Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 18, 2025

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal collection from Arrow Video.

In 1976 folks in the United States were celebrating the bicentennial anniversary celebration of a famous revolution, but another revolution of a technological rather than a political variety was just beginning to unfold across the ocean in Japan at virtually the same time. That was the year that VHS began its scrappy upstart status against Betamax in a format war which in its day was probably at least as notorious as the one that decades later marked the rollout of high definition home video with competing HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Betamax of course ultimately lost that battle (rather incredibly both Betamax player and VCR production extended well into the 21st century, despite having been supplanted by disc formats), and by the time Toei had the bright idea to start producing direct to video releases in 1989, VHS was the dominant format. In a way it's kind of fascinating to compare and contrast Toei's decision to provide "product" to its chain of video stores with the way the major Hollywood studios used to provide feature films for the theater chains they owned until United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. forced the studios to divest those properties in 1948. One way or the other, despite economic tribulations in Japan which had severely impacted (theatrically exhibited) movie attendance, the direct to video market exploded for Toei, so much so that other major (and minor) Japanese studios soon followed suit by offering their own straight to video productions, though Toei had actually trademarked the term V-Cinema to describe their product. This collection of V-Cinema outings from Arrow includes a nonet of titles that tend to feature hardscrabble criminal types, including the film that started the whole V-Cinema craze, Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage.

Seiji Matano helped to make Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage in a supporting role, and he brings that same visceral intensity to a starring characterization in Burning Dog as Shu, a criminal needing to get out of Dodge (and/or Japan) after a deal goes south. Shu wants to get to Hong Kong, but he needs a counterfeit passport to get there, and the only way seems to be arranging a heist of a U.S. military base in Okinawa. Kind of incredibly, this almost lunatic tale is evidently based on a real life robbery of a U.S. military base in Japan, but that's not to suggest this V-Cinema outing really wants to traffic in "ripped from the headlines" territory. The foregoing is actually a rather broad outline that doesn't detail some of what gives Burning Dog some of its gritty power, namely a number of characters with shifting allegiances, and some of whom have troubled personal lives. The heist side of things may actually be something of an afterthought, though it at least provides some context for that old adage "there's no honor among thieves".

Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Burning Dog is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Arrow lumps all of the films together in their page devoted to the presentations in this set's insert booklet, as follows:

The films in this collection represent a period of film production in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s where films were made by the Toei Company specifically for home video. Beginning with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage, these "V-Cinema" titles were produced quickly and inexpensively, but afforded filmmakers significant freedom when it came to censorship, resulting in riskier content than what had been produced for cinema distribution.

As such, the modest origins of these titles can be seen in these presentations. All films have been remastered by the Toei Company in high definition and are presented in the 1.33:1 home video format of the time.

This presentation has a somewhat jaundiced color timing that can add slight hints of yellow at times, something that can make waters look a bit on the green side rather than blue. That niggling qualm aside, the palette actually is rather vibrant here, at least in the more brightly lit outdoor moments. Detail levels may frankly never be exceptional, but they're at least decent and often more than that in close-ups. There's a somewhat fuzzy look to this production that I sense is due at least in part to some of the location shooting. The fuzzy quality is probably only exacerbated or at least reinforced by a pretty heavy grain field. As with many of the other films in this set, minor age related wear and tear can be spotted.

Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Burning Dog features LPCM 2.0 audio in the original Japanese. Some nice outdoor location work, including some seaside, allows for good use of ambient environmental sounds. Despite a plot that would seem to hint at "montage ready" moments like a heist being planned, Burning Dog is actually another talk fest, with lots of "two hander" dialogue scenes between pairs of people. All spoken material is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Fire and Ice (HD; 15:55) is an appreciation of the film by Mark Schilling.


• Trailer (HD; 00:17)


• Introduction by Masaki Tanioka (HD; 4:05) is accessible under the Play Film menu and is authored to lead directly to the feature. Subtitled in English.

Arrow has packaged Burning Dog and Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat together on one disc, and the keepcase features a reversible sleeve highlighting each title, as well as enclosing an art card for each film.

Burning Dog Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You really can't go wrong with Matano playing a cooler than cool anti-hero, and if Burning Dog could have arguably upped the actual action quotient a bit, it's still often an exciting watch. Those interested may want to consider checking out The Game Trilogy for some interesting tethers. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements appealing. Recommended.