someguy
02-03-2007, 01:16 PM
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/6148/201fg0.jpg
Dog Bite Dog (or Gau Ngao Gau) is Hong Kong's new crime thriller, and it's a pretty fun one up to a point (more on that later).
There are essentially two parts to the movie. The first part plays out like an episode of 24 Hong Kong style, taking place throughout one day. The day starts with a man (named Pang) killing a woman in a restaurant. Enter in Wai and his group of investigators. They arrest Pang, although three people were murdered in the process (including one of Wai's friends). Pang manages to escape, which pisses Wai off considering him and his father are being investigated by internal affairs, and since his father went into a coma he's being focused on the most. He decides to just drop it all and go after Pang, doing anything possible in the process.
Pang has his own story too, but I've already delved into plot details enough. The movie pretty much plays out like a regular crime/revenge film, but there are lots and lots of similarities to other movies/shows throughout. Let's see, there's 24, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a tiny bit of Woo/Kitano actioners, Running Scared (although that's just coincidence), Unleashed/Danny the Dog and a lot more. Luckily the movie doesn't manage to be constant retreads, it's still wholly original on its own (and ending #1 sets it apart from the ones I listed).
I'm definitely gonna give credit to Edison Chen right now though, he pretty much carried the film as Pang. The actor playing Wai played it straight for a while, but he began to act over the top on everything. I wanted to see a lot more of Pang, his story was much more interesting than the generic 'bad cop' tale. I didn't even recognize Chen as Amber Tamblyn's friend from The Grudge 2, he bought me on the role and I have to congratulate him for putting in the best performance of the cast.
So now I get into my main problem with the movie. As I said, there are two parts. The first part is around 90 minutes and follows one day where the police try to capture Pang. After that ends, I guess they decide to do an epilogue of some sort which lasts almost 20 minutes. I don't know why they did this, maybe audiences didn't like how there was no real conclusion for the characters and they went back to make one. It ends up turning into a bizarro 'Pursuit of Happyness,' with two poor people trying to overcome their bad life. It even has musical montage scenes for God's sake. Everything in this part was so out of place it overshadowed any problem I had in the cop thriller story. It does go back into action at the end, but they create one of the more depressing final frames I've seen in a while while quickly giving the main message of the movie.
The main problem with why this tacked on ending was so laughably awful is because the entire message of violence/vengeance being bad gets played after we just saw an hour and a half of a stylish ultraviolent action movie. It looked like the filmmakers were bashing themselves. At least the final 20 minutes made me appreciate the first 80 more, and I recommend everyone just turn off the movie once the cops/robbers story ends.
I can't hate the movie for the 'epilogue' though, because the main part is a really entertaining, gritty and great looking movie. I should mention the violence too, considering it's pretty nasty and brutal. There's a definite 'oh shit' moment when someone gets a giant piece of concrete slammed into their temple. If you're not a fan of violent stuff I'd recommend staying far away from this movie. I had problems with it here and there, like the girl subplot and the cops being idiots when it comes to apprehending Pang. I didn't mind them though, and compared to the clusterfuck last act they were hardly bad at all. If you just want it in one line, Dog Bite Dog works better being 84 minutes long and not 104.
6.5/10
Dog Bite Dog (or Gau Ngao Gau) is Hong Kong's new crime thriller, and it's a pretty fun one up to a point (more on that later).
There are essentially two parts to the movie. The first part plays out like an episode of 24 Hong Kong style, taking place throughout one day. The day starts with a man (named Pang) killing a woman in a restaurant. Enter in Wai and his group of investigators. They arrest Pang, although three people were murdered in the process (including one of Wai's friends). Pang manages to escape, which pisses Wai off considering him and his father are being investigated by internal affairs, and since his father went into a coma he's being focused on the most. He decides to just drop it all and go after Pang, doing anything possible in the process.
Pang has his own story too, but I've already delved into plot details enough. The movie pretty much plays out like a regular crime/revenge film, but there are lots and lots of similarities to other movies/shows throughout. Let's see, there's 24, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a tiny bit of Woo/Kitano actioners, Running Scared (although that's just coincidence), Unleashed/Danny the Dog and a lot more. Luckily the movie doesn't manage to be constant retreads, it's still wholly original on its own (and ending #1 sets it apart from the ones I listed).
I'm definitely gonna give credit to Edison Chen right now though, he pretty much carried the film as Pang. The actor playing Wai played it straight for a while, but he began to act over the top on everything. I wanted to see a lot more of Pang, his story was much more interesting than the generic 'bad cop' tale. I didn't even recognize Chen as Amber Tamblyn's friend from The Grudge 2, he bought me on the role and I have to congratulate him for putting in the best performance of the cast.
So now I get into my main problem with the movie. As I said, there are two parts. The first part is around 90 minutes and follows one day where the police try to capture Pang. After that ends, I guess they decide to do an epilogue of some sort which lasts almost 20 minutes. I don't know why they did this, maybe audiences didn't like how there was no real conclusion for the characters and they went back to make one. It ends up turning into a bizarro 'Pursuit of Happyness,' with two poor people trying to overcome their bad life. It even has musical montage scenes for God's sake. Everything in this part was so out of place it overshadowed any problem I had in the cop thriller story. It does go back into action at the end, but they create one of the more depressing final frames I've seen in a while while quickly giving the main message of the movie.
The main problem with why this tacked on ending was so laughably awful is because the entire message of violence/vengeance being bad gets played after we just saw an hour and a half of a stylish ultraviolent action movie. It looked like the filmmakers were bashing themselves. At least the final 20 minutes made me appreciate the first 80 more, and I recommend everyone just turn off the movie once the cops/robbers story ends.
I can't hate the movie for the 'epilogue' though, because the main part is a really entertaining, gritty and great looking movie. I should mention the violence too, considering it's pretty nasty and brutal. There's a definite 'oh shit' moment when someone gets a giant piece of concrete slammed into their temple. If you're not a fan of violent stuff I'd recommend staying far away from this movie. I had problems with it here and there, like the girl subplot and the cops being idiots when it comes to apprehending Pang. I didn't mind them though, and compared to the clusterfuck last act they were hardly bad at all. If you just want it in one line, Dog Bite Dog works better being 84 minutes long and not 104.
6.5/10