Dark Comedy August:
Barking Dogs Never Bite

Saturday, August 1
Monday, August 3
Wednesday, August 5
Admission: Free
Showtime: 8pm; 8 and 10:30pm on Monday; 11pm on Wednesday
reservations are recommended

(Actually, for better or worse, there's no metal soundtrack to the film. Trailers were meant to deceive, but you get the point.)

For those of you who saw The Host, you already know. For those of you who haven't, here's your chance to start at the beginning with Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000). This was Bong Joon-ho's first film and it shows off his flare for comedic timing, ridiculous action sequences, and actual affecting human storylines.

Somehow this film was never widely released in the U.S. and is still unavailable on DVD. A friend/customer of Monkey Town gave us a copy a few months ago and it's since become our favorite comedy we've seen this year.

Here's a synopsis from a site that sells a PAL version...

Yun-ju, a part-time university lecturer, lives cozily off his pregnant wife’s salary. Spending way too much time at home figuring how to drum up a bribe for the professorship he’s after, he becomes increasingly irritated by his neighbour’s barking dog and decides to declare war on every barking dog in the apartment complex!

On the warpath, we come across a janitor with a taste for dog stew, a pet-loving girl crusader from the neighbourhood office and the chilling tales of the ghost of Boiler Kim. From the director of THE HOST, this blacker-than-black comedy weaves together a mix of pet rescues, daily routines and deluded characters to deliver a savagely funny world where no cute dog or pair of binoculars is safe!

Or as Subway Cinema put it: "It's American Beauty on laughing gas."