Stray (II) (2019) User Reviews

Dark and Depressive Cinematography

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 5 August 2020]

When a woman is found carbonized and petrified in a storehouse, Police Detective Stella Murphy (Christine Woods) is assigned by her chief Jake (Ross Partridge) to the case. Jake is Stella's former husband and they separated when their only child died in a tragic accident. Stella has just recovered from her loss and returned to the police department. The woman is identified as Kyoko (Saki Miata), and Detective Murphy goes to her home and meets her mother Seiko (Takayo Fischer) and her daughter Noriko (Karen Fukuhara). Soon Stella befriends Noriko and learns that her family has a secret power and is threatened by a mysterious biker (Miyavi).

"Stray" is an action film with a dark and depressive cinematography that could have been a great pilot of a series. The story has a great potential unfortunately wasted in a rushed screenplay that does not develop well the interesting and rich characters. Anyway, it is worthwhile watching this intriguing film with less expectations. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Weird little story that never turned into anything

[safsurfer · 6/10 · 20 July 2019]

This might have been better as an 8 part series so the characters, like the main ones, could have been developed better as to learn what their powers were all about. We got about a two minute explanation, sort of, about 3/4 of the way through from the brother that didn't explain much. All we knew was they had some sort of smokey power that could kill or heal and not much more than that. The acting overall though was fine just not enough time to get into anything real. Special effects and production value were fine as well. It was a slow rolling film that skimmed over the top of everything that might have added interest in the characters which also made the second half sort of boring. The first half at least was trying to figure out what was going on, so it could have actually been better with a better more developed script. It's watchable but only if nothing better to do.

Worth a watch over a TV dinner but you're not going to be wow'ed by either.

[S_Soma · 5/10 · 7 March 2019]

Imagine sitting down to enjoy what, at first glance, appears to be a tasty meal only to discover that a lot of it is... underdone.

STRAY is like that. Underdone.

STRAY starts intriguingly with what appears to be a dead person, still standing and still smoking, burnt to a crisp in the middle of an old warehouse. The police are called in to investigate this perplexing discovery, and in the course of time we find out that the dead body was not burned, but rather was petrified, and apparently 1000 years old according to carbon dating. What on earth could this mystery be?

Because of identification found nearby, the lead police investigator on the case, Murphy (Christine Woods), easily tracks down the home and remaining family of the petrified victim. Here she discovers the grandmother and daughter of the victim who, unexpectedly, decline to go and identify the body. Further, they don't even seem to want to talk to the police about their murdered, or at least strangely killed, family member.

But the granddaughter, Nori, sneaks out at the first opportunity and goes to Detective Murphy and asks to see her mother's body. As soon as she does, a blatantly supernatural incident occurs and, utterly incongruously, Detective Murphy doesn't react with anything more than mild surprise. From my perspective, this is where the sense of being bland and underdone begins to build.

The movie goes forward in this way, somnambulating along through scene after scene with remarkable things happening but very little explanation or reaction from the characters forthcoming. The context or history of these magical capabilities is never really explained. All we ever really find out is that Nori is the "good" version of these special powers and her brother, Jin, is the "evil" version. Given that we have a good and evil version of super or magic powers at hand, it's just about guaranteed that they will either merge into a holistic whole (a la DARK CRYSTAL) or there will be a battle between good and evil to the death (a la about a million movies). I will leave these entirely predictable possibilities for the reader to explore.

The notions of good and evil are carried through to the special-effects. The good power of Nori is depicted as the air being filled with a close approximation of the ripples cast upon the floor of a swimming pool shortly after everyone has gotten out, followed by plants suddenly growing at an accelerated rate and culminating in blossoms springing even from the petrified form of Nori's dead mother. Conversely, Jin's evil powers are depicted as the air being filled with smoke and ash precipitating out of the air. Not the best special-effects ever, I suppose, but adequate to purpose and for representing the point the director wished to make.

