{"id":698,"date":"2009-08-02T17:20:07","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T16:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=698"},"modified":"2009-08-02T19:21:19","modified_gmt":"2009-08-02T18:21:19","slug":"god-man-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2009\/08\/02\/god-man-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"GOD MAN DOG"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"God<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nFormat<\/B>: DVD

\nDate:<\/B> 10 August 2009

\nDistributor:<\/B> Terracotta Distribution

\nDirector:<\/B> Singing Chen

\nWriters:<\/B> Singing Chen and Lou Yi-an

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Liu lang shen gou ren <\/I>

\nCast:<\/B> Singing Chen and Lou Yi-an

\nTaiwan 2006

\n119 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nTaiwanese director Singing Chen’s second film God Man Dog<\/I> is made up of four or five interwoven narratives. It made me wonder what the purpose of this cinematic form can be. Perhaps the stories might join together to make a single larger story. Or what happens in one story might reflect interestingly on what happens in another. Or it might just be that one of the ways a work of art or entertainment can give pleasure is by letting us see how a puzzle is solved.<\/p>\n

\nGod Man Dog<\/I> is a converging ensemble piece í\u00a0 la Altman, but lacks his masterly orchestration of disparate elements. It is hard to see a coherent narrative whole, or one element making sense of another. The stories are connected not intrinsically but by chance elements. The characters all make journeys, and there is some convergence of time and place (Taipei, a regional village, and the highway that joins them). But the stories do not contribute significantly to each other’s development or resolution. <\/p>\n

\nPerhaps this is too analytical a way to approach what this film has to offer us. It may be better seen not as narrative-driven but as a set of contrasting studies of people confronted by weighty problems, to do with alcohol, depression, work, money, growing up, sex, parenthood, disability, death. We are shown how they try to get to grips with their lives, and in several cases are invited to consider the role that religious or superstitious feeling plays in this. God and the supernatural do not seem to give the characters what they need: we are left thinking that they face their troubles alone unless they find something in the human world to give meaning to their lives. <\/p>\n

There is an impersonal feeling to the cinematography - little sense of a human touch in the filming, of the camera’s presence, of light playing on film. The blank, detached gaze of the camera emphasises the characters’ isolation, but also gives them a kind of equality: there are no protagonists or privileged characters in this film. They are on an equal footing not only with each other but with us, for there is no judgement and no irony in the way they are depicted - the viewer does not see more than the characters see, or understand better than the characters understand. <\/p>\n

God Man Dog<\/I> is not, I am pretty sure, a deep film, though it is ‘about’ Life, Death, and all that. However, it does show us things about people in ways that are perhaps its own. The acting always carries conviction: what we see seems real, even when it is intriguingly odd. The dogs? I think they are just random interlopers into the human stories.<\/p>\n

Peter Momtchiloff<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taiwanese director Singing Chen’s second film God Man Dog<\/I> is made up of four or five interwoven narratives. It made me wonder what the purpose of this cinematic form can be.
\nReview by Peter Momtchiloff<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvds-and-blu-rays"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-bg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6320,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/02\/15\/the-moulin\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":0},"title":"The Moulin","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"February 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A fascinating, contemplative documentary on 1930s Taiwanese modernist poets. Review by James B. Evans","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Moulin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/The-Moulin-594x419.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/The-Moulin-594x419.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/The-Moulin-594x419.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/11\/01\/tsai-ming-liang\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":1},"title":"TSAI MING-LIANG","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"November 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Released simultaneously in the UK in November, Tsai Ming-liang's The Wayward Cloud (2005) and I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) are two disparate and challenging pieces of work from this Asian auteur. While both movies explore similar themes (loneliness, urban dislocation, desire, an obsession with water) The Wayward Cloud\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6146,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/01\/21\/the-assassin-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":2},"title":"The Assassin","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Hou Hsiao-hsien\u2019s most recent work is the anti-action film, with aesthetics and technical mastery taking precedence over narrative or meaning. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Assassin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/The-Assassin-594x356.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/The-Assassin-594x356.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/The-Assassin-594x356.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4753,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/08\/01\/the-deer-hunter\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":3},"title":"The Deer Hunter","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"August 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Cimino\u2019s ambitious three-hour epic on the Vietnam War and its returning soldiers remains a powerful and stylish film. Review by Paul Huckerby","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Deer Hunter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Deer-Hunter-594x277.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Deer-Hunter-594x277.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Deer-Hunter-594x277.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/03\/01\/the-go-master\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":4},"title":"THE GO MASTER","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"March 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tian Zhuangzhuang's latest film to date, The Go Master, is now opening at the ICA as the centrepiece of the China in London 2008 film programme, which features a long overdue retrospective of Tian's small but ground-breaking body of work. Review by Pamela Jahn","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/05\/01\/spider-lilies\/","url_meta":{"origin":698,"position":5},"title":"SPIDER LILIES","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"May 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A soft and tender tale of queer love and loneliness in modern Taiwan, Zero Chou's second feature Spider Lilies was screened as part of this year's London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Review by Pamela Jahn","rel":"","context":"In "Festivals"","block_context":{"text":"Festivals","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/festivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":709,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}