Impressive as some of the later films of Kurosawa are - "Kagemusha" and "Ran" for example, I have to confess that it is his early work, particularly those set in modern Japan as opposed to its feudal past, that I find myself returning to with greater pleasure. He was not one of those artists who necessarily got better and better, rather was he one who continued to take on different challenges, not always with the same degree of success, as "Dodesukaden" and "Dreams" were to prove. I have long regarded the 1952 "Ikiru" as his greatest achievement, with the three modern day day films starring Toshiro Mifune that precede it, "Drunken Angel", "The Quiet Duel" and "Stray Dog", fascinating consolidations of his skill as a director. "Stray Dog" revels in technical accomplishment. It tells the story of a policeman who, after experiencing the theft of his gun while travelling on a bus, embarks on an odyssey to retrieve it. Questions of morality and honour loom large as they do in any Kurosawa film, with the quest becoming ever more urgent as evidence is gathered of the weapon being used in criminal activities. What might be regarded as plain bad luck in another culture is here seen as a matter of shame and dishonour by the unfortunate policeman, that has to be addressed forsaking all else. The search is pursued in a dazzling series of chases, encounters and interrogations that leaves the audience, like the hero, exhausted at times. The weather is hot throughout, characters sweat profusely and sometimes everything erupts in a tropical downpour - no other director uses rain so physically. Perhaps, at over two hours, "Stray Dog" is a little too long to sustain its material. It sags a little in the middle, but the chases at the outer ends of the film are wonderfully done, particularly the penultimate sequence where the cop pursues his prey through vegetation where city and countryside meet. You can almost smell the steamy atmosphere of a morning after rain where everything is about to heat up again. Possibly the other two Mifune films of the same period have the edge on this. They are more meditative works, their lengths more sustainable. But, for sheer cinematic bravado, this is the one.
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jandesimpson3 August 2002
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Ben_Cheshire19 February 2004Captivating American-esque noir, one of Kurosawa's first great films. What seems like a weak premise for a thriller at the start actually ends up providing a great central situation for this movie which drives it forward much better than, say, Donzoko. Music, also is great.
Toshiro Mifune, looking young and handsome, is quite marvellous as the central character, a detective whose gun is stolen on a bus. What starts out as a detective nervous about finding his gun and fixing a silly mistake, develops into a frantic and desparate man who feels somehow responsible for whatever crimes are committed with his gun. The suspense and detective-story plot are well developed in Stray Dog, but what really makes the story captivating is the revelation of the central character's feeling of guilt throughout, and his learning about crime, criminals, and that what is important is to make good come of your mistakes. -
counterrevolutionary25 January 2005The following year, 1950, would see Kurosawa achieve his first major international success with the masterpiece Rashomon. Here, Kurosawa doesn't quite have the sureness of touch which would characterize most of his career, but Stray Dog is nevertheless a fine film noir and an effective exploration of Kurosawa's ideas about postwar Japan in particular and the human condition in general.
As you might expect from such a genius, Kurosawa is not satisfied with a simple good-guys/bad-guys cops-and-robbers story. He explores in depth the social and economic conditions in postwar Japan which led many young people--particularly returning veterans--to take to crime, and also the particular circumstances which motivate the acts of Yusa (Isao Kimura), the criminal. Indeed, a series of mistakes by the hero, rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune), are one factor behind Yusa's crimes.
But neither is Stray Dog a facile blame-society message film, either. Kurosawa makes no excuses for Yusa. By giving Murakami a very similar history (so similar, in fact, that it comes off as a little contrived), Kurosawa makes the point that Yusa had the same choice as Murakami. That he chose differently is his responsibility.
But even more interesting to me is the character of chief detective Sato (Takashi Shimura), Murakami's superior officer, mentor, and friend.
Sato is the wise elder figure in this film, and in the hands of a lesser artist than Kurosawa, such a character generally ends up as a mouthpiece for the director's own viewpoint. Here, though, Kurosawa permits Sato to espouse a hardcore law-and-order philosophy: The cops are the good guys, the crooks are the bad guys, and that's it. Sato has no patience for Murakami's guilt feelings or touchy-feely philosophizing.
