Director:
Louis Leterrier
Year: 2005
Rating: 6.5
Year: 2005
Rating: 6.5
Aka - Danny the Dog
This is the second time I have watched this and I really have no idea what to make of it. I am not sure if I like it or just respect it. A part of it makes me cringe and at the same time I was intrigued by the concept and surprised by the utter brutality and savagery of Yuen Wo-ping's choreography. But I wonder what Jet Li first thought when he read the script from Luc Besson. So you want me to play a human dog with a collar? You do know that I have played some of the most legendary martial artists in Chinese history - Fong Sai-yuk, Wong Fei-hung, Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia and now you want me to play an attack dog. Exactly. And Jet Li manages to give perhaps one of his best acting performances because this film forces him to. He isn't able to fall back on the noble Chinese hero that he has played so often. In the first half he is a man trained from youth to be a killer dog without a human emotion or seemingly a human thought. His life is being caged till he is given the Go signal and then beating the hell out of whoever his master tells him to. It honestly hurt watching him as a subservient dog. This is Jet Li. He bows to no man. But he does it well and also later his slow recognition that there is kindness out there and that he has choices.
His master is played by Bob Hoskins in as ferocious and nasty a performance as you will come across. He is terrifying and nearly indestructible. He is a money lender and Danny is his enforcer. He takes him to visit those that are late on their payments with Danny in collar and when payment is not forthcoming, he unleashes him. He just destroys everyone. There is no grace or wit in Yuen's choreography - it is just bang, bang, bang till the person is down and can't get up. It doesn't matter if there is one man or ten, Danny will beat them without a thought of what he is doing. Point and click. Later Hoskins puts him into the underground fights - to the death.
Then there is an accident when a borrower tries to kill Hoskins in a car crash and Danny thinking his master is dead walks away and is taken in by a piano tuner - the wonderful Morgan Freeman and his daughter (Kerry Condon). The whole mid-section of the film turns into a version of Helen Keller as they bring him out of his shell. He learns to like ice cream, use a spoon and play the piano. The piano. It brings back memories. Hoskins had told him that he picked him off the street and took him in. An act of human kindness. Maybe not exactly. Of course, we know that the film will not end like this and it keeps us wary of when it will come crashing down. Hoskins wasn't killed though and comes looking for his dog. With a battalion. A strange film but at least Besson seemed to know what to do with Jet more than the Hollywood films he made during the same period.
This is the second time I have watched this and I really have no idea what to make of it. I am not sure if I like it or just respect it. A part of it makes me cringe and at the same time I was intrigued by the concept and surprised by the utter brutality and savagery of Yuen Wo-ping's choreography. But I wonder what Jet Li first thought when he read the script from Luc Besson. So you want me to play a human dog with a collar? You do know that I have played some of the most legendary martial artists in Chinese history - Fong Sai-yuk, Wong Fei-hung, Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia and now you want me to play an attack dog. Exactly. And Jet Li manages to give perhaps one of his best acting performances because this film forces him to. He isn't able to fall back on the noble Chinese hero that he has played so often. In the first half he is a man trained from youth to be a killer dog without a human emotion or seemingly a human thought. His life is being caged till he is given the Go signal and then beating the hell out of whoever his master tells him to. It honestly hurt watching him as a subservient dog. This is Jet Li. He bows to no man. But he does it well and also later his slow recognition that there is kindness out there and that he has choices.
His master is played by Bob Hoskins in as ferocious and nasty a performance as you will come across. He is terrifying and nearly indestructible. He is a money lender and Danny is his enforcer. He takes him to visit those that are late on their payments with Danny in collar and when payment is not forthcoming, he unleashes him. He just destroys everyone. There is no grace or wit in Yuen's choreography - it is just bang, bang, bang till the person is down and can't get up. It doesn't matter if there is one man or ten, Danny will beat them without a thought of what he is doing. Point and click. Later Hoskins puts him into the underground fights - to the death.
Then there is an accident when a borrower tries to kill Hoskins in a car crash and Danny thinking his master is dead walks away and is taken in by a piano tuner - the wonderful Morgan Freeman and his daughter (Kerry Condon). The whole mid-section of the film turns into a version of Helen Keller as they bring him out of his shell. He learns to like ice cream, use a spoon and play the piano. The piano. It brings back memories. Hoskins had told him that he picked him off the street and took him in. An act of human kindness. Maybe not exactly. Of course, we know that the film will not end like this and it keeps us wary of when it will come crashing down. Hoskins wasn't killed though and comes looking for his dog. With a battalion. A strange film but at least Besson seemed to know what to do with Jet more than the Hollywood films he made during the same period.