Cala, My Dog!
Cala, My Dog! (卡拉是条狗; also romanized Ka la shi tiao gou) is a 2003 Chinese comedy-drama film directed and written by Lu Xuechang, starring Ge You as a Beijing factory worker whose unlicensed pet dog is confiscated by the police, giving him until 4 p.m. the next day to raise the 5,000 yuan registration fee.1 • 2 It was produced by Huayi Brothers and released in mainland China on February 2, 2003.1
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 卡拉是条狗 (Ka la shi tiao gou)1 |
| Director and writer | Lu Xuechang1 |
| Stars | Ge You (Lao Er), Ding Jiali (Yu Lan), Li Bin (Liang Liang), Xia Yu, Li Qinqin (Yang Li)1 |
| Release | February 2, 2003 (China); 100 minutes; Mandarin1 |
| Production | Huayi Brothers Media1 |
| Setting | Beijing, 1995, when dog permits with an identifying photo were introduced to counter rabies3 |
| Awards | Best Feature Film, 10th Beijing Student Film Festival; Best Film, 4th Chinese Film Media Awards (2004)4 |
| Box office | 7 million RMB in mainland China (figure as of December 3, 2022)5 |
Spoilers
Plot
Lao Er (Ge You) is a state-factory worker in Beijing whose life is confined to the plant and the home, with little money and little standing: he hands his monthly wage to his wife Yu Lan (Ding Jiali) and cannot connect with his teenage son Liang Liang (Li Bin). Only in front of the family dog, Cala, does he feel respected; as he tells Yang Li (Li Qinqin), a neighbor and old friend from whom Cala originally came, "She is not a perfect dog, but she is nicer to me than my own son."6 • 5
While Yu Lan is walking Cala, police checking dog licenses seize the animal because it has no permit. The family is told to come with the license by 4 p.m. the next day or lose the dog.2 The 5,000 yuan fee is a sum Lao Er despairs of raising; one account puts it at the cost of feeding his family for six months, another at the equivalent of three years of his savings.2 • 6 The film counts down the remaining hours with on-screen title cards, as Lao Er, his son, Yang Li, and her ex-husband scheme, borrow, and improvise across the city to get Cala back.3 • 7
Themes and reception
The film is set in 1995, when Beijing introduced dog permits, complete with an identifying photo, as a measure against rabies.3 Reviewers have read it as a social satire of bureaucracy and the cost of the license, with officials open to small bribes, and at the same time as a social-realist portrait of a family that has lost faith in one another and finds comfort in a dog.7 • 6 The Melbourne International Film Festival, which screened it in 2003, called it "a biting social satire, with wry, comical observations of life in modern day Beijing" that played to rapt audiences at the Berlin Film Festival that year.3
Awards and festival run. The film was exhibited at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival4 and later won Best Feature Film at the 10th Beijing Student Film Festival and Best Film at the 4th Chinese Film Media Awards, held in 2004; it was also nominated for Best Feature Film at the 26th Hundred Flowers Awards.4 • 5 IMDb lists 6 wins and 14 nominations in total.1
Production notes
Lu Xuechang wrote the role of Lao Er with Ge You as the model during the scripting stage.4 Feng Xiaogang, who appears in a cameo as a driver, served as one of the film's producers alongside Wang Zhonglei.8 • 7 The dog that played Cala was not a pedigreed animal: director Lu told the audience at the Beijing premiere in February 2003 that she was eight years old, had just given birth to eight puppies, and had been abandoned by her owner, who kept the litter; crew members scouting dogs heard her crying outside the owner's door and chose her. Her sounds in the film are her own, without dubbing.9
The film runs 100 minutes in color with Dolby Digital sound and a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.1 After the February 2, 2003 mainland release, it screened in Hong Kong on May 15, 2003, at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2004, and in Tokyo on April 30, 2005.10
References
- Cala, My Dog! (2003), IMDb
- Cala, My Dog!, Cinequest film page
- Cala, My Dog!, Melbourne International Film Festival archive
- 卡拉是条狗, 百度百科
- 卡拉是条狗, 快懂百科
- A good pooch is despair's best antidote, Los Angeles Times (April 16, 2004)
- Cala, My Dog! (2003) Review, Far East Films
- 卡拉是条狗 (2003), 1905电影网
- 《卡拉是条狗》北京首映 小狗抢了葛优风头, Sina Entertainment (February 27, 2003)
- Cala, My Dog! (2003) Release info, IMDb
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2003 to 2004 › Titles 1 to L
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
Your notes
© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.