There’s a Black Dog on the loose, possibly rabid. Reward for capture. Said message – or something similar- plays over the loudspeakers announcing the news in a dead-end Chinese town off the Gobi desert. Years ago, most of the inhabitants had to move, leaving their dogs behind. Now the outskirts of the town a riddled with an army of once domesticated hounds. They greet every car that drives through.
Lang (Eddie Peng) is on his way back from prison. Manslaughter. He was a motorcycle-riding circus performer once upon a time; the circumstances of his imprisonment are murky, but it’s possible he was innocent. Tell that to the family of the victim; they want blood.
Believe it or not, it’s hard to find lucrative engagement when you’re a convict returning to a ghost town in the Gobi desert. Go figure. So Lang decides to catch the possibly rabid dog that haunts the city. He locates it, all right. But imagine yourself trying to catch a wild and aggressive black lab alone without training or tools to do the job properly and you get a good idea of the next few scenes.
Against personal wishes, Lang is forced to be part of a mob sent to track down and euthanize all the (now) wild dogs. (The land is being “cleaned up” for the Beijing Olympics – why China thinks any Olympic visitors will find this backwater hellhole is beyond anyone’s guess.) We get a first good inclination of the man Lang is when he -clearly- half-asses his assignment on purpose. Lousy 
worker? No. Just sides with the dogs. Eventually the mob corners and catches the Black Dog. And when Lang attempts to transport it, the vehicle skids and tips over (not the first time that has happened in the film). As it is night and possibly freezing, Lang and the dog make an uncomfortable alliance to keep from freezing to death.
It is at this point that I kinda loved this movie.
Black Dog is about a drifter man and drifter dog, both castigated. Both hunted. Both threatened. Survivors. Companions by default. We love dog films, right? Well, I’ve seen Arthur the King and Marley & Me and Megan Leavey and A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey and A Dog’s Breakfast and A Dog’s Mess … where was I? Oh yeah, I have seen a lot of dog films, and this is the best one. And it’s the best one because the companionship is implied; it’s not forced or present just to solicit teardrops. Sure, at their core, all dog films are similar, but gimme the one where the man and the dog are both on the same level; they need each other … and then they fight for each other. This was my favorite film of HIFF 2024.
Here’s a dog and a man on the run
In the shadows of the land of the hun
They started as foes
Yet shared a few woes
And now these two have become one
Not Rated, 116 Minutes
Director: Guan Hu
Writer: Rui Ge, Guan Hu
Genre: A man and his dog … and the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Dog lovers, drifter lovers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who don’t get that sometimes a dog is the only companion worth having
