Japan Synopsis
野良犬
“… The Suspense Filled Story of 7 Bullets!”
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, 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 and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Stray Dog. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Crime + Drama in Japan
203 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Crime and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Stray Dog itself).
The 1948–1950 Japan Window
Stray Dog holds position #4 of 10 Japan films in the 1948–1950 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1940s Japan Landscape
1949 was the decade’s peak output year for Japan — 4 titles released, including Stray Dog. Bars below show how the 1940s stacked up year by year (20 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 3 other Japan films in 1949.
The 49th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
262 audience reviews — more than 88% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (88th percentile) outruns trending popularity (70th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Stray Dog, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- heatwave · 1
- gun · 22
- film noir · 12
- post war japan · 12
- japan · 454
- tokyo · 78
- detective · 44
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,181 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (74th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.6 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Crime productions specifically: #54 of 402 (top 13%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Film Art Association, TOHO, Shintoho Company |
| Runtime | 2h 2m |
| Release Date | October 17, 1949 |
| IMDb | tt0041699 |