After Parasite (2019) made history at the Oscars, many western audiences became aware of South Korean auteur Bong Joon-Ho for the first time. Others more familiar with his work knew that Parasite was just the latest installment in a series of genre-crossing, satirizing black comedies that make up his filmography. In this piece, I visit the first feature film of Bong’s illustrative career: Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000).
Sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes hilarious, and always quirky: Barking Dogs Never Bite tells the story of Yun-Ju (Lee Sung-Jae), a graduate student whose career has plateaued. His only path toward professorship requires a costly bribe, his marriage is deteriorating by the day, and his wife is pregnant with their first child. Emanating from somewhere in the apartment complex, the annoying barking of a dog drives him down a dark path to the edge of his humanity — where he must find his way back.
Although the film features all the rough edges of a first film, Barking Dogs is made undoubtedly in Bong’s hand. A closer examination reveals five characteristics of the auteur’s style that…
