Before 's Oscar-winning or his French comic adaptation , the acclaimed director cut his teeth on a charming black comedy. follows unemployed academic Ko Yun-ju () as he struggles to find work while supporting his pregnant wife, Eun-sil (). Barking Dogs Never Bite is an entertaining glimpse into the style and themes that would later garner Bong Joon Ho well-earned acclaim. The film is funny and relatable and biting in its societal critiques.

Barking Dogs Don’t Bite feels like it's in conversation with , , and the somewhat obscure . The film embodies a kind of capitalist malaise that finds humor in the absurdity of its characters’ struggles rather than abject horror. Little, mundane, daily annoyances like the barking of a dog are amplified to an absurd degree until characters can justify killing their neighbors’ pets. Meanwhile, like the fact that Ko Yun-ju can’t get a teaching position he’s qualified for without bribing the dean at the college, .

The film also develops themes Bong Joon Ho's later work would expand upon. Like in Snowpiercer, the lives of living things are treated as disposable for the sake of comfort. The destruction of an expensive product is given as much narrative weight as the killing of a live animal. under the gnashing, steel-toed boot of capitalism. Characters actively yearn to be thrust into dangerous situations in the hopes of becoming famous because of them, because their economic situation is so severe that

Barking Dogs Never Bite is also beautifully shot with a certain raw, tangible feel to its settings. The world of the film isn’t dirty, per se, but lived-in and authentic—as not a single scene feels like actors on a set. Part of this is the creative direction of the film itself: the costumes, the sets, the lighting. But the film's performances also have this natural, yet absurdist, quality to them. , but they are consistently things we've all thought of doing.

Though Barking Dogs Never Bite is undeniably a comedy,Scenes shot in the basement are given this dark, moody lighting that casts characters in these exaggerated, almost witch-like shadows. If the secret basement scene from Parasite freaked you out, then you will notlike the janitor character in Barking Dogs Never Bite. While Bong Joon Ho is far from the first director to use basement scenes as representative of the hidden darkness in our society, he is certainly one of the best to do it. And.

While the casual animal cruelty of Barking Dogs Never Bite might mean the film isn't for everyone, it's certainly worth a watch if you can stomach flagrant disregard for the well-being of dogs. At a certain point, with some might argue that's the point. (It's not good to kill your neighbors' annoying dogs because they won't stop barking.) But when packed into a large apartment building like sardines, it almost becomes understandable. When life is already so miserable, every little annoyance that might, on its own, be manageable just compounds until you hit a breaking point. And even when you get the things you want, you can't help but feel dissatisfied in having them. Like a quiet evening after throwing your neighbor's dog off the roof, you know the way you got it was wrong, and you almost wish you could go back to the way it was before.