That Kurosawa would permit this view (which is not Kurosawa's view, nor the film's) to be given voice by the film's wisest, kindest, most competent, and most likable character is a mark of his confidence and courage. -
davidals18 September 2003STRAY DOG stands as the legendary Akira Kurosawa's first real masterpiece, noteworthy for at least two big reasons: the style - classic American film noir (rich, velvety b&w atmospheres), enhanced with a touch of Italian neo-realism (great use of diverse locations, which provide a great view of day-to-day postwar Japan), and the star, a young Toshiro Mifune, whose truly collaborative association with Kurosawa was cemented here, and would grow in spectacular fashion during the subsequent 16 years.
Mifune became as much of an international icon as Kurosawa, and this is the first film where it's easily evident why. As an example of film noir, STRAY DOG offers plenty of gripping suspense and moral complexity, and holds up well alongside classics like THE BIG HEAT, THE KILLING or THE MALTESE FALCON. Kurosawa touched upon international influences to an unprecedented degree in Japanese film (the internationalist impulses of Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi or Mikio Naruse are just as deep and varied, but far more discreetly deployed), Kurosawa also skillfully highlights Japanese specifics (the rookie cop expecting to be fired, even accepting the possibility in an apologetic fashion, only to be assured that he will not be fired - this would not occur in a similar American setting), while always linking the same details to universals: honor, nobility, responsibility. This would become the thread linking Kurosawa's celebrated period/samurai films to his contemporary dramas. STRAY DOG was perhaps the first of his films where it truly resonates in a global fashion - a timeless, classic film. -
boris-2628 November 1998In ravished, Post-War Tokyo, rookie Detective Murakami's (Young Toshiro Mifune) gun is stolen. Being the crippling times, guns are tough to come by. Soon, victims are found, slain with bullets from Mifune's gun. The man-hunt is on, while Tokyo goes through a devastating heatwave, and Mifune goes through an equally devastating change ("A Stray Dog sees only what it chases" a detective warns him.) Made well before Akira Kurosawa became famous for "Rashomon", "Stray Dog" is a roaring classic! Every character's movement reflects either the horrid heatwave, or the living conditions. It is ironic that a downpour (Kurosawa's favorite on-screen weather condition) breaks the heat just as the tensions in the film mount. How "Bicycle Thief" reflected the times of post war Italy, this classic does the same for post war Japan.
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FilmSnobby21 April 2005Early Kurosawa masterpiece; arguably, his first. *Stray Dog* grabs your attention immediately, with the superbly weird close-ups of the mangy dog panting behind the opening credits. Following the credits, the director delivers a clinic on the art of montage, utilizing quick nonlinear cutting that makes the narrative get straight to the point: ashamed rookie cop (an impossibly young Toshiro Mifune) explaining to his boss that he lost his gun; then a jump back to earlier in the day during target practice; then a quick cut to a scene on a crowded city bus in which the Colt gets lifted. Properly impatient with exposition, Kurosawa has his editor wield the cutting knife with ruthless precision. Only after the premise is established does the movie slow down.
Indeed, *Stray Dog* tends to meander during the next two hours. There's a famous 8-minute sequence in which Mifune, going undercover in search of his gun, wanders through the detritus (human and otherwise) of a black-market underworld in bombed-out post-War Tokyo. These 8 minutes contain zero exposition, containing instead some stunning on-location montage from 2nd-unit guy Honda (who directed *Godzilla* later) that unabashedly turns into scathing social commentary, and this, in the final analysis, is far more interesting than the catch-as-catch-can plot about a rookie detective's stolen gun. Owing stylistic and thematic debts to old Eisenstein pictures as well as then-current trends in Italian cinema, Kurosawa fashions his own polemic about post-War Japan that can't help but fascinate historians. Those of us in the West who have our own perceptions about what Japan is like (the stereotype is that it's a spiffy country inhabited by spiffy people) will be shocked at the filthy conditions and depravity glimpsed at in this footage. It's a land in a time and a place where women steal pistols for criminals in order to score rice-ration cards.
