Customer Ratings & Reviews

The edition is hugh quality, and the film is superlative.

It’s one of Kurosawa’s best achievements…very entertaining.

If you're looking for an amazing police drama, look no further than Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog. Following a rookie detective whose gun gets stolen by a pickpocket in post-WWII Tokyo, Stray Dog offers a solid story replete with masterfully-crafted suspense. In addition to the awesome movie, you get a slew of bonus features. A 32-minute documentary on the making of Stray Dog fills you in on the history of the project. A full-length commentary track by Stephen Prince, a well-respected Kurosawa historian, dissects the movie and its place in Japanese history and society. It's always educational, but Prince's academic tone can become a bit dry at points. The subtitle translation is perfect, and the image quality is gorgeous, but what do you expect, it's a Criterion release. In addition, it comes with a printed booklet featuring essays by Terrence Rafferty and Akira Kurosawa himself. If you're in the mood for a great early noir and feel like watching a master at work, you couldn't go wrong with Stray Dog.

Before the Criterion Collection released this, I owned a terrible import transfer DVD. I can't recommend this film enough. Outstanding transfer as usual for Criterion. Any fan of Kurosawa, classic world cinema, or the new world of Hong Kong cinema for example: Johnny To, will love this film. The first time I saw this I was blown away. I personally think that some of Kurosawa's other films need more recognition, Seven Samurai is good, but not any better than Red Beard, High and Low, Ikiru, Rashomon, Ran, Yojimbo, or The Hidden Fortress.