China's Left-Behind Towns: A Turning Point The year is 2008, and China is opening up to the world. Announcements about the summer Olympics in Beijing
China’s Left-Behind Towns: A Turning Point
The year is 2008, and China is opening up to the world. Announcements about the summer Olympics in Beijing are blaring out from loudspeakers across the country, stirring up national pride about an event that underscores China’s confidence in the 21st century. But in a far-flung corner of north-west China, on the edge of the Gobi desert, the sparkle from the capital has faded into a translucent dust, coating everything in a declining industrial town with a bleak, grey haze.
A Return to the Past
It is here that Black Dog’s central human character, Lang, freshly released from prison, finds himself, as he returns to his barren home town to reconcile with his ailing father and former neighbours, who regard him with suspicion.
A Turning Point
"For anyone who understands China, looking at the past two or three decades, 2008 was a turning point," says Guan Hu, the director of the feted new Chinese film Black Dog, which chronicles Lang’s attempt to build a fresh start just as China is also reinventing itself. Guan is referring to the "unparalleled pride" of the Olympics, but also the "immense sorrow" of the Wenchuan earthquake, which struck in May of that year, killing nearly 70,000 people. For Guan, there is power in writing about ordinary people in such an "iconic year."
The Film’s Title
The film’s title comes from Xin, a stray black whippet that Lang, played by an impressively rugged Eddie Peng, befriends after he is assigned to a local dog patrol, tasked with rounding up stray hounds ahead of the Beijing Games. The friendship between the largely mute Lang and the unruly but loyal pooch grows as Lang struggles to find his place in a town that feels increasingly abandoned. Several scenes include dusty concrete buildings emblazoned with the character 拆, or chai, a tagging used by authorities in China to earmark buildings for demolition.
A Departure from Previous Works
Black Dog, a moody, sprawling, western-meets-noir with a dash of social commentary, is a departure from the 56-year-old director’s previous works. His two most recent blockbusters, The Eight Hundred and The Sacrifice, were more sabre-rattling portrayals of Chinese military might than meditations on China’s left-behind towns. But after netting more than $484m and $173m at the global box office respectively, the two films put Guan, already an important figure in the so-called "sixth generation" of Chinese film directors who came of age in the early 1990s, in good stead to make a more edgy feature. Black Dog was the first film produced by the production company Seventh Art Pictures that Guan co-founded with his wife, Liang Jing.
Censorship and Reception
For a film to be released domestically in China, it must first obtain a "dragon seal" from the government-run China Film Administration, a lengthy and murky process which involves strict content reviews. China’s film censorship has tightened in recent years, with the authorities cracking down on unauthorised screenings. But Liang says that the process of obtaining a dragon seal for Black Dog was smooth. "We felt quite lucky," she says.
It hasn’t just pleased the censors. Black Dog has also received rave reviews, winning the top prize in Cannes film festival’s Un Certain Regard section this year.
Working with Canines
As countless other actors have discovered, the dog is just as compelling as the human star. The entrancing opening scene features hundreds of stray dogs galloping across a flinty, arid shrubland, shot as a haunting, washed out panorama by Gao Weizhe, the director of photography who previously worked with Guan on The Sacrifice. But it is Xin, the stray whippet, who comes to the fore as Lang’s newfound best friend.
"The biggest challenge was patience," says Guan, of the experience of working with a canine cast. "Even if we rehearsed for a long time, and things were going well, once we were on set the animals could get tired or annoyed, and may not perform as well as we imagined, or even worse than in training … Everything else, like the weather, was manageable."
Conclusion
Black Dog is a powerful exploration of the human condition, set against the backdrop of China’s rapid transformation. Through the story of Lang and his canine companion, Guan Hu has created a film that is both a commentary on the challenges of real life and a celebration of the indescribable bond between humans and animals.
FAQs
Q: What is the significance of the year 2008 in the film Black Dog?
A: The year 2008 marks a turning point in China’s history, with the Beijing Olympics and the Wenchuan earthquake, which Guan Hu believes is a powerful moment to explore the lives of ordinary people.
Q: What is the significance of the dog, Xin, in the film?
A: Xin is a symbol of companionship and communication, and serves as an extension of Lang’s own lonely soul.
Q: How did the director, Guan Hu, work with the canine cast?
A: Guan Hu says that the biggest challenge was patience, as the animals could get tired or annoyed, but he managed to work with them to achieve the desired performances.
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