Thematically, I had a problem with STRAY because the notions of good and evil as depicted are very alloyed. It could be easily argued that Jin was, initially, a complete innocent. While he was born with "evil" powers, a completely arbitrary cultural designation, they simply were what they were and he certainly didn't ask for them. When Jin is still just a child, there is an incident in which he reflexively uses his powers to protect his mother, which is completely reasonable and understandable, and his family (mother and grandmother) responds by abandoning him. If Jin is evil, then he was made that way by his mother and grandmother who, like Nori, our supposed to be "good". Initially, Jin only attacks his mother and grandmother is a downstream consequence of his abandonment and whatever horrors may have been visited upon him as a young abandoned child.

I really don't see how one could defend the mother and grandmother is being "good" given what they did to Jin.

Additionally, Nori kills just as effectively as Jin with her powers as she demonstrates very effectively by killing Jin.

In short, I'm not really sure what the message or point to STRAY was supposed to be. It can't be a representation of the battle between good and evil because they don't exist unambiguously in this movie.

I was also confused by the selection of the title "Stray". It doesn't seem to be descriptive or indicative of anything about the movie or any of the characters. Nori isn't a stray; she's an orphan. Jin isn't a stray; he was betrayed and abandoned. Who was the stray? Why was that title chosen?

Not only was the plot line more like a rough draft than a fully completed story, but the story as written seemed to be full of plot holes. For example, the grandmother surely had to recognize the manner in which her daughter was killed, petrified as she was in the warehouse, as clearly related to something that might have been done by her "evil" grandson or certainly the same kind of person with the relevant special powers. But either grandson or someone else, it clearly was not an accident and was related to the supernatural powers that were at the core of this family. Whoever killed the mother had to be aware of the rest of the members of the family and quite possibly where they lived; why would the grandmother foolishly leave herself and her granddaughter sitting ducks in the family apartment? No surprise that whoever was doing the killing quickly showed up and killed the grandmother when she was alone in the apartment. The whole thing didn't make any sense. Plot beats just need to happen and they happen whether they make sense or not.

So I return to my initial statement. STRAY was just underdone. Photography was fine, the special-effects were adequate to purpose in our current world of an endless succession of superhero comics brought to the big screen, the acting was acceptable, but the whole thing ended up being flavorless.

Should have focused on the antagonist more

[Katy090 · 4/10 · 10 December 2020]

This movie is very dark visually, so at times it was hard to see what was going on. This movie could have been better, but they focused too much attention in the wrong areas of the plot. The plot was interesting, but could have used a lot more development in terms of the antagonist. I'd say the one saving grace was Miyavi. He strikes me as a very talented actor and is able to display a lot of emotional depth for an otherwise very jaded character. Wish they had focused more on him as it could have saved the movie. If anything watch this movie for him. He's got talent.

Brother & sister have special power!

[saptesh786 · 4/10 · 15 March 2020]

Story is interesting but script is not developed properly. Starting of movie is confusing and one could not understand well what is going on. Then movie rolls down boringly untill climax where atleast we can get little idea about what is story about we are seeing. Again end is disappointing and hopeless. It could be better with different turn. As me here movie lost its charm and getting down to deserve low ratings. Acting is just okay. Detective lady is looking oversmart but she is not. How did she survive from attack of Jin ? Overall well story and bad movie.

It had potential

[EShawn · 5/10 · 4 March 2019]

I'm giving this a generous 5. Wasn't bad enough for me to want to stop watching. But wasn't that great that it left something to the imagination. The biggest issue I had with this movie, was that it had no flow. Too much character development (2/3 of it was), and not enough of the plot. When it finally got around to the guts of the film, it was pretty much nearing the end of the movie. It's like they cut out a big chunk in the middle. Kinda like going to a fancy restaurant ordering a meal for $80, and all you got was a little piece of steak, and bunch of garnish around it to make it look pretty. That you upon leaving the restaurant, you go to a burger joint to get something actually filling. lol

This is one of those movies, that if you absolutely have nothing else to watch, and need some background noise, and visual distraction from working from home.

