SummaryAn idle part-time college lector is annoyed by the yapping sound of a near-by dog. He decides to take drastic action.
Directed By:Bong Joon Ho
Written By:Ji-ho Song, Bong Joon Ho, Derek Son Tae-woong
Barking Dogs Never Bite
Metascore
Generally Favorable
66
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
71% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
90
Beautifully directed, unsentimental and darkly funny.
83
Barking Dogs Never Bite is uneven, unnecessarily provocative, and exhausts its central premise long before the closing credits, but it’s invigorating to watch regardless. After all, Bong is just doing what New Wave artists do: experimenting, breaking rules, showing off.
80
Director Bong’s on song for his dark debut. A little rough around the edges, Barking Dogs Never Bite still delivers the blackest comedy lightened by some thrilling filmmaking, a clear calling card for Parasite. Caninophiles beware.
75
Charmingly quirky.
70
While the slender idea feels stretched at feature length and fails to brings its themes of societal chaos together in a fully cohesive way, the film is fresh and lively enough to score further festival bookings, particularly at events devoted to new talent.
50
Bong's debut is not all it could be, but any film that has a line as hilariously warped as "Jesus, that thing's hairy" deserves some recognition.
40
All squeamishness aside, this just isn’t a very pleasant film in general. There’s not a single sympathetic character in the bunch, except for maybe Hyun-nam and she’s a lazy bore. Everyone else is just plain, well, mean. For all the brilliance in some of its action scenes, this sluggish flick feels like a stretched out graduate thesis film.
User score
Mixed or Average
56% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
40% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
4% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Dec 13, 2020
6
After watching SNOWPIERCER and PARASITE, and seeing how good the ratings were (and that it’s on the Criterion Channel), I watched with high expectations that were quickly dashed. Everyone’s a jerk, two dogs are murdered, the humor is not as present and top-notch as in PARASITE, and it’s not as interesting as that and SNOWPIERCER. A disappointing debut from a really good writer/director.
Feb 20, 2020
4
An emotionally spare film that simply asks too much of its audience, "Barking Dogs Never Bite" couldn't have been more of a misleading starting point for the eventually wondrous filmography of Bong Joon-ho. As with any of the director's films, you're given a sumptuously framed and shot social commentary, set in a space that seemingly is its own character, and featuring performances that are worthy of note. With "Barking Dogs," however, the difference lies in the characters, how the movie wants us to feel about them, and how we actually feel about them. Despite how shockingly personal and subjective I've learned this standard of mine is; I simply have to draw the line in front of animal cruelty. I have no issue with its existence as a concept in a film, but when I'm asked to sympathize -- in any way, no matter how small -- with a protagonist who willingly kills domesticated animals, I've checked out. Again, I have no problem with it being depicted responsibly. Just as long as it benefits the story. Having our protagonist be that guy simply doesn't work. I don't care if he gets in trouble. I don't care if he gets caught. I don't care if his wife leaves him. I just didn't connect with that part of the overall narrative. And the jazz piano layered on top of the scenes of simulated animal cruelty also didn't really gel with me either. It's not a terrible film in any technical regard, and even contains a few scenes of ethereal brilliance that so many Bong Joon-ho films have. It's just that the concept of the narrative didn't sit well with me.
