Cave Of The Yellow Dog (2005/DTS/Tartan)
Picture: C+ Sound: B-* Extras: C Film: B-
I don’t
know if I am seeing Byambasuren Davaa’s Cave
Of The Yellow Dog (2005) properly by seeing it first on DVD, but with all
of its critical acclaim, I can see its appeal focusing on children in
Mongolia. Of course, the idea of a child
wanting to keep a dog against father’s wishes is like TV sitcom material, but
from another culture and country, with this kind of cinematography and
intelligence, it is suddenly art to many.
It is art
to at least some extent, but maybe not a total masterwork. It does take us somewhere we have not been
before, even if some of the situation is what we have seen before. It is very likable and watchable without too
much appeal to pity, but non-professional actors are used and used well. That does not make it Italian Neo-Realism
either and there is something mythical about the father being afraid the dog
may have been raised with wolves, though the film does not address that either. All in all, Cave Of The Yellow Dog is charming and worth a good look, but that
has limits so don’t have expectations too high and you’ll get it.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image can be colorful and compelling, but this
transfer is not totally getting all out of the original film print and
impressive cinematography by Daniel Schönauer, but it will likely take and HD
edition to really show how good this looks.
*The
three English audio options (Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby 5.1 and especially DTS 5.1)
are impressive for a quiet film with interesting surrounds that home theater
owners will enjoy, but the Mongolian DTS 6.1 mix is missing the foreign
dialogue!
Tartan
reps have told us this is a problem with only early copies and will be
corrected in later pressings. That will
hopefully be fixed soon and when it is, we would likely up the sound a letter
grade. Extras include the original
trailer and director interview.
- Nicholas Sheffo
