Black Dog

A bus flips over on the road near the Gobi Desert, and Lang, a former stunt motorcyclist and musician, is among the passengers. He returns home on parole to a town that has changed beyond recognition. The roadside chaos echoes the larger sense of loss that the town has suffered, including the many stray dogs that now roam the streets.

Lang discovers that many residents have left and the town feels empty. His band has disbanded, and his father struggles with alcoholism while his sister is far away and unable to visit. The familiar comforts of his past are gone, setting a somber mood for his return.

A bounty is placed on a black dog as part of a broader program to remove stray or unregistered animals for Olympic preparations. Lang pursues the dog but is defeated and left with bites from the encounter. The failed pursuit seeds the film’s recurring tension between compassion and necessity.

Lang signs on with Uncle Yao's local dog-capturing team and begins to work with the dogs it hunts. He clashes with some team members, yet Uncle Yao forgives his early outbursts and recognizes his growing care for the animals. The work gradually reveals his gentler side.

The team catches the black dog and Lang is tasked with transporting it. A strong windstorm strands them in the wild overnight, forcing them to huddle for warmth. Lang is bitten again, and the dog’s survival becomes a central concern.

A traveling circus arrives in town, bringing color and distraction, and Lang grows closer to Grape, a dancer in the troupe. He falls ill and spends time quarantining with the black dog, tying his fate to the animal. The bond with Grape begins to offer a new horizon for him.

Butcher Hu, a snake farmer, harasses Lang in a bid for revenge for his nephew’s death ten years earlier. Around the same period, Lang’s father’s health deteriorates and he is admitted to the hospital, where he asks Lang to pull the plug. The two pressures drive Lang toward desperate choices.

Lang shares a drink with Grape and listens as she laments life and marriage. The conversation hints at a desire for companionship beyond his solitary life. It deepens the connection between them as he weighs his own future.

Lang is captured by Butcher Hu's gang while returning home drunk with his dog. He escapes custody during an earthquake, but the black dog vanishes in the chaos. The search for the dog becomes a focal point of his quest for redemption.

Lang visits Butcher Hu's snake farm and finds Hu bitten by a venomous snake. He administers aid and saves him, and Hu explains that the dog ran away, offering to reconcile. This act shifts their feud toward a fragile, hopeful truce.

Lang tracks the black dog to a dog racing venue outside town, where it lies in critical condition. He stays by its side, tending to it with quiet determination. The dog's fragile life becomes a test of Lang’s resolve to care for creatures despite the town’s hostility.

Back home the black dog dies, but it has already fathered a puppy with another stray. Lang frets over the loss but holds onto the pup as a symbol of the dog’s legacy. The moment marks a painful but hopeful turning point.

The whole town travels to the desert to witness a solar eclipse, and the zoo animals are freed to roam the empty streets. The spectacle feels like a cleansing of the town’s past and a shared, cathartic moment. Even the atmosphere of the town shifts in the glow of the eclipse.

On the night of the Olympic opening ceremony, Lang shares a final drink with his ailing father in the hospital and pulls the plug. He then leaves town and rides off into the desert with the puppy, choosing a new life on the open road. The film closes with Lang stepping into the vast, uncertain future.