Ka la shi tiao gou

Saw this as part of Cinequest 2004 in San Jose, CA, USA. I'm grateful for a chance to see a Chinese film on a large screen.

It seems to me that the director is one who embraces questions. As a result some will leave this film, feeling that it was incomplete. I'm okay with that style in the West, however, the foreign nature of Chinese society to me works for and against my appreciating this film.

If you are like me, you give a point or more to foreign films just for the inherent voyeuristic voyage. A chance to see how the other half (or 1.3 billion) live is always welcome. Our US view of China is so limited: we hear about prison driven labor for our cheap consumables, we know they use capital punishment more than we do, we read online about the things that they allegedly cannot read online and so forth.

On the flip side, questions about culture I think distract from the larger intended questions. Do people wash their feet before going to bed? Do police really go out cracking down on dog licenses and dog sellers? Does a dog license really cost more than what a factory worker would make in several months? Do women in China not typically get custody of their children in a divorce (granted there are mitigating circumstances here).

Thus, I think another viewer more familiar with day-to-day issues (such as zzman here) would perceive this as a comical film with more serious satire at work. For myself, and I assume the largely quiet audience, we saw this as a serious film, and watched it with polite distance at all times.

Meanwhile the other intended questions remain. Like how does our man Lao Er feel about his old mahjongg partner? Why is Lao Er more upset when his dog is behind bars than when his son is? Why does a more simple relationship like pet-owner allow for more "love" than a husband-wife?

I'd say see this with film with that Chinese co-worker two cubicles down at your office. I think a discussion afterward would benefit from having someone who could separate out the allegorical from the actual on screen. Or maybe talk about I just read, that the director here, Lu Xuechang, is a "sixth generation filmmaker." Wow.

I'll give this one point for every generation... Worth seeing for fans of foreign film definitely.

6/10

I like this movie.

It contains several real scenes in the Beijing lower class families. Although Beijing is a big city in China now, there are still some poor families with some members in have some unrealistic dreams. But Beijing people treat their dogs really seriously. They think dogs are part of the family just like Americans do.

But Ge You's role has some disease in his heart. His love to the dog is not the real love. Kala is only a mental object of his own. He depends on the dog. He is a failure man.

If you want to know something about the traditional Beijing life.This movie may help.

Don't be fooled by the comical appearance of the movie, there are deeper themes behind the laughs: social criticism on several topics.

The main theme of the hidden social criticism is that the government officials are trying to make money anyway they can, such as by levying a hefty fine in addition to the license fee.

The second theme of the hidden social criticism is the problem of the interpersonal relationships: everyone concentrated on making money and people are distant and cold to each other, the relationship between the dogs and their owners are more endearing than friendship among people.