Bong Joon Ho (PARASITE/19) already has technique to spare in his debut pic. It’s content that’s lagging. Or maybe subject/attitude too Korea-specific to travel: Doggies as protein choice. One tough sale! (Don’t worry. No poochies hurt during filming.) The story, first of Bong’s class & privilege social critiques, follows the sleepless nights of a college lecturer up for the next permanent position. Good for him and his expectant wife. If only a series of yapping dogs in his sterile apartment complex weren’t ruining his sleep, and if he had the cash for the bribes he’ll have to pay. Lucky for him, evidence of his deadly dog deeds keep disappearing thanks to the culinary habits of a mysterious drifter squatting in the basement of the apartment complex. He may be crazy, but the guy can cook! But then his wife loses her job and uses her severance pay to buy a cute little dog. The Horror! The Horror! The comedy is black, blacker, blackest, often very funny, but plot & characterizations, to say nothing of consequences, don’t really add up. Watchable in its way. (Check out the Buster Keaton influence in how Bong uses apartment exterior hallways during chases.) But better things to come.*
DOUBLE-BILL: *And soon, Bong’s next, serial-killer procedural MEMORIES OF MURDER/’03, a giant step forward, a masterpiece balanced on a knife’s edge between the grim and the comic.
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