A Cambodian assassin named Pang arrives in Hong Kong with the mission to kill the wife of a top judge. He completes his task and it doesn't take long before Pang is being chased by the police, with one of them being detective Wai who has more than a few problems of his own. Being on the run, alone and not speaking the language, Pang fights back with all means necessary, killing people in Wai's team one by one as they keep attacking him. Eventually he meets a young girl who is held prisoner by her father and manages to escape HK with his new-found friend. But Wai will stop at nothing to catch Pang who constantly has to watch his back.
I'm a huge fan of old HK action and Cat III flicks and while they sometimes claim to be gritty and brutal, they look more like "cute" films when compared to Dog Bite Dog. With DBD being extremely nihilistic and relentless, I fell in love with it 5 minutes into the film. For a short while thereafter I was afraid that it wasn't gonna last all the way through, but it kept on shocking, featuring utterly brutal violence that was just as hard as enjoyable to watch. While the story was nothing that made you really go wow, the film has tons of stuff in it that you normally wouldn't expect when watching a movie like this, and being as dark as it was, it gave it a certain very genuine feel, and in the end it proved to be one of the best films I've seen in 2006.
Right from the very start it grabbed me by throat and had me in that grip all the way through. The brutality in it is amazing, but is not just there for shock value, but actually does provide something that makes it all work so darn well. Predictable it was not and had stuff in it you couldn't see coming from miles away, and I must admit that I at times was truly shocked at what the film had to offer in certain scenes. You probably seen a few similar scenes a number of types in other action flicks and therefore it makes you think you know what was gonna happen, but the funny thing here was that those things never did happen and Dog Bite Dog, for most of the time, really surprised with where it went.
 
We get to follow Pang, a Cambodian assassin, who grew up in misery and saying to this guy that killing is wrong would be like claiming that the sky is always green - it just doesn't make sense. So this is the type of character we're dealing with, a relentless killer with no conscience and no feelings of remorse. He's brutal as hell and as you probably can figure out, it's fairly easy to compare him to an animal, still you gotta like the guy but I'm not sure why. The other character the film focus on is a detective named Wai who's suffering from his own mental problems and who will stop at nothing to catch Pang. Early on, Wai is of course the "good guy" and Pang being the bad, but as the film moves forward things change and the funny thing is that you end up kinda liking them both, but at the same time despising them for who (what) they really are. I don't wanna give away too much of the story, but let me just say that Dog Bite Dog is one helluva ride that you'll probably never forget.
The overall film looks pretty much amazing and has some visuals that truly are to die for, along with that it sets this type of mood right away that is impossible to escape from. It simply draws you in and never lets go until the very end which is just as brutal as it is shocking, but at the same time very rewarding as well. Where other films dare not to go, Dog Bite Dog goes another mile and for me personally, it made it deliver at all times. The acting is extremely good and Edison Chen truly stands out as Pang - a guy that shows no mercy and always fights like a trapped animal, but that you still can't help but to feel sympathy for. Easily the best Asian movie of 2006, no question about it.
Don't expect Dog Bite Dog to be yet another cat and mouse game where a cop is chasing a crazed killer, because while it has that ingredient in it, it's still very different and you'll be more than aware of that when you see it. It's gloomy, dark, violent, dirty, shocking and abusive, and at the same time it's truly wonderful, beautiful, thinkable - but most of all, it's a definite must see.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Gau ngao gau
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Pou-Soi Cheang
WRITING CREDITS: Matt Chow
GENRE: Action, Crime, Thriller
CAST: Edison Chen, Sam Lee, Suet Lam
COUNTRY: Hong Kong
RUNTIME: 109 min
RATING: 10/10
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