Waiting for dogs (not ¡°Godot¡±)
Jay Chung (smilejay@hotmail.com)
Title: Barking dogs never bite
Original title: Puhran Dah Suh ui Geh
Two guys appear on a country road where only a tree exists. Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for ¡°Godot.¡± Who ¡°Godot¡± is, is unknown. They strongly believe Godot is coming. Godot, however, never appears until the end. While waiting for Godot, they chat mindlessly. Or worse yet, they believe that their waiting is ¡®a kind of prayer¡¯ or ¡®a vague supplication.¡¯ Estragon suggests, ¡®Let¡¯s go.¡¯ Vladimir answers, ¡®We can¡¯t.¡¯ Estragon again, ¡®Why not?¡¯ Vladimir answers, ¡®We are waiting for Godot.¡¯ Following Estragon and Vladimir, two more characters appear, Lucky and Pozzo. While talking about the happiness and misfortune of their lives, they try to commit suicide by hanging. However, they never take the plunge. They are waiting for Godot as well.
The Irish author, Samuel Beckett¡¯s ¡°Waiting for Godot¡± is so called, ¡®theatre of the absurd¡¯ portraying four peculiar characters¡¯ who are simply waiting. When the play was first shown in France, most of the audience interpreted Godot to be God. However, Beckett never gave any charity by explaining what Godot implied. The only thing he said was ¡°Try not to find the meaning inside of the play.¡¯ Though unclear, it is believed that the play is the story of all human beings unaware of the reason of their birth, searching for the meaning of life, acknowledging the nihilistic view of their lives.
Mr. Bong, Jun-ho, in his movie, Barking Dogs Never Bite is more charitable to the audience, than Samuel Beckett. Mr. Bong gives hints about why they waiting for DOGS and what made the characters are waiting for their DOGS. The stage is also more detail than ¡®Waiting for Godot¡¯. The stage is not a country road where only a tree exists but, an urban apartment village. The illogical and unreasonable conversations that the four characters had in ¡®Waiting for Godot¡¯ is same as ¡®Barking dogs never bite.¡¯ Beneath the mixture of idle daily routine, ghost stories, imagining to appear on a TV show a hero who captures a murderer, the imprudent rescuing of dogs, and rustling up bribe money to buy a professorship, lurks Korean social analysis.
Youn-Ju (Lee, Sung-Jae) is an indolent instructor at a university living on his two year older pregnant wife¡¯s salary. The constant yapping of a small dog somewhere in the apartment block drives him crazy. Actually the reason he become hysterical is a combination of hating the dog and his situation of idly sitting at home wondering how to rustle up the bribe money that will buy his a professorship. Finally, prowling the corridors, he decides to kidnap the dog that is driving him crazy! The movie looks like several interwoven short films about a lecturer, a pet-loving girl, an elderly women whose only relative is a pet, the janitor who has a taste for dog stew, and an apartment office girl who is hoping to become famous by ¡®doing the right thing¡¯. The director builds a microcosm of Korean society, which feels so believable it seems rash to call it satire.
Mr. Bong perfectly captured the humor of the underlying questions about the relative worth of dogs and humans. This is a wry, blackish comedy about dry relationships within an apartment village, the lack of humanity loving pets, a society edging toward hysteria and tedious daily routines. In the end, although the characters¡¯ positions were revered, they are still waiting for dogs. Why? Because their dogs are ¡®Godot¡¯? It must be the movie of the absurd portraying Korean society.
Pay your attention to the two main characters¡¯ acting (Lee, Sung-Jae and Bae, Du-Na). They will give you a real joy as if you are observing your own neighbors.