Dog Bite Dog

Pou-Soi Cheang | 109 min | 2006 | HK

Summarizing the plot of Dog Bite Dog would diminish your enjoyment of the film, and also, take way too long. This is one weird and convoluted movie. It's also one of the best films I've seen this year.

A crazy killer vs. a crazy cop. That's essentially what the movie boils down to. The crazy killer is Pang (Edison Chen), a Cambodian mad dog hitman who was raised as a child, fighting in underground to-the-death fights between orphans. The crazy cop is Wai (Sam Lee), a troubled loose cannon HK cop whose cop-father is in a coma, and who's determined to catch Pang, after he kills his partner during their attempt to arrest him. Both men are completely unhinged, and it makes for some crazy "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" moments. There are other characters that are important to the story, and are probably worth mentioning, but really, Pang and Wai are the core of the movie, and their eventual showdown is one of the most audacious scenes ever put to film.

With its super-bleak violence, combined with its beautiful cinematography, Dog Bite Dog is more in touch with a Korean style of filmmaking, than recent HK styles. If you think HK films have been lacking in grit and brutality, then this is the film that will re-affirm your faith.

So check this out about as fast as you can, and if you're looking for more recent quality offerings from HK after, check out S.P.L., and Exiled (which I believe is getting a North American theatrical release sometime soon).