The movie is ultimately about how a person maintains a sense of morality in such conditions. Mifune's cop is, after all, not too different from the psychopath whom he pursues: both are veterans in their late twenties who ended up on entirely different paths which have suddenly converged. One reviewer below complained about Kurosawa's "facile humanism" (how can humanism be "facile"?), but I rather call it a heroic humanism. Mifune is an honorable young man who chooses to be a hero: after all, it would've been easier to quit the force after enduring the shame of getting his gun stolen, and it certainly would've been easier to roam the black-markets like his antagonist Yusa and generally cave in to psychopathy. Kurosawa is suggesting that if a man (or a nation) chooses the right path, redemption can be found. Not for the last time, Kurosawa makes heroism and simple decency thrilling to watch.
All in all, *Stray Dog* is a landmark achievement for Kurosawa and for cinema in general. It stands proudly beside his more famous achievements in the decade that followed. 8 stars out of 10. -
Stray Dog (1949)
An early Kurosawa film, made before he came to the attention of cinema enthusiasts with Rashomon. Toshiro Mifune plays a young detective whose pistol is stolen by a pickpocket. Fearing for his job, and fuelled by embarrassment he sets out to find his pistol, which has been used in two crimes by the thief, in Tokyo during a sweltering heatwave...
Kurosawa's western influences are as clear as ever in Stray Dog, as for all intents and purposes it plays like a conventional American police story. Several scenes reminded me of Orson Welles' later film Touch of Evil, particularly an extended montage sequence with a similar feel to the famous opening shot of Welles' film showing a disguised Mifune walking the streets as he attempts to track down blackmarket arms dealers accompanied by a cacophony of street noise and Latin-jazz-big band music. Another scene where Mifune and the older cop leading the investigation, played by Takashi Shimura, stakeout a Japanese Baseball game, could've been a Hitchcock set-piece. Elements of this film seem to have been referenced in a variety of contemporary works from the doppelganger criminal/detective idea in Michael Mann's Heat to John C Reilly's desperate search for his lost gun in Magnolia.
However, despite the references to conventional genre film, Kurosawa adds depth to his film with several philosophical themes and ideas. First is the subtle way in which the detective and the robber are shown to be connected. Mifune explains how his possessions were all stolen after the war, and that he contemplated turning to crime but decided on the opposite route of law enforcement. The robber, who ends up with Mifune's gun, commits the crimes exactly because he too had his bag of belongings stolen. Mifune feels a deep sense of guilt that his pistol has been used in these crimes and almost breaks down completely when his boss, Shimura, is shot and wounded. The idea resonates with Mifune, that the life of crime he managed to avoid has returned to his life through this chance occurrence. The robber himself, is only seen in the great final chase, but he is given surprising depth of character just in the chase alone. The final chase between the two men is a classic Kurosawa scene. In a tense moment, there is an instinctive reaction by both men that they've finally found each other. Mifune is shot in the arm, out in the countryside, as Mozart drifts from a piano in a nearby house. His blood drips onto the flowers below. The theme that the gun only has a certain number of bullets pays off, as the robber fires twice and misses, leaving the gun empty allowing Mifune to overpower him. The two men wrestle in the flowers, falling into a river and get covered in mud. The robber is eventually overpowered and handcuffed and Kurosawa composes a wonderful shot showing the two, unrecognisable and exhausted men arranged at either side of the frame in the foreground, like a mirror image, while a group of singing schoolchildren walk past in the background. The robber suddenly begins to cry, and howls in anguish. Identity is blurred, the robber is no more evil than the detective, just a weaker man who gave in to the difficult environment he was faced with.
