Movie has Two Titles.
Movie “DESTROYER”

It must be hard for native English speakers to imagine that an English title and a Japanese title of the same movie may confuse the Japanese audience sometimes. 

I was browsing Netflix and came across the movie “Stray Dog”. I remembered I had wanted to watch a movie, which had a dog-related name but I had forgotten the title at that time. I thought this might have been the one, so my father and I decided to watch it. Besides, it stars Nicole Kidman.

Initial Impression

A few minutes later, we both started wondering when Nicole Kidman would show up on the screen because, so far, the only character we were seeing in the film was a haunted middle-aged lady, who had a blotchy face with a lot of wrinkles.  It took a while to realise that the person we were seeing was Nicole Kidman with aged makeup.  

She used to be an undercover cop but now is a wasted police officer. She fell in love with her police partner during their undercover investigation of a gang, but he was killed by the leader of the gang.  Seventeen years after his death, she attempts to take revenge on the gang leader.  The scenes flashback to her memories from seventeen years ago and come back to the present. The more the story progressed, the more truth was revealed. 

Her appearance was hardly recognizable as Nicole Kidman, yet, in the flashback scenes, she looked beautiful as in her usual roles in other films. Her acting as a withered police, however, sometimes seemed a bit contrived, especially with her thick makeup. It is intriguing to see famous actors or actresses playing unexpected characters though.

It is reasonable to assume that the title “Stray Dog” represents the woman who keeps a distance from others with hidden madness, which makes a lot of sense. Also, there were a few scenes showing a stray dog to imply that she is a stray dog.

Intention of Title

I like to check movies’ ratings after I finish watching them. This time, however, I could not find the movie on my movie review app.
It turned out that the English name was “Destroyer”.  

I wonder why it was given “Stray Dog” as its Japanese title because “Destroyer” sounded pretty easy for Japanese people to remember as a movie title. Honestly, Destroyer sounded more familiar rather than Stray Dog to Japanese people, because some Japanese speakers do not understand the meaning of stray dog unless it is translated.

Spoiler alert!
I agree she is actually a destroyer in the story because her partner died partly because of her and, she ruined her career and the relationship with her daughter. She destroyed everything she had or could have had.
However, firstly, I thought the English title was not quite reasonable, because she did not intend to destroy everything. She kind of triggered to ruin her life seventeen years ago by accident, so it seemed nonsense to call her a destroyer.  Therefore, the Japanese title “Stray Dog” was fitter than the original title.

Then, she did attempt to take revenge on the gang leader, which was the prime cause of evil. In the end, she literally destroyed the one who ruined her life and herself.
She is a destroyer and a stray dog.

It is still an open question about why the two titles are different. This question is wandering in my brain like a stray dog.

There was one thing I found the answer to. The dog-related name’s movie that I wanted to watch was “The Power of the Dog”, which was given the same Japanese name.