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Ghost Canyon

'Dog Bite Dog'
(Cheung Siu Fai, Lam Suet, et al / 2-Disc DVD / NR / (2006) 2007 / Dragon Dynasty)

Overview: A sadistic cop tracks a monstrous hitman over the course of a single day and night. They ruthlessly battle each other through the streets of Hong Kong, bystanders be damned.

DVD Verdict: A young Cambodian assassin named Pang (Edison Chen) arrives in Hong Kong to kill the spouse of a judge. After completion of the dire deed, he is pursued by the local police force partly headed by Inspector Wai (Sam Lee) who has his own demons to combat. Like a caged animal, fighting and fleeing like a cornered beast, Pang wipes out all of Wai's men. Along the way, he comes across a girl named Pei-Pei (Weiying pei), who is being abused by her stepfather. He rescues her from her ordeal; the chase goes to overdrive with an obsessed Inspector Wai now on the trail.

Intensely brutal, gritty and seedy, director Soi goes for the throat and pulls out all the stops when it comes to (very) graphic violence. No style, almost no fight choreography is shown as the two protagonists pummel, bludgeon, and beat each other with everything but the kitchen sink. They even bite each other as the title suggests. Unrelenting violence is the lure of this film; it seemed to me that Soi has found his true calling in filming very dark, seedy and depressing thrillers.

'Dog Bite Dog' may turn off some viewers; the pessimistic portrayal of humanity and the lack of characters seeking redemption. There are no heroes of any kind here, even the emotional scenes have a feel that it is ready to implode on itself with unexpected violence. All the characters are "victims" of the challenges of life. However, I am certain that this film will find fans with its dark, unrelenting violent nature ... these type always do.

The set designs are awesome. Soi does a tremendous job portraying the dark, dank alleys of Hong Kong as another character in the film. The set designs are well-designed; the dump sites look so real that I could almost "smell" the dirt and grime. The music has that depressing feel with almost a "sense of death" Edison Chen and Sam Lee do a decent job in their portrayal of Pang and Wai. I still had some issues because I still look at them as "teen idols". The film is NOT perfect, it has its faults (I didn't like the final act), but thankfully, the great direction by Soi overshadows its shortcomings. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Feature Length Audio Commentary By Leading Man Edison Chen And Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan Biting
Dog Bite Dog Explored: A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Making Of The Movie
Top Dog: A Featurette With Leading Man Edison Chen
Unleashed: A Featurette With Star Sam Lee
Bitting the Bullet: An Interview with Director Cheang Pou-Sol
Every Dog Has His Day: A Featurette With Co-Star Lam Suet
US Promotional Trailer

www.DragonDynasty.com





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