Although some elements of the technique aren't as well developed as Kurosawa's most famous, such as the clumsy flashback intro and narration there are many moments which show the sign of the truly great filmmaker he was to become. The sense of oppressive environment, both place and weather, is strong and it's possibly the sweatiest film I've seen! The detective story itself is pretty compelling, but the final, climactic scene alone transcends simple genre film-making with something profound, poetic and moving. -
poe42615 January 2002With his penchant for incorporating "Western" ideas into his films, Kurosawa hits yet another home run with his take on the crime film. As ever, he manages to make scenes that would (in the hands of a lesser director) seem boring become absolutely riveting. Mifune's ride on the trolley, when he loses his gun, for instance; or the scene where he has to explain the situation to his superiors (and the subsequent search through police files for a suspect); or the long undercover sequence. We can almost feel his frustration. The tension mounts. And yet again we have the brilliant Shimura playing off of Mifune, speaking in carefully modulated tones as he dispenses advice to the hotheaded young detective. If ever there was a more perfect combination of performers in cinema history, I never saw them.
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jonr-316 February 2004This early Kurosawa film interested me not only as a historical object, but because, as in every one of his films I've seen so far, the moral and philosophical implication of the story carries as much weight as the dramatic and poetic aspects. As another commenter said here, "When was the last time you saw a film where the central character had something called a moral imperative." To me it's extremely gratifying to find directors like Kurosawa, Bergman, and today's Hirokazu Kore-eda who treat moral themes seriously and with dignity, and don't shy away from difficult questions.
I was also intrigued by how almost every scene bears, already, the stamp of Kurosawa's unique vision as a director. I have no idea how this comes about, but there's just something there, almost like a fingerprint, that says "Kurosawa" unmistakeably. I would have to leave it to more gifted and better schooled viewers than myself to explain it, but I love seeing it. In part, I suppose it's due to the exceptionally fine cinematographers that Kurosawa habitually worked with.
I think the film is about thirty minutes too long, but if I have to see a film that's a bit too long, I'm at least glad it's by Kurosawa! -
rejoefrankel16 February 2000Akira Kurosawa's STRAY DOG (English title) is a riveting, poetic vision of a young Tokyo officer (Toshiro Mifune) who's handgun is stolen from him on a bus. Driven to obsession, he follows the trail of the pickpocket through the seedy underworld of post-war China, in an attempt to regain his honor. A rare film of great social and philosophical significance. The deceptively simple story grows more complex as the man who gains possession of Mifune's handgun begins killing people and Mifune starts to blame himself. Every single second of this film rings true. An incredible atmospheric combination, of noirish melodrama and dark comedy. Every bit as good as Kurosawa's celebrated samurai pictures.
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ackstasis21 December 2007A long-standing blemish on my status as a film buff has been the fact that I had never seen a film directed by Akira Kurosawa, easily the most well-known and respected Japanese filmmaker. Finally, my drought has been broken, as I sat down last night to enjoy 'Nora inu / Stray Dog (1949).' A police procedural in the classic film-noir tradition, the film stars Kurosawa-regular Toshirô Mifune as a young homicide detective whose firearm is pick-pocketed while on a bus. When it becomes clear that the weapon has fallen into the hands of a desperate, murdering criminal, Det. Murakami becomes consumed with guilt and shame, and it is only through the experienced guidance of mentor Det. Sato (Takashi Shimura) that he can overcome his insecurities and track down the suspect. 'Stray Dog' was the director's tenth film, and the third in a wealth of collaborations with Mifune throughout an illustrious career. Though it is not quite the masterpiece I had {probably unreasonably} been anticipating, I can only promise that my first Kurosawa will certainly not be my last.
Surprisingly, 'Stray Dog' is similar in many regards to Vittorio De Sica's neorealist masterpiece 'The Bicycle Thief (1948).' Both films concern a disillusioned man's seemingly-futile search for an essential stolen object, in a city of poor and pitiable individuals, where, in the aftermath of World War Two, widespread economic difficulties have forced many towards a life of crime. When Det. Murakami first begins searching for his stolen gun, there is a wonderful extended sequence in which he purposelessly wanders the poverty-stricken streets, experiencing the decadence of society for himself, for the first time understanding why a criminal might have been forced to tread a darkened path. A very important theme of the film is the obvious parallel between Det. Murakami and his suspect, Yusa (Isao Kimura). Both individuals fell on hard times when their knapsacks were stolen: while the former took the crucial step towards law enforcement, the latter chose the opposite path, eventually becoming a thief and a wanted murderer. In the story's climactic chase sequence, the two men tussle violently in the undergrowth, their faces becoming coated in a layer of mud; for a decisive few moments, detective and criminal are practically indistinguishable from each other.
