Little Q - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Little Q



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Dog movies are pretty much a staple of the “pull at your heart strings with purely manipulative glee” along the lines of sick people movies. Dogs are an indelible piece of our lives as we have grown up with the domesticated furballs permeating just about every part of our culture. Even moreso than cats have been. They’re cute, adorable, earned the nickname of “man’s best friend” for their unabashed adoration of their human owners, and girls go bonkers at the sight of a tiny puppy (seriously, guys learned long ago that having a dog could be used as a way to meet women). So color me shocked to find out that Asia is capitalizing on the dog movie craze with with films like Little Q.

While Little Q is a Hong Kong production (yayyyy, finally a non mainland Chinese movie to review!), but the source material was taken from a Japanese bestseller that spawned the cute 2004 film Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog before being re-adapted in 2019 for this production. The story revolves around a service dog named Little Q (played by various ADORABLE puppers over the course of the film) as she is raised up by her caretaker (also played by various women as she ages over the time jumps of the film) and the joy she has in raising the pup, only to realize that Little Q is destined to be handed off to another owner once her training is complete.

Little Q’s trainer Simon (Hum Lim) gets the pup prepared for her next stage in life, which happens to be a bit of a rough gig, as she’s given to newly blinded Lee Bo Ting (Simon Yam), a chef who has to come to grips with the fact that his sight is gone. Lee is bitter, angry, and generally wallowing in self pity as his entire life is seemingly come crashing down. Initially refusing a service dog (literally he’s bumping into everything), but soon enough realizes he needs help, and lets the dog into his life, even though his heart is closed off.

What happens next is about as cliched as you can possibly imagine, but it’s still adorably cute even though you as the audience KNOWS beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re being emotionally played like a fiddle. Cute doggie things happen, Lee opens up to the dog and two basically become inseparable (this is a cute dog movie, what did you expect?), as well as the predictable waterworks moments as the film comes to an end.

Is Little Q a fantastic movie? Not in the least. It plays to the lowest common denominator as it tugs at your dog loving heart strings, but still, that denominator is still something worthwhile if you’re a dog fan. We all know that the reason we watch these dog movies is the same reason we see Jean Claude Van Damme movies (I’m dating myself here)...we want to see someone get kicked in the face. E.g., we want to see cut pups on screen and coo and go gaga over the little fluffs. It’s that simple. Little Q plays directly to that audience and doesn’t really attempt to be anything else, and in that regard it actually succeeds pretty well. I smiled, I laughed, I snuffled a bit, all the while knowing that this was a completely manufactured response by the powers that be.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The Blu-ray itself looks great though, as the 2K sourced digital production is bright and glossy with a rather neutral look to it. There’s some moments that have a golden hue to them, but overall I was impressed with the shiny and bright appearance of it all. Details levels are astounding, letting us see Simon Yam’s graying facial hair, individual dog hairs, and intimate clothing details with sharp clarity. I did notice the typical Well Go USA banding that cropped up, but overall this is a very nice looking 1080p image. Very solid, with a nice well saturated color palette.








Audio:

We’re offered a brace of audio tracks to listen to, both in the original Cantonese, with the 5.1 DTS-HD MA being the main one with your typical 2.0 Dolby Digital downmix. The 5.1 track isn’t going to bowl you over with awe, but it’s more than capable of getting the job done. A typical “talky” type film that’s very front heavy, Little Q rounds out it’s 5.1 experience with ambient noises and the score to fill it out just a tad. Bass is light, but noticeable on my twin PB-3000s, and dialog is crisp and clean. The score is a bit on the sappy side from Lowell Lo, but it is a reasonably well done mix at the end of the day. It’s not an action movie, and doesn’t pretend to be one.









Extras:

• Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score: ​

Little Q is supposedly “based on a true story”, but as we all know, “based on a true story” is usually code for “something remotely similar happened somewhere in the vaguest of senses”, but either way, it’s a cute heart melting film that is a bit rote, but still hits most of the right emotional notes to appeal to people. The dog training sequences are actually the best part of the movie as they seem much more realistic than some of the contrived emotional scenes, and as a dog lover myself I could pick out some training bits that are pretty accurate. The Blu-ray looks great, sounds good, and is cute enough that I’d say it’s worth a cute rental.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Simon Yam, Gigi Leung, Him Law, Charlie Yeung, Shanshan Yuan, Frankie Lam, Ming Hu
Directed by: Wing-Cheong Law
Written by: Susan Chan
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Cantonese: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Cantonese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Cantonese
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 17th 2021

Recommendation: Cute Watch