Stray Dogs 01/15 Blu-ray (Rental)

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop’s and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side. Starring Toshiro Mifune as the rookie cop and Takashi Shimura as the seasoned detective who keeps him on the right side of the law, Stray Dog goes beyond crime thriller, probing the squalid world of postwar Japan and the nature of the criminal mind. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa Short documentary on Stray Dog, from the series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, featuring interviews with director Akira Kurosawa, production designer Yoshiro Muraki, actor Keiko Awaji, and others Plus: An essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty and an excerpt from Kurosawa’s book Something Like an Autobiography