I gotta say, I really am not too big on having duplicate content on this site. Granted, it’s great to have different perspectives on a film, but they may seem too similar at times. Especially with something like this, but I had to see it and give it a review because it’s local content and I rarely get that these days. Chances are you’ve already read Shawn’s interview and know an intense amount of what this film is about, so I’ll just get to the review about what goes on in Mongrels.
Somewhere deep in Narnia- I mean the woods, are an assortment of dogs. But there’s a reason for them to be there. They’ve decided to make it their personal home. However, not everyone approves of them. Nearby, lives a man named Sonny Lee (Jae-Hyun Kim) with his two kids, Hajoon (Da-Nu Nam) and Hana (Sein Jin). Occasionally, his brother Paul (Sangbum Kang) comes by too. Their homeowner Scott (Morgan Derea) believes the wild dogs should be hunted, Sonny goes with his son and some hunters and in the process shows everyone just how to hunt these creatures. He also reveals himself to be a dog whisperer as he manages to calm down Scott’s dog King Kong. Scott is impressed with Sonny and even asks him to hunt the Alpha dog in those hills and make it a trophy in his personal office. Sonny doesn’t fully trust or respect Scott and his family, but Hajoon does, even wanting to hang out with Scott’s son, Noah (Jedd Sharp). However, despite getting mad respect from the community for helping with the dog hunt, there’s one woman who’s very upset with Sonny for killing dogs and Sonny begins to feel worse after her accusation. He meets with King Kong one night and promises to end the poor dog’s misery in exchange for the dog taking Sonny’s suffering along with him. Hajoon on the other hand is not the type to kill dogs like his father and would rather let them go. He prefers hanging out with Noah and his friends as well, but his father chastises him for being different. Hanjoon feels he’s got a lot of struggles to deal with, especially since his mother is dead and Hana doesn’t know the truth yet, instead doing a strange ritual I never heard of: Eating 100 airplanes to make a wish. Hanjoon gets more sidetracked with his adolescence hanging out with friends, disagreeing with his father, and spending less time with Hana, who seems to find a better connection with Scott’s wife Laura who treats her like her own daughter.
The whole movie explores different sides of different stories. We get some pretty sad and dark elements to the film, and the characters amplify those elements even more with their performances. A great story with a lot of emotion even referencing small elements to other stories. I can’t be the only one who noticed that musical moment with Hana with a sense of familiarity. Lots of Korean films seem to reference Pied Piper. Not only that, but the editing is flawlessly done by the incredible Lawrence Le Lam and I loved the camera work as well. Just the blend of different colours both dark and light set the mood even better than any other film I’ve seen throughout these years and the best is how this was mostly Vancouver-based. I’m always honoured to see local content make it big in the world. I feel like the film progressed extremely well after the screening and I can’t wait to see what Jerome makes next.
This probably would’ve come out earlier if I wasn’t bogged down with several other jobs currently.