Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

DOG BITE DOG
Directed by Soi Chaeng.
Produced by Shin Yoneyama & Sam Leong.
Written by Matt Chow, Szeto Kam Yuen & Melvin Li.
Director of Photography Fung Yuen Man.
Edited by Angie Lam.
Music by Ben Cheung.
Released by Genius Products/The Weinstein Company.
Hong Kong/Japan. 108 min. Not Rated.
With Edison Chen, Sam Lee, Pei Pei, Lam Suet & Cheung Siu Fai.
DVD Features: Commentary by Edison Chen & Bey Logan. Featurettes: “Dog Bite Dog Explored,” a behind-the-scenes look; “Top Dog,” an interview with Chen; “Unleashed,” an interview with Sam Lee; “Biting the Bullet,” an interview with the director; “Every Dog Has His Day,” an interview with co-star Lam Suet. Trailer.

Intensely violent, this largely engaging thriller takes more from Japanese thriller and horror cinema than from traditional Hong Kong action films, which is likely not a coincidence – the film’s miniscule budget comes partly from Japanese producers.

Wai (Sam Lee), a seemingly renegade cop, pursues Pang (Edison Chen), a Cambodian hit man who was hired to kill a judge’s wife, the beginning a murder spree throughout Hong Kong. Wai is simultaneously being investigated by internal affairs about his comatose cop father’s involvement in drug rings. While Pang is on the run, he finds a desolate young woman, Yue (Pei Pei) in a city dump (conjuring images of his own roots), and takes her away with him, though pursed by Wai.

Much of the renegade cop-with-something-to-hide plot feels worn and familiar. Director Soi Chaeng tries, visually and violently, to push the boundaries of the genre but the results end up feeling kind of stale. Wai’s father emerges from a coma in time to save his son from being arrested by internal affairs, then immediately commits suicide, prompting a revenge streak in Wai that occupies the rest of the film.

For a moment, Dog Bite Dog begins to feel as though it may break into the clearing and offer a refreshing view on a clichéd story, but it takes another route entirely when it follows Pang back to Cambodia (actually shot in Thailand) where he tries to develop a new life for himself with Yue, now his wife. Meanwhile Wai has lost everything and becomes a Cambodian killer in the same underground kick boxing ring that Pang originated from. This is the point when the film spirals out of control, with a horrible gushing love montage and an ill-advised rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.”

While the plot is meager, at best, the cinematography is gritty and impressive. With very little dialogue, images tell the story here. Noirish lighting schemes, fast-paced editing, and beautiful Thai locations make this film absolute eye candy, a departure from the standard over-lit look of most Hong Kong actioners. Unfortunately, a great director of photography was not enough to pull the broken pieces of Dog Bite Dog together.

DVD Extras: The whole disc of special features is largely disappointing, if not redundant, though the extras highlight some of the interesting circumstances surrounding the film’s production, including the troubles shooting in an enormous trash dump and the languages barriers filming in Hong Kong and Thailand. But the real gem is the commentary track by the film’s star Edison Chen, famed actor, rapper, and clothing mogul, and Bey Logan, a sometimes-actor, producer, and expert of Hong Kong cinema.

They give a more enlightening perspective on the shooting difficulties while providing an intense crash course in filmmaking. Logan connects Dog Bite Dog into the history of Hong Kong cinema, the city itself, and the people that have made it an epicenter of Asian filmmaking. He and Chen tie Dog to the films of Johnnie To, Wong Kar-Wai, and many others, providing a new perspective on the film. While Dog Bite Dog is patchy and weakly written, the commentary track adds a layer of depth to this film – a primer for cinephiles everywhere. Dustin L. Nelson
November 27, 2007