This isn’t the first film to serve up redemption through a furry emissary – and it won’t be the last. Guan Hu’s Chinese drama-cum-western-cum-state-of-the-nation missive won Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year – but more importantly, its heavy canine quotient meant it also bagged the second prize in the festival’s Palm Dog award. Its heartwarming aspect comes framed with real grandeur, and a stark absurdism and tightly wound sentimentality reminiscent at times of Takeshi Kitano.
Emerging from a long stretch in prison for his part in a murder, Lang (Eddie Peng) gets a job on a dog-catching patrol cleaning up a Gobi desert outpost in advance of the 2008 Olympics. When he finally lays hands on the rail-thin, and possibly rabid, critter that has tormented him since his return, he adopts it – and the animal gives the taciturn former rock star respite from his other woes. His alcoholic father is haunting the remnants of a soon-to-be-demolished zoo, and local kingpin Butcher Hu is seeking amends for his dead nephew.
