Jigoku no banken: kerubersu

STRAY DOG is a sequel/companion piece to Oshii's 1987 film RED SPECTACLES. In RED SPECTACLES we learned how the elite police force of the Panzer Corps. was disbanded and how a group of officers refused to give up their weapons. One of them fled the country and returned years later. RED SPECTACLES was about what he experiences after his return. STRAY DOG is about his adventures abroad. Thus this later film adds information to the story of the earlier film, some of which actually makes the convoluted weirdness of RED SPECTACLES seem a little less impenetrable. STRAY DOG has a unique atmosphere and feels very different from Oshii's typical melancholy and brooding efforts. For most of its running time the film is upbeat and beautiful. It is set in Taipeh and makes great use of the scenery there. And once again this would only be a fraction of the film that it is without the ingenious score by longtime Oshii-collaborator Kenji Kawai.