Hell Dogs Review: Drab, Drag and Dumb Yakuza Movie That Lost Its Essence

Hell Dogs is a gritty Japanese film based on the novel of the same name by Akio Fukamachi. Hell Dogs, directed by Masato Harada, stars Junichi Okada, Kentarô Sakaguchi, Mayu Matsuoka, Miyavi, Kazuki Kitamura, and Shinobu Take. The movie runs for 2 hours and is available in the Japanese language.

The official Netflix description of the movie reads as follows: “Bent on revenge, a traumatized ex-police officer must infiltrate a yakuza organization by befriending one of the group’s most unhinged members.”

-Hell Dogs Review Does Not Contain Spoilers- 

Hell Dogs began with a grimly dressed man walking down the woods to meet a man, not to say hello but to end his life. In the beginning scene itself, we encounter a good fight between the protagonist and the man called “mad dog.” Now, that particular scene made me curious as to why the protagonist killed him. But my interest was immediately piqued when the lead’s backstory was revealed in a hurried and abrupt manner.

It blew off my interest, and I didn’t find the protagonist suspicious anywhere. But I waited and tried again to see where the story went. Apparently, the protagonist is a former policeman who is taking revenge, and so he gets recruited for an undercover mission—pretty cliche, right? The Korean drama K2 immediately came to mind. How is it always that the once-good cop guy ends up seeking revenge?

All right, I tried to push myself to see the plot develop, but damn… I was wrong. For a solid two hours, I sat and watched a complex plot that was so unnecessary. As a huge fan of Yakuza-themed Japanese movies, Hell Dogs made me feel hell. It was extremely boring and dragged. At the movie’s end, I wondered, “Now what?” It was so blunt, and it just made no sense to me.

Hell Dogs: Colour Grading and Location

Sorry, not sorry; the movie made my eyes hurt. Honestly, I love the noir aesthetic in horror and action films, but something was off in this movie. The colour grading was subpar. Though I thought the locations were really interesting (the places were fresh; it wasn’t a typical area), the colour grading work just put me off.

And, oh my goodness, the graphic images…The bloody scenes weren’t too gory or simple. It was dumb. It was pointless to hide a murderous scene only then to show a messed up corpse with bad graphic makeup.

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Unnecessary Supporting Characters

Supporting characters are literally the key to the protagonist, but in this movie, they were completely useless. I found none of the supporting actors except the crewmate of the protagonist appealing. Maybe these characters had a life in the book, but watching the movie felt pointless.

Cast of Hell Dogs

Not gonna lie, this is probably the only aspect of the movie that I like. The actors were on point, be it their style, acting style, etc. As per the character roles, the cast did feel appealing, and their acting looked too real and good. Some of the stunts were pleasing to watch when they were executed by the actors. Also, to add on, Miyavi looked stunning, no lie!

Hell Dogs: Final Verdict

Hell Dogs let me down. I hate to say this, but I do love complex plots because I often re-watch and then get flabbergasted, but I really didn’t want to watch this movie again. I felt thankful that it had ended. It was completely dragged and felt too slow and pointless to comprehend. 

Masato Harada is such a great director who’s been in the cinema field for 30 years. But to get such a movie from him felt terrible. Hopefully, he’ll make it up with a blockbuster in the coming future.

If you want to watch this movie and find some interesting aspects that I missed out on, stream it on Netflix. 

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