Stray Dog (1949)
Stray Dog (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa.
During a Tokyo heat wave, a rookie homicide detective loses his pistol to a pickpocket on the bus. He is desperate to get it back, especially after it is used in robberies and murders.
It's hot. People sweating, trying to live in front of fans, eating ices and constantly wiping their faces.
In a long "stray dog" segment he dons his old army uniform and wanders the scruffy post-war city, looking for criminals who sell stolen guns.
He is young and eager. His mentor is an older cop, calmer and knowing how the world works. He is black-and-white about right and wrong, where the younger man thinks no one is born bad and circumstances matter.
You see, both he and the criminal with his gun were "stray dogs" after the war, their lives parallel. Could their fates have been swapped?
In many ways this is a familiar American police procedural, complete with opening narration.
We have two of the director's favorite actors:
Toshiro Mifune, in films directed by Kurosawa:
...and other directors:
Takashi Shimura:
Photographed by Asakazu Nakai, score by Fumio Hayasaka. Both often worked with the director.
Criterion had this on DVD, but the Blu-ray is from BFI in the UK. The discs have different commentary tracks.
