Barking

The life of a private eye in Taipei is everything but glamorous. The majority of the assignments involve cashing debts for creditors and shadowing spouses suspected of adultery. ‘Old Fellow’ Liu lives, eats and sleeps in the office of his own ‘EARNEST Detective Agency’, a gathering place for outcasts who hope to earn a bundle as detectives. Dressed in black, they set out in groups to intimidate debtors by means of torrents of abuse, fake money that is strewn around to call down misfortune, and faeces – collected in plastic containers from the drains of public toilets – with which they smear the façades of defaulters’ shops. These murky activities do not impress the women who Liu meets through personal ads, either. After yet another unsuccessful date, he sighs: ‘Every time I start talking about my job, they make off.’ The camera, according to the credits handled by the credit department of EARNEST, literally looks over the detectives’ shoulders and registers bizarre, awkward and hilarious situations. The lolling in the office, where the sexist jokes are also appreciated by the only female, and lesbian, Wu, the nocturnal stakeouts of apartments, the barking at defaulters. The cool registration is interrupted by critical questions concerning ethics and morals, which are answered without any reserve. And some scenes, like the scooping and smearing of faeces, deviate from the straightforward shots: they suggest cinematic action by means of slow-motion images and droning techno beats.