Cave of the Yellow Dog (Mongolia), 2001, 93 min. (drama) The young daughter of a Mongolian nomadic family forms a relationship with a stray puppy, but her parents fear it will attack their sheep and won’t let her keep it. This G-rated family film provides a fascinating glimpse into nomad life.
Ron I have no idea if there is a cave in the show. This is an exceedingly strange Chinese propaganda movie, and no, there is no cave. It is a Disneyesque "magical realism" portrayal of a plucky girl from a so called traditional Tibetan (Maybe mongolian? It looked like Mongolia)family spending the summer with their sheep. It is intended to show how happy and carefree life is under Chinese rule, and how both cultures can happily coexist while happy kids learn to count by piling up yak turds, but evil always lurks, for there are wolves! They are allowed to show evidence of their traditional beliefs, but you can be sure the Dalai Lama is conspicuously absent! What is completely weird is that all of the actors, who appear to be Tibetan and have Tibetan names, all speak perfect idiomatic midwestern English. At first I thought it was dubbing, but then I observed that every word on every person's lips, including those of little kids, was perfectly matched to their facial and body expressions. I focused intently, there wasn't a single slip, so the producers must have gone to extraordinary lengths. It just goes to show how intent the Chinese are on producing good propaganda. I was so impressed that I decided to watch another Chinese Tibetan propaganda film. I have forgotten the name, but it was about a group of Chinese Possum Cops led by a Tibetan turncoat who hunt down and kill a band of peasant poachers who are after Chiru antelope. The scenes are harrowing, instead of happy kids at play in wildflower meadows, it is high altitude hell where everybody's fingers fall off and nobody can breathe. The goal is to show how horrible Tibet and Tibetans are, and how enviros ought to support the Chinese who are clearly superior to the benighted greedy superstitious fuzzy bunny killing peasants. If the reality of Tibet is even remotely similar to the frozen wasteland shown in the flick then you can cancel my reservation! I got the impression that the first flick is entirely intended for Gringo audiences, and that the second, which was of much lower quality, was intended for home consumption. Both flicks are sinister, evil, and interestingly different from the propaganda to which we are accustomed. Sleazeweazel
