My Heart Puppy (Meongmoongi)

Korea (2023) Dir. Kim Joo-Hwan

Dogs are great aren’t they? For some people they are just pets; for the rest of us they are part of the family, and you cherish your family. Obviously, a day will come when we have to say goodbye to our dogs but hopefully due to natural causes and not because our hand is forced. That would be even more heartbreaking.

Min-soo (Yoo Yeon-seok) proposes to his girlfriend Seong-gyeong (Jung In-sun). She is about to say yes but first she has a confession to make – she is allergic to dogs. This is a big deal as Min-soo lives with his golden retriever Rooney, the only surviving member of his immediate family. Seong-gyeong explains she hides her allergy by taking medication but if they are to live together, Rooney can’t be with them.

Reluctant to part with Rooney, Min-soo looks for someone within the family to take Rooney in, but with options are limited, Min-soo must look to outsiders His cousin Jin-guk (Cha Tae-hyun) suggests advertising on Instagram which yields many results, most promising being a place in Jeju where the dogs look happy. So, they set off from Seoul to meet the owner, Ah-Min (Kim Yoo-jung).

Allergies aren’t fun but expecting a dog owner to give up their bets friend just because you are getting married is a huge ask, almost cheeky. If the meds are working, then that’s half the battle won, right. However, writer-director Kim Joo-Hwan isn’t trying to start a war between dog lovers and heathen deviants with My Heart Puppy; instead, he is raising awareness of the plight of abandoned dogs.

Every year, around 6.5 million pets are abandoned worldwide, with dogs being the most common to be left on the scrap heap. Thankfully, around half are adopted but that still leaves the other half left to die unloved. We know it isn’t possible for everyone to take in an animal which is why there needs to be more animal shelters whether a temporary measure or somewhere comfortable to live out their last days.  

Turning into a road trip movie, Min-soo and Jin-guk are about to discover not everyone is a dog person along with the lack of options for abandoned pets to have a roof over their heads. Before we get to that point, it should be noted that letting go of Rooney is not easy for Min-soo but he realises the sacrifices Seong-gyeong has already made over the curse of the courtship, and that at least deserves some recompense.

Before you ask, “Why not have Rooney live separately in the house?” Min-soo has kind of shot himself in the foot over that one. Seong-gyeong is a flight attendant and Min-soo suggest renting an apartment near the airport so Seong-gyeong hasn’t far to go when coming home. It’s expensive but Min-soo inherited his mother’s old house when she died and he plans to sell it to raise the deposit.

Living in an apartment means no garden for a kennel, and whilst this suits Min-soo, it would play havoc with Seong-gyeong’s allergies, so poor Rooney must live elsewhere. Naturally, Min-soo wants this to be nearby and with someone he trusts, yet discussing this with Jin-guk, the realisation is this isn’t possible. So, the net is spread further afield, affording us some amiable comedy as the pair interview the early candidates.

Jin-guk is a bit of a grifter, having shut his café down through not modernising and is in need of money to repay his uncle the loan. As a man with no ties, Jin-guk doesn’t have the same emotional connection with Rooney (or anyone) as Min-soo does, thus sees this as a straightforward handing over the leash to someone else. That is about to change.

Usually, road trips are a recipe for disaster for our protagonists, facing one calamity after another, falling out over something stupid, then reconciling having endured a journey of personal discovery and mutual respect. This road trip is a little different in that almost none of these things happens. There is a moment of self-discovery for one of them and the ultimate destination is an eye-opener for the wrong reasons, otherwise this might go down in cinema history as the least complicated cross-country voyage.

It’s not that it isn’t eventful, just not in the way you’d expect – bit of a spoiler: instead of leaving one dog behind, they end up with a whole car full of them! If it isn’t taking on someone else’s dog that needs looking after, our intrepid journeymen find five poodle puppies dumped by the road, rescue a terrier about to sold to a restaurant (seriously Korea, screw you on that one), and save a pug from being put down.  

Kim might use the various stopping off points to be didactic about how dogs are abused or taken for granted, bringing in characters with a sob story to tell in scenes that are palpably heavier from the general frothy tone. However, they are juxtaposed by scenes of how responsive and alive the dogs are after a bit of TLC and this has a greater effect than piling on the shame.

Yoo Yeon-seok and Cha Tae-hyun have a fantastic chemistry together whilst taking care to keep the characters true to their foundations even after the profundity of the journey takes control. As fun as these two are together, the dogs are what makes this a warm, fluffy, and adorable film. They don’t always do much but thee don’t need to – just seeing them joyfully running around is fulfilling enough. Bonus points for the pug too!

Cute canines make everything better, whether the story is driven by convention or by its own heart and whilst My Heart Puppy does threaten to enter into schmaltzy territory, it pulls back from the precipice every time. Lest we forget, Kim is making an important point about abandoned animals, and if this film gets through to one person, it has done its job. Woof!