Can I stay with you?

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 13 March 2019]

Stella (Christine Woods ) is a detective who works for her husband. They have been separated since the death of the child, apparently, he didn't grieve enough for her. She investigates an odd murder. The woman is Japanese and is petrified. Carbon-14 dating shows she is 1,000 years old, although that really didn't play into the film. Stella develops a relationship with the petrified woman's daughter (Karen Fukuhara) who has special powers.

The film was interesting in that it was different. I liked the simple special effects. They could have created better characters and filmed it someplace scenic. Everything was dreary.

Guide: f-word. No sex or nudity.

a mysterious thing

[ops-52535 · 4/10 · 2 March 2019]

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life......or something like that the priest mass at the edge of the grave, and i will draw correlations from there to this mystery horror drama.

its a small american family of japanese herritage, that has been gifted or blessed with surtain supernatural abilities, that may be protective to some and lethal to others. when mum abruptly dies under mysterious circumstances the police are connected to the family. its from then on for the police to phatom what a mystical case they've let themselves into.

its a drama at many levels,so if youre into the''herreditary'' or ''the silent place'' kinda films this will suit you well.

as a product it has some nice but nevertheless on bargain special effects, most of the actors are what i call b-standard, but the story and acting ,settings and locations , makes this film drifts to scratch the surface of air, and borderlining the A-standard. the score though ruins more than building suspence , so the selection is bad. the sound effects though are flawless.

remember , im an old grumpy man, that didnt like '' it comes at night'' nor ''suspiria'', so im not the film guru sleeping on a nail bed, so a bit squemish i am,so take care when i say its recommended.

I enjoyed it. Think some missed the other relationships.

[jrneptune · 7/10 · 5 May 2020]

I had put off watching it for the longest thinking it would be boring and vapid. When I finally got around to watching it I could not stop.

I loved hope it combines some Japanese Shinto beliefs about the past and nature and it makes it about a modern day struggle within a family with deep ties into the Shinto world. It might be a old storyline to some but I enjoyed a new take on it from a different perspective.

The way it ended I would not be surprised there are alternative endings as well. It could even have been played out to leave an opening for a sequel. I would be eager to see it.

Never smoke weed when making film, the results are gonna be horrendous.

[LordCommandar · 1/10 · 2 March 2019]

Rotten script, weak story, terrible acting. Never smoke weed when making films, the results are gonna be horrendous.

Titles

[fesilvers · 9/10 · 13 May 2020]

I had seen this movie title constantly on the guide. Didn't know what to make of it so I bypassed it. Then one day I was walking out the door with my kids and I saw the very beginning I said I don't know the title of it but I'll record it. After watching the movie which I was very interested in. Sat through it without even moving and believe me that's hard to do with two teenagers. Good concept good storyline yin and yang destroy and rebuild. I liked it ,change the title, it would have been a good selling movie.

Pretty good if you treat it like a short story

[bl-11 · 7/10 · 31 March 2024]

So... it's slow-ish, and there's not much action. But it does set a mood, even although it does it with a perhaps over-familiar gloomy and low-lit look.

There is some time spent on the emotional struggle/relationships of our lead detective, and while not original, it was handled in a reserved way (instead of uncontrolled emotional outbursts a lot of younger viewers seem exposed/accustomed to nowadays). The exposition later is also not original, but the content of it was uncommon. Our orphan has a somewhat clichéd setup with a mysterious history, but again there's not a lot of contrived complication to it.

One thing about the ending, it has the majority of the exposition, but while it starts unconvincingly, I actually warmed to the simplicity of it.

While I don't think there's anything new here, the almost minimalist filming (maybe just due to budget) and low-key story was kinda nice. Perhaps if you think of it a a short story it might help, as a lot of the other comments seems to imagine it 'should' have been a very different film from what it was.

Dark

[ehulbert1 · 1/10 · 3 March 2019]

Every scene is dark, even in broad daylight. Cheap horror drama gimmick.