One component of film-making that Kurosawa had evidently mastered by 1949 was creating intensity, and, in many ways, 'Stray Dog' is simply discomforting to watch. The events of the film appear to take place during an extreme heatwave, and the perspiration clings to the skin of the actors as though they are practically roasting in their seats. When the story reaches a devastating climax, its arrival is heralded by the breaking of a storm, the passing of the sweltering drought perhaps symbolising that the dull, futile routine of police procedure has come to an end. I was also impressed by the frantic chase sequences at both the beginning and end of the film, which, aside from being exceptionally thrilling, were genuinely harrowing. Watching Murakami and Yusa grapple in the vegetation, before both collapsing to the ground in fatigue, I don't think I've ever seen film characters looking so utterly exhausted. Despite a masterful opening and closing, 'Stray Dogs' tended to drag a lot in the middle, with the two detectives moving from one possible witness to the other, very slowly gathering the information they require to track down their suspect. Nonetheless, I now have the massive undertaking of deciding which of Akira Kurosawa's films I will watch next. -
Akira Kurosawa, along with his co-writer Ryuzo Kikushima, has here something very intriguing- a screenplay that really draws the viewer in, like opening up a tight, to-the-bone detective story by the likes of Dashiell Hammett (an influence on at least one Kurosawa film, by the way). His basic premise is deceptively simple- a nervous but completely professional and slightly worn-down cop, played by a young & trim Toshiro Mifune, gets his gun pick-pocketed on the subway, and he spends at least half of the film on his own looking for it. When a pickpocket specialist, played by one of the very best Japanese character actors Takashi Shimura, comes into being his partner on the case, then things, then the plot starts to thicken further. But as someone who's read (and tried to write) a few screenplays, I just know watching this how much detail probably went into it, the nuances of things that Mifune had to do. It's quite a delicate, awesome feat, considering the layers of the film's content.
Obviously, Kurosawa as the director calls the shots in terms of the visuals, his true forte, though this is him still in a young director mode, very confident in his style, though only giving minor fluoride's of style (sometimes quite well). This works to his advantage when using the motif of hot, heat, the wretched weight of a summer's day in the more crowded, poorer areas of Tokyo. But Stray Dog is more than just a kind of common detective film. That the story is sturdy and good enough to be akin very much to the American films of the time is almost besides the point. Like De Sica, to a degree, Kurosawa uses the post-war streets and real locations (it's not all just Toho this time), and it adds that layer of heightened realism for our main characters on the prowl; in fact one could look at this film as being like the Bicycle Thief (looking for a lost item in the dark places of the city) had it been written with a fair amount less sentiment and more grit.
When the suspense comes forth, it's really a knockout, especially when it comes time for he final confrontation with the thief, where it becomes such a struggle that the two are like, well, dogs, very primal as it boils down to the law versus the criminal. There's a certain sense of time and structure that sets apart Stray Dog from the numerous 'film-noirs' of American cinema of the period- while it contains the kind of determined edge and wit of those films, it also relies on portraying the people in this world as honestly as possible, however downtrodden things are (like Kurosawa's later film High & Low, location adds to the mood greatly). But even through Mifune's cautious and un-bending kind of performance, and Shimura's typical intelligent, laid-back way, it's the script that pulls everything together; that long, fascinating sequence of Mifine trudging through the streets looking for his gun was not very likely improvised. Very well done. -
STRAY DOG is a relatively early crime film in the career of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. The storyline sees Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune at his very best, playing a stressed-out cop who discovers that his Colt pistol has been pickpocketed. Thus begins a frantic search for the missing weapon, which is soon being used to inflict violence upon the innocent.
