I really enjoyed this film. It was very slow-paced, with just enough dialogue to maintain the story, and was shot in black-and-white. All these elements contributed to the success of this character study. What was very fascinating was the premise that there was a "breed" of mute humans that had the intelligence of dogs and were often "pets" for the "normal" humans. I had a lot of questions about this premise that weren't answered in the film, but that just let me use my imagination more. The average American would find this film "boring," but I was totally involved. It kept me in suspense so much that at a few places, I had to leave the film because I couldn't handle what might happen next. The ending surprised me and was worth the wait.