Page 90 - Metropolis Megazine No.120 International
P. 90
MID-SEASON REVIEW
MOVIES TOP 2023
conservative ones of less aesthetic value, will be the focal point of numerous
contradictions, which will remain latent in the spectator's mind every time a blaze
of emotions or a controlled number of dramatic conflicts approaches."
black dog
The Story: After ten years in prison, Lang returns to his hometown in northwest
China, now almost abandoned and about to be razed to the ground to make way
for a factory complex. In the effort to clean up the town before the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, Lang can only find work hunting stray dogs. A dangerous black dog with
a high capture reward bites Lang. The two are isolated to prevent the spread of the
rabies virus, and a friendship develops between them..
João Garção Borges wrote: "From a structural point of view, one of the most
striking features of this production can be found in Gao Weizhe's assured direction
of photography. Here there is a rigorous mastery of the coordinates between the
natural outdoor spaces and the interiors that remain of the urban fabric of what
was once a city of some size and importance. Visual precision that allows us to
follow in the footsteps of Lang and the black dog in the lost ‘landscapes’ of past and
decaying architectures and those that have endured and flourished for centuries in
the surrounding regions of the Gobi Desert, northwest China, whose horizontality
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