The best thing about STRAY DOG is the contemporary setting of a run-down and heat-baked Japan. The story is set during a heatwave and even the viewer ends up feeling stuffy thanks to the incessant heat that seems to beat off the screen in waves. The culmination of this is the film's finest moment, a sweat-soaked chase through the woods at the climax. It's pretty heavy stuff.
Otherwise, this is good but not as gripping as Kurosawa's other works. The characters are quite slight in comparison to his previous effort DRUNKEN ANGEL, although Takashi Shimura puts in a likable performance as always. The plot is quite simple and a little too talky in places, but the director makes up for this with a fantastic sense of setting and a delightfully sleazy supporting cast. -
maximkong18 November 2012This would be probably my least favourite of all kurosawa films because I believed Kurosawa at that point still had a lot to learn on how to make a really good detective drama -- though it is understandably about a rookie detective who has no clear idea of how to conduct his job properly (chasing after an armed criminal without backup is one example), I cannot accept that even with the whole experienced police force around there is such a lack of seriousness and professionalism in their conduct, also the logic of Takashi's deduction methods was totally unexplainable.
There is also a severe lack of focus on the villain ...but this is forgivable as the film is made from the detectives' point of view and the subject matter of the film is actually the rookie himself. Mifune's dummy acting is probably the weakest one I have seen so far. However the strength of this film lies not in the characters nor plot, but it is the setting that has nothing to do with the story. I found myself more fascinated by the music and the environment in the background, especially during certain prolonged scenes of 'investigation'...which gave some idea of a real life post-war japan. It ended up looking more like a documentary in the end, and didn't work for me.
Domo gomenasai, kurosawa-sama! -
*-Catch it on TV **-Worth a Rental ***-Buy it Used/On Sale ****-Buy it New/Top Dollar *****-Worthy of a Blind Buy
Until early May of 2004 I was, for lack of a better label, an Akira Kurosawa virgin. I had never had the privilege of watching one of his masterpieces and every time I had the opportunity something got in the way. In May I found myself with a hundred dollars (a small fortune to a high school student with no job) and staring at Kurosawa's Four Samurai Classics dvd collection at Best Buy. The box set included the Criterion editions of Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro priced at $82.99. I saw this as a bargain since Criterion edition dvds usually run around $40 a pop, so I bought it without hesitation. After viewing all four films over a weekend I craved more Kurosawa and spent what money I had left on Rashomon, thus beginning my foray into Kurosawa's art.
I have been extremely satisfied with the five Kurosawa films I have seen and was pleased to receive Stray Dog in the mail today from Netflix. I began watching it within about 20 minutes of getting it and from the beginning I was hooked. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as rookie detective Murakami in 1940's Tokyo. Murakami's pistol has been stolen from him while riding a crowded bus on a hot day. Disgraced at himself for having lost such an important item he sets out to find the culprit and enlists the help of veteran detective Sato (played by Takashi Shimura). Together the two detectives hunt down the man responsible. However, things get worse and their investigation intensifies as they learn that the weapon is used in an armed robbery. Sato becomes a mentor to Murakami and takes him under his wing as they get closer and closer to their perpetrator.
Toshiro Mifune's performance is magnificent. He is not the over confident Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai, or the calm and cool ronin from both Yojimbo and Sanjuro; instead he is a rookie detective in 1940's Tokyo. Mifune portrays a Murakami filled with tension and self-loathing. As his gun is used in more acts of violence, Murakami sinks deeper and deeper emotionally by placing the blame entirely on himself. Takashi Shimura is equally impressive as the veteran Sato. These two actors play very well off of eachother. Their chemistry alone is enough to make you want to see the film, luckily it is not the only reason. Akira Kurosawa tells the story with amazing pacing that seems slow but never boring. The use of forshadowing had little to do with subtilty and added to the tension of the film as the detectives closed in on their suspect until the tense climax, which I will not spoil for you.
All in all Stray Dog was two hours of intelligent storytelling combined by skillful acting. I would be tempted to give it a ***** rating solely because it is Kurosawa, however he gave me enough reasons to do so in the film itself. -
synicalsaint14 December 2004This movie just keeps on getting better as it plays. The pacing is absolutely perfect, the beginning and most of the movie itself are slow, reflecting the oppressing heat. At the end it keeps getting quicker as Murukami becomes more and more frantic.
