Creating hype around his name with a larger mass via the surprising and uncompromising Love Battlefield in 2004, Soi Cheang's path as a horror filmmaker finally began to show signs again, akin to his early DV/35 mm venture Diamond Hill (1*), that here was someone not pleased with sticking to the recommended recipe. The not so hyped Home Sweet Home showcased this more than ever before, even though the overall experience rightfully didn't make as much of an impression. But if you arm yourself with a Category III rating, deep rooted pessimism with a violent streak, you're bound to receive attention again. Soi Cheang therefore made sure to employ writer Szeto Kam-Yuen (Love Battlefield, Expect The Unexpected) again for Dog Bite Dog. Aiming for validation as cinema by going astonishingly dark and downbeat on us, that's an artform few handles well. Soi Cheang isn't quite there yet but he isn't wrong to express his views, this time perhaps at his crescendo in that regard. By god, we hope so and that next film will be all cute teddy bears to go around for everyone. Then again the darkness of our world doesn't stop so....yipes. At any rate, Dog Bite Dog is a vicious statement, one that will be sneered at automatically like any opinion divided subject but no doubt this can be called compelling, thematically sound and a pure injection of distinction Hong Kong cinema is in need of. Well it should be called all those things.

On a personal note, been going through my old collection of death metal and in particular the sub genre grindcore and it seems fitting that this lyric from "Buried Dreams" by Carcass will lead you into my dissection of Dog Bite Dog:

"Welcome to a world of hate. A life of buried dreams. Smothered, by the soils of fate."

Now that we're all feeling perky, while not the most shocking, graphic and/or intensity-wise Hong Kong cinema has ever produced (that award goes to Billy Tang's Red To Kill), Soi Cheang's visualization of Matt Chow, Szeto Kam-Yuen & Lee Chun-Fai's screenplay makes for reviewing delight in terms of how you'll describe it as graphically as you can (basically looking for the better looking review quote). Glass comes to mind, the equivalent of being forced fed it into your mouth and up your ass. It doesn't sit very comfortably but it's the truth of the moment. You'll just have to push your instincts towards survival and this cinematic world where the quote unquote goodness usually is absent will suck more than anything has ever sucked before in terms of portrayal. But this notion comes from a real life era where nothing is certain or to be honest, every era has had some kind of worldly turmoil that takes shape into pessimism such as this. This is possibly the writers and Soi Cheang's hidden confession but the thematic of the film leans more towards something more emotional than political.

Cinematographer Fung Yuen-Man's visuals are distorted, cracked, devoid of people and the cheery rainbow colours (brown dominates and yes, it can be regarded as downright feces-like in nature). In this framework, you'll find two characters, one who is an Cambodian assassin trained to be emotionally numb, only going where his master tells him and one young cop with repressed inner hate towards his corrupt father in the same line of work. Yes, you've sensed correctly that here's where the dog symbolism rears its head and while probably never saying anything truly profound that lingers ten floors above what's flashed before us on screen, it works to a pretty good degree. Although the overly conscious sound design featuring animal sounds can be tiring and pretentious but despite, true complexity doesn't interest Cheang. His statements are clear, simplistic even and he's running them along his character drama, which turns out to be minor but effective to a useful degree. A heart may be revealed in both Edison and Sam's characters but anyone should be prepared that light is in need to be smothered in this world. Maybe not instantly but definitely later. Better points made regards newcomer Pei Pei's illegal immigrant character who probably comes from the lowest point of any of us, something Cheang isn't afraid to push to the most extreme degree possible. A victim of incest and living on a garbage dump, her angel is Chen's character, making us realize how far down we've gone into the human state. It's in its own way heartfelt because if your mission is to rise, you have to start wherever light shines on you....before it's smothered again.

Wise choices narrative-wise (but also technically) concerns the lack of dramatic intensity in the score for the most harrowing scenes of gore and violence. Simply enough, impact reigns supreme via this choice and it's the interludes in between that takes the bombastic route (employing angelic choirs quite often), usually with effective results. Following his instinct all the way through, there's not much to the story and narrative we're supposed to take in but instead the background thematic of emotional awakening. However there's stumblings over that in the late stages as Cheang is just a little bit too confident in his way of creating poignancy. Basically caught up in his extreme behaviour.

