A good pooch is despair’s best antidote

Jenny Marder

Lao Er arrives home from his all-night factory job, new toilet seat

in hand, to find that his dog, Cala, the sole joy of his bleak and

uninspired life, has been nabbed by Chinese authorities.

On the surface, director Lu Xuechang’s “Cala, My Dog!” is a

political satire about modern-day China and its government, which, in

the mid-1990s, tried to rid the city of dogs as they were thought to

be rabid and dangerous. The irony is that the dogs, all different

variations of the shin-high scruffy Cala, are about as lovable and

nonthreatening as they come.

The film follows the family on its hapless quest to procure enough

money for a dog permit, which costs the equivalent of three years of

Lao Er’s savings. With the clock ticking, the characters lie, steal,

are chased through the drab streets and crumbling alleys of Beijing

and nearly squander their life savings in order to get their dog

back.

Lao Er, played by Ge You, is a spineless man, brimming with

self-hatred. His wife questions his fidelity, his son despises him

and his actions only reinforce their sentiments.

Trapped in this state, Cala is his only hope for salvation and the

only thing, he confesses, that makes him feel like a man. It’s also

his only connection to Yang Li, a neighboring woman and the object of

his desire.

“She is not a perfect dog, but she is nicer to me than my own

son,” he tells Yang Li.

The son is perhaps the real hero of the movie, but he’s so

overlooked that his courage is easy to miss.

In an effort to gain his father’s attention, the son steals the

dog back, but loses it while confronting a thief who has stolen his

friend’s money. And to try and cushion Cala’s loss, he buys his

father a cat. All this is lost on Lao Er, who bullies him needlessly

anyway.

The film isn’t without humor. Authorities catch Lao Er repeatedly,

but after a guilty smile or a bumbling apology he is set free every

time, most likely out of pity.

But at it’s heart, “Cala, My Dog” is a tale of a family struggling

to find a splinter of hope in an otherwise dreary existence, a family

that seeks comfort and joy in a dog because its members have lost

faith in one another.

* JENNY MARDER is a reporter for the Times Community News in

Huntington Beach. She may be reached at (714) 965-7173 or at

jenny.marder@latimes.com.