For at the end of the day

[Mischiefboi · 3/10 · 16 September 2019]

You're beat to death.don't want to move and just want food and go to bed. This is the movie to watch. Good concept for a film. Unfortunately, the writers & director did not put it together properly. It's like water-down gruel.

There is no explanation what-so-ever except as a boy Jin protected his mom. This got him beaten by his mother, his granny would have nothing to do with him. They took him to a park, left him, and snuck off to America.

Why didn't mom or granny protect themselves? What happen to the rest of the family? Who did mom keeping sleeping with to have kids? The BIG one: Why wasn't who ever they were or what they could do explained? Had my salad and am going to bed now. Good night all. D~

Boredom

[sirabister · 1/10 · 5 March 2019]

Absolute garbage . Painfully slow and totally uninteresting . Nothing to see here . Actors are terrible . Very bad movie . Don't watch this "horror" , you will regret .

Hmph....

[jelencesb · 4/10 · 8 January 2021]

Well.... To be honest... Thw movie had a potential... From a rather lovely and ok cast, through story, even effects... It was not just a cheap chip off or something... Effort was made... But in the end the editing, cutting, piecing things together did the damage, I d say... Something was lacking and edit was, I assume from my stand point, bad, so... But the material was good and somethi g could have had been done with all of it to make the movie truly compeling instead of letting people looking forward to the end so just to be done with watching the movie...

Intriguing But Very Underwhelming

[AnirudhGod · 4/10 · 4 June 2021]

I really wanted to check this out because it had an interesting poster, and a plot-line straight out of a killer fantasy paperback. But, god, was this movie a torture sit through. First, I would say that the characters felt almost bland, except the detective, Murphy, whom we're introduced to while she stares at a man making her a tattoo. One would infer that she's trying to be flirtatious and get some action, but no, the tattooist is just a throwaway character.

Just like every other character that exists in the movie. No one really ever felt that they were in their zone, and crucial time was wasted on nonsense drama of the detective with no connection to the theme or narrative, than introducing the conflict and antagonist soon into the movie. Our secondary heroine, Nori, is also a blank slate of a character with no drive or motivation to get things moving. She mourns, she rests, does magical bullsh*t that's pretty much unexplained, and runs like a puny chicken with no real purpose.

Coming to the plot, it's one of the most predictable and bland storylines, that I've seen on screen. What could've been a thrilling supernatural horror drama, ends up being a half-assed attempt at a superhero origin story. The director must've watched some Dark, and some superhero films, and some anime, and tried to blend in everything to give us a stale and flavorless product. A premise like this should have excitement and tension, but none of it exists here. All because the characters react in an oblivious manner to any damn interesting supernatural phenomena. Seriously, if I'd seen something remotely anything otherworldly, I would legit freak out for days.

Solid technical values, and interesting music don't help the movie for lift off, since the engine isn't even there. A tighter and earlier sense of character conflict, and tension could've help the movie very much.

I wanted this to be good

[garywrght756 · 2/10 · 10 October 2020]

I liked the cinematography at the beginning so I watched it, karen fukuhara is a cutie which also reeled me in. I stuck with it all the way and in the end there was no story and it was very disappointing. I've scored one star for cinematography and one for Karen Fukuhara. Don't waste 90 minutes of your life on this.

Great film

[johnbenjaminbuffalo · 10/10 · 15 May 2019]

Loved it!! Very exciting film! Well made with high production values. Great story and excellent acting.

A wasted time of my life.

[damgadmansour · 4/10 · 13 November 2019]

This is how to make a bad movie. The story has a multiple holes and lazy performance from actors.

Tennager?

[Viking131313 · 2/10 · 25 November 2019]

Why on earth would they describe the character as an orphaned teen, when the actress playing her is obviously almost 30?

That one fact, sums up how poorly done is every aspect of this movie.

