Seattle International Film Festival 2025: Film #4
A somewhat confused political allegory: is it a tale concerning Asian integration, toxic masculinity, racial purity, contemporary border politics, white supremacy, or, with the pointed reference to hunting trophies and King Kong, a comment on the backlash to settler colonialism? That all these subjects are intertwined and codependent in the real world is undoubtedly true but I suggest that a film that embodies its central metaphor in sentient beings (ie. dogs) may need to be both a little more directed in its critique and to engage with the complexity in these topics beyond simply labelling them as 'bad'. For instance, wouldn't it made for a far more compelling piece of character development if the daughter actually wanted to become blonde after internalising ambient values? I'm at a loss to explicate the seemingly unmotivated changes in cinematic aspect ratio, and what are we to make of the end in which the family is now accepted by the (rather stock) white family?
Synopsis: The howling of wild dogs through the windows of a summer evening… In the middle of the night, a man talks to his dead wife on a disconnected telephone… Airplanes are swallowed up in the sky.