of productions in the world, and cinema still rules over the Philippines as the most popular form of entertainment and keeps its position as the second largest producer in Asia. On the other hand, however, Mongolia who produced about ten films a year under the socialist regime, is now reconciled to making video films only.

The economic stability of the industry enables a quality story to be made into a fine entertainment which can be enjoyed by a large number of audiences, like in Korea and the Philippines. However, when cinema has some power as an industry from high box-office figures, directors are forced into a hard position in that they cannot make films of their own free choice. It means that companies and producers know pretty well what kind of film will be profitable so that they try to squeeze all their new films into that frame. It's actually happened to the Japanese cinema during its golden age. At present, Japanese cinema is completely divided into mass appeal film and art film. So, the shape of the industry decides the distance between the quality and the commerciality of film.
What made us take Korean cinema so seriously today is that it's quickly become the most energetic production country in Asia over the last two years, probably since the film hit of Shiri. It seems strange given the situation reported just before this phenomenon that Korean film was on the verge of a crisis. It's obvious why films like Shiri and Joint Security Area that are theme-oriented, gorgeous both in content and expression in a sense, got investment. However, how about Barking Dogs Never Bite that you've just watched here? No one could tell this would be such an interesting film when it was at the screenplay stage, and besides, it was the very first feature for the director. Who invested in this film? It's amazing from the Japanese point of view to see someone pour money into such a delicate, sophisticated film with sensitive detail that is apparently so different from old Korean films.

I think there's been a kind of landslide generation shift in Korean cinema; it's not a mere change in the generations itself but some drastic development in the air of the society or people's way of thinking.

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http://www.focus-on-asia.com/e/report/2001/Thrives-E.html

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-8-13 at 02:56 AM ]

阿韩 · 发表于 2004-8-13 04:32

导演访谈：
http://www.filmfestivals.com/pix ... ix/bongjoon-ho2.jpg
Filmfestivals.com met up with Boon Joon-Ho at San Sebastian where he presented his feature debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite, which is being screened this month at Chicago and next month at the London Film Festival. As recreational and "manga-like" as it may be (it's certainly not "dog-matic"), Barking Dogs Never Bite nevertheless leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, and testifies to Bong Joon-ho's keen insight into our dog-eat-dog world.

What was the first image that motivated you to make this film?

When I was a kid, maybe eleven years old, I lived in an apartment, just like in the film, and then one day I discovered the corpse of that dog... From then on, I was curious to know who killed that dog or whatever. So I think this is the first image that motivated me...

How deep did you want to peer into Korean society through the script?

I think the description of daily life is of course the surface of the film, but it was not my original intention in making the film. It goes from small happenings in daily life to something very twisted, and then it switches to the grotesque. So daily life was one of the materials to develop my story that way. But I think the grotesque reveals the human. So the film is a kind of circulation between the daily life and the grotesque. It's only when I finalized the details of each character that I could see the social and political issues arise.

Would you say that when the character throws the dog from the roof, he not only throws the dog, he throws himself as well?

Sure, and besides that, in my films, the men get very hysterical! I think, you know, a barking dog is no big thing for a normal man, but what I like to describe with the character of Yoon-ju is the way he collapses, because he has nothing to do, because he gets "kicked" by his wife. I think this kind of character stems from self-repulsion.

Although your film is rooted to some extent in social observation, the look of it is definitely surreal...

You've got a point there, because when we started shooting, everybody was very young, the cinematographer is very young, and our slogan was: "let's make the most detailed daily life material change into the most surreal images." So we really tried to apply this slogan to the mise en scene, the apartment space, the colours, and the camera movements.

Bae Doo-na is a very beautiful young woman. But in the film you make her look very mundane, dishevelled, with no make-up... Was it funny to make her look like that?

You're right (laughs). Many actresses in Korea hate to wear no make up, they want to look shiny! But Doo-nae was great because she had no desire to show off, rather she really threw herself into the character, so I'm really satisfied with her.You know, some of the actresses in Korea even want to have make-up when they are shooting the sleeping scenes. (smiles)

OK, but in Barking Dogs, we don't even see Doo-nae sleep in a proper room, she's always in a kind of shambles, fighting for space (Bong Joon-ho laughs)... Anyway, if she doesn't shine with the make-up, we may say that she shines through the emotions, she's such a kind character. Did you want to show that kind of young woman, caring for people, caring for her neighbours?

Well, I can't say that I actually took the character of Doo-nae from reality. Rather, it is the kind of human person that I really wanted to see in the film. She's simple, pure, even naive, gets cheated, so it made a very interesting contrast to Lee Sung-jae's character. But though the character stemmed from my own desire, I made several interviews with girls doing office work, so as to get a lot of details.

One of the great scenes of the film is that horror tale in the basement, with an almost "urban legend" atmosphere...

Actually, for me that was one of my best sequences (smiles). I was very afraid of it, because it contains a long monologue. I was also afraid of the subtitling problems! The actor who plays the janitor is very well-known, he has a thirty-year TV and film career. I think the core element of that kind of urban legend thing is the fear that Yoon-ju feels about the world. He wants to be a professor, but he has to compromise with the lobby and money thing.

Barking Dogs is an independent movie. But the fact that you co-wrote Phantom the Submarine might point to your desire to go into mainstream movies...

(laughs) Yes, the production of this film was one of the biggest in Korea. But I did not play a major part in the development of this project. My friend had a bigger role as a scriptwriter. Regarding my ambition for the big film, I'm not that kind of person at all. Rather, I can say I'm making films for a living! (laughs) Also, I would like to point out that my film is not an independent film, rather it's a low budget film financed by a big company (Cinema City Service).

Many things have changed in Korea since the first non-military government in 1993. How did you live through these changes as a Korean citizen?

The evolution of the political situation opened a new field of cultural possibilities. But I think that kind of change is a bit slow, one by one, in terms of censorship problems, restrictions, and so on. It always has been going slowly. Under the separation situation, I couldn't see any revolutionary change, because of the stress and pressure brought by the separation structures so it will be difficult to get out of this situation easily.

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