There is a daffy streak of eccentricity in this rambling shaggy dog tale from Hong Kong. It’s the story of a stray mutt called Piggy (played by mongrel Little) who saves a man from suicide not once, but twice. The man is newly retired Kai (Lawrence Cheng), a miserable grump who lives alone. Like Larry David, he’s not afraid of telling people exactly what he thinks (and, like Larry David, it can be excruciating to watch). But Piggy has taken a shine to Kai, and when she spots him attempting to hang himself in the woods, she intervenes, superdoggy style.
In all sorts of ways, Alone No More is a conventional heart-tugger, pushing its sentimental message about the benefits to mind and body of pet ownership, and making a point about social isolation among older people. Predictably, Kai adopts Piggy, and his irascible outbursts begin to look less and less like the precursors to a heart attack. Pretty soon he’s even mucking in at a local dog rescue charity run by Una (Amy Lo), a woman in her 20s. Una avoids her mother, but she indulges Kai’s grumpiness; his own daughter Zoie (Fish Liew) can barely stand to be in a room with him.