The best scene of the film is its climax when Murukami corners Yusa in the woods, the images are wonderful. And the end of the scene they fall to the ground, side by side, like twins. The symmetry of the shot creates a parallel between the two characters which is further explored in the rest of the movie, revealing that the two men are of the same kind.
The acting is wonderful, Takashi Shimura does a great job in portraying his veteran/mentor character and a young Mifune does a great job in showing Murukami's shame and lack of self confidence.
It's a shame the quality of the picture isn't as good as other black and white films but the movie's from 1949 so you can't really blame Kurosawa. I give this one a 9/10. If you like Kurosawa or film-noir this is a "must see". -
ofpsmith20 December 2019Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) is a rookie Tokyo detective who loses his gun to a thief on a crowded trolley. Believing this to be a very premature end to a fresh career, he wanders the grimy underbelly of post war Tokyo he picks up on the illicit black market arms trade. Murakami is paired with Sato (Takeshi Shimura) a veteran detective who quickly becomes a mentor and friend to the young man as the pair begin to make leads. The film is very much a precursor to the buddy cop genre in the style of an American film noir. Giving us a glimpse at the destitution of immediate post war Japan, the movie also gives us an inspiring mentorship between a rookie and a veteran. Although Kurosawa didn't think too highly of the film himself I enjoyed it greately and hold it as one of his more underrated movies.
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GeorgeRoots29 April 2015Only a year after "Drunken Angel" (1948), Kurosawa continues his collaborations with Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, for what could arguably be the first "buddy cop" movie. Though Kurosawa himself considered the film "too technical", in his autobiography he warmly remembers "no shooting ever went as smoothly".
Right after the opening credits of a dog panting due to the blistering heat wave our story begins. Whilst riding a tram a detective's gun is stolen and after giving chase he loses the thief, setting in motion a hunt into bombed-out post-war Tokyo and various sinister trades.
As the story progresses, the situation becomes dire. While there is plenty to enjoy from the movies bustling crowds, locations and banter between Mifune and Shimura, I believe that the film is too lengthy for its narrative. The acting is consistently strong and the payoff in the final act was worth the wait, even though I found it rushed within the final 10 minutes or so. The characters get by on a vague optimism that things can get better or worse now or in the given future, which is a seldom point that I took from my experience with this movie.
Final Verdict: The suspense is a little lacking, but definitely come for the dialogue and acting. 8/10. -
kemicon14 September 2007Stray Dog is the other detective noir film by Kurosawa along with High and Low. In this film a rookie homicide detective has his gun stolen which leads to a string of crimes each more violent than the previous. While it is unlikely you could make it to detective and be as "green" as this guy, it does make for an interesting plot device. We watch as the detective gets help from his fellow cops as he puts the whole thing together. There are also interesting parallels drawn between the detective and the criminal. Most of the film holds up well but there are times when it drags which is unfortunately common in Kurosawa films (except for Yojimbo which was perfect). All in all Stray Dog is a very stylish movie with some incredible shots and some ground breaking (at the time) film effects. It's worth watching just to see post war Japan.
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cherold15 June 2013This police procedural has the interesting premise of a cop obsessed with finding his stolen gun, and his sense of responsibility for everything that happens because of the theft. It's an interesting idea, a sort of cop version of Bicycle Thieves, but it's a bit slow and static.
For all the comments here that call it a film noir, it lacks that sort of intensity, although it does have interesting anti-noir qualities - much of it takes place in daylight among people wearing light colored clothes.
Even at its weakest, there are interesting Kurosawa touches throughout, most notably the use of the oppressive summer heat as a character in the film. And while some moments feel overlong, such as the cop's undercover work, there are nice bits like his dogging a suspect or that suspect's later interrogation by an older and wiser cop.
The movie hits high Kurosawa in its fantastic forth. From a stunning image of a girl twirling in a dress just as a thunderstorm breaks,the film