Black Dog (2024)

CinemaSerf

7.0

Sep 1, 2024

"Lang" (Eddie Peng) has returned to his hometown after a term in prison. We learn a little more about the causes of that and of his distant relationship with his zoo-keeping father as the story develops, as well as discovering that he once was one of the place's more famous citizens being in a popular local band. With the Beijing Olympiad (2008) looming large, there is quite an emphasis for the government on tarting the place up - and that signals quite significant "improvements" for their home on the edge of the Gobi desert. Much of it has already been earmarked for demolition, and with most…

Many films about the special relationship between man and his four-legged best friend have been made over the years, and it’s a formula that nearly always manages to please. So it is with the latest offering from writer-director Guan Hu, the story of a former inmate who’s been paroled to his hometown on the fringe of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China after 10 years in prison for a manslaughter conviction, an incident in which he had apparently become unwittingly involved. As he seeks to make amends for his past and start his life over, former motorcycle stunt artist/musician Lang Yonghui (…