A woman who loses custody of the dog she and her ex-boyfriend brought up together decides to snatch him back in “Dog Fight,” a dark comedy from actor-director Ryu Hyunkyung (“Don’t Go Back”).
The project is part of the Asian Project Market, which runs within the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM).
Minjeong and Seungil split after eight years together, but the law hands their dog Ppoppo to him, leaving her a visit every other week that he rarely allows. When Seungil says the visits are over for good, Minjeong grabs Ppoppo on impulse and hides out at a friend’s place, where her joy soon tips into obsession. Then Ppoppo vanishes and Seungil says the dog is dead. Minjeong is crushed until she learns Ppoppo is still alive, and a three-way war for the dog breaks out. Ryu, who writes and directs, also stars.
“‘Dog Fight’ is a fight over a dog, but in the end it is a film about people,” Ryu says. Through the exes’ battle, she examines the possessiveness that passes for love.
The law treats a dog that has shared eight years of someone’s life as property, Ryu notes, and the years spent raising it as possession. Seungil wants to own Ppoppo through paperwork. Minjeong calls herself the dog’s mom and wants to merge with him. Donghyun, a younger friend, makes Minjeong’s decisions for her with the best of intentions. “All three hold on to someone else in the name of doing what’s best for them,” she says. “No one can be anyone’s owner. Somewhere between staying together and letting go, I wanted this film to ask what love is.”
Ryu sees the new project as the third in a loose run of films she has written and made herself. “Don’t Go Back” captured the moment before love starts, and “Old Boy,” a working title she is now shooting, follows two people through years spent together. “Dog Fight” picks up after the breakup. In front of the small creature they shared, Ryu says, people get surprisingly earnest, which turns them comic and sometimes scary, and she wanted to draw out both the laughs and the unease.
“Old Boy” is roughly 80% shot. Ryu will complete it and its post-production before moving to “Dog Fight,” whose first draft is finished and now being reworked one scene and one line at a time.
The film is produced by Kim Sehun of Semosi with Ryu’s Ryune Film. Kim’s credits include Yoon Gaeun’s “The World of Love,” which played Toronto and won the Roberto Rossellini Awards jury prize and the People’s Choice Award at Pingyao. He also produced Yoon’s “The House of Us,” Hwang Seulgi’s “The Red Nails,” Im Ojung’s “Hail to Hell” and Choi Hana’s “More Than Family,” and was line producer on Yoon’s Berlinale title “The World of Us.”
Kim says the logline instantly made him think of the many couples he knows who raise a pet together in place of having children. “I became convinced that this is a story we need right now,” he says.
Pre-production is slated for June through August 2027, with a 30-day shoot in September and October and post-production running into February 2028. The team is eyeing a festival launch in the second quarter of 2028 and a release in the fourth quarter.
In Busan, Kim wants to meet international co-producers and financiers as well as programmers from festivals abroad, and to test whether the film’s theme connects with audiences beyond Korea.
Next, Ryu has several other stories written, including one about actors who aren’t stars, a trip with YouTuber KwakTube and a love story about a couple in their fifties.
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