This was essentially not worth the effort...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 15 January 2022]

Right, well I have to admit that the synopsis for the 2019 movie "Stray" sounded rather interesting, and I was intrigued by it. Sure, I hadn't even heard about this movie from writers J. D. Dillard, Joe Sill and Alex Theurer before I had the chance to sit down in 2022 and watch it.

And I will say that "Stray" definitely started out interesting enough and up to about just before the halfway marker the movie was mysterious and appealing, but then the balloon just deflated and director Joe Sill lost control of the ship. The movie just crashed and became a scrambled mess of a confusing and boring storyline after that point, and I was fast losing interest in the movie.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble here in "Stray", and that is something I enjoy in movies, as the performers aren't associated with previously portrayed roles or characters in other movies. The actors and actresses did fair jobs here, just a shame that the movie ended up sliding downhill.

Visually then "Stray" was certainly good. The special effects were nice to look at, appeared realistic and rather nicely made.

I have to admit that when "Stray" ended, I was left with an overwhelming sensation of 'what was this heap of a movie all about?'. This is not really a movie that entertained me or offered me with the enjoyment or thrills that I had expected. In fact, once the movie slipped from the grasp of director Joe Sill, it just never recovered, and the movie suffered terribly from that blow.

This is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. I feel that my time was thoroughly wasted, given the movie so abruptly fell apart.

My rating of "Stray" lands on a mere three out of ten stars. There was potential, for sure, and the movie was off to a marvelous start, but then it just crashed and burned.

Was expecting more

[abbipret · 3/10 · 20 November 2022]

This game really looked like it could go somewhere. The trailer had me... I was expecting something like The Last Guardian, where you kind of run around and figure out puzzles. But this was just a time waster. Comparing to today's games (since at least 2016) I was expecting more in terms of sound and especially graphics but that was also underwhelming. A game like Mafia 3 (remastered?) also received lots of criticism but at least it was beautifully set. The only reason I played this game is because I love cats... But yes... Sadly disappointing. If you are looking for a game similar to this one, try the last guardian!

Love is more powerful than anger and hate

[josmanaba · 10/10 · 24 January 2024]

I don't understand the low score for this movie, it's a 10 for me and I will explain why (spoilers coming). It's a dark story about a strange power and family issues.

Somewhere in America a japanese girl has this power and is trained by her loving mom and grandmother, one day mom is found dead and her body is petrified, officer Murphy investigates, she eyewitness the girl's power, days later the grandmother is found dead and petrified too, someone is after the members of this family. Murphy takes the girl to her home to protect her but the attacker finds them, they run away to another place where the attacker takes the girl away, the attacker reveals himself, it's her brother, abandoned by mom and grandmother to rot in Japan because mom found out his power was turning to the dark side. He asks the girl to join him, she accepts but tells officer Murphy who manages to arrest him, but he uses his power to escape from prison killing many in the way, the final battle is between brother and sister, but she's much more powerful than him proving love is stronger than the anger and hate that consumes the brother, he is defeated and turned into a tree.

The cinematography is perfect to keep the dark and mysterious athmosphere alive, the FX are great to display the power these people have without making it the center of the movie or a movie about powers, the performances are great too, specially officer Murphy, the script is linear but effective, actually, everything is good in this movie. It's a movie made with love in the details, the scenes, the script, everthing looks artisan and carefully handmade.

It's possible some people didn't like that the power of the girl and the brother isn't spectacular like a Hollywood big buster, i.e., X-Men or Avengers. Maybe the bad score comes from the fact that not enough people have watched this movie, so the score might increases in the future.

Wanna watch a movie that keep you wanting more and more? "Stray" is for you. The guy who said this movie is like a pilot for a series is right, I would really enjoy a series with the girl like Bill Bixby in Hulk, moving from one site to another, and using her power to help others.

zen movie which teaches how to meditate

[programskinalog · 18 July 2020]

I was lured in with interesting beginning, but within few minutes story jumps out of railway. it's a movie without any connection to anything, just talk and dramatic music.