The last two words in that paragraph being applicable to our lead performances by Edison "Dawg" Chen and Sam Lee. Chen comes through with his finest performance yet, working with little dialogue in order to truly embody the hungry dog at one end of the ring corner. Just goes to show that if you make a so called actor shut the hell up, cinema may benefit and that's not a disservice to anyone here, including Chen. Even if this will be his only, alongside Princess-D, immersing act, it's no doubt memorable. Sam Lee as the sniffing dog gets to levels of acceptance and a few notches above it as well, being well in tune with the one-sided, extremely violent nature to his character but latching onto our emotions when that character-wall is broken.

Nothing is ever suggested that, despite breakthrough in that regard, correct routes will be taken. You come back to instincts, rational or not, and that dominates on- and off screen in Dog Bite Dog. Human lives don't matter, consequences rarely and barely do either. The little humanity shown here is even somewhat buried under gleeful evil but these are almost up till the end, correct statement by the filmmakers. Trying to believe that end statement ultimately may make you lost along the way but even if you don't discover, take Dog Bite Dog as an awakening and be glad your world doesn't suck as hard. Because I pray to god it doesn't. Same with Soi Cheang's who continues to be an exciting engine for Hong Kong cinema. The fact that his name is now associated with hype, rightfully, should tell you what a benefactor he is right now.

(1) The credits Horror Hotline...Big Head Monster, New Blood and The Death Curse made sure to create that path of horror genre filmmaking.

The basic plot is pretty simple. Edison Chen plays an un-named hitman from Cambodia whose upbringing in the world of underground pit-fighting makes him a ferocious killer. After a particularly bloody job by Edison, a cop named Wai (Sam Lee) whose life is already on the edge of burnout becomes obsessed about catching him. As the chase continues, the lines between cop and killer become increasingly blurred, which leads to a climatic confrontation that will change them both forever.

This sort of plot has been done many times before, especially after the success of The Killer, but Dog Bite Dog adds enough into the mix to stand out on its' own. For starters, the movie looks great. Director Soi Cheang got his start with horror movies, and he uses many of the same filming and editing techniques here to great effect. It provides enough of a visual punch to make things interesting without going overboard. Speaking of punches, Dog Bite Dog is definitely one of the most violent works Hong Kong has produced in quite some time. While there have been some that say that the violence felt gratutious, the bloodshed is necessary to the story. It shows how far the characters have fallen and how far they are willing to go.

Finally, some note must be made of the acting. Sam Lee has always been a fairly strong actor, so his output here is not surprising (though it is much more serious than his usual role). What is, though, is Edison Chen. The man who once made audiences cringe with his "gangsta" attitude delivers an actual performance here that might actually transform him into a "real" actor, and not just a pretty singer who also happens to act in movies.

Distressed by the death of his partner finds himself under investigation from Internal Affairs for unknown reasons, but he thinks it is because of his dad (also a cop). After being shot in the back Wai’s father lies in a coma, no one really knows what’s happened, but there are rumours that Wai’s father has been for dealing drugs on the side. With thoughts of his father, his co-workers and his own unstable life Wai sets out to stop the killer Pang from escaping.

Review: Soi Cheung delivers a vicious cop thriller which really puts both leading actors to the test and heck did they pass. Edison Chen is completely transformed from boy to man in his role as Pang. Sam Lee’s character progresses from Man to Monster by the credits roll. Leading lady Pei-Pei (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’s Lee Geum-ja) plays the difficult role of this warped young isolated woman, to whom is saved by Pang. The gave off similar qualities to Chan Park-Wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance mainly because you felt both sympathy and hate for both leading characters, left with being unable to decide who really is the enemy?

The fights in the movie are violent and gritty, no styles just all out street fighting. In Hong Kong the action is all modern what I mean is that they use guns to fight each other with, but by the time they are in rural Cambodia the two men settle their differences in a knife fight. Soi emphasizes the intense brutality of the fights by adding sound effects of animals roaring, it does give the fights a little more edge to them, although I can see where viewers are coming from if they think this is a little over doing it. The ending fight does pan out a little further than it should of really with the amount of cuts and stab wounds each person takes you do find it a little strange why they are still alive, but don’t take everything too seriously it’s best just to relax your mind and enjoy the film.

Notable appearances in this movie include Lam Suet for the first twenty odd minutes as Fat Lam, in his time he manages to speak Cantonese, Thai and some very broken English. Lau Yiu-Cheung and Eddie Cheung take up roles as fellow officers of Sam Lee’s troupe, they both do get their moments to shine within the running time.

Final thought, a fresh yet grubby Cop thriller which is the must see movie of the moment and is definitely worth a watch!

Rating: 8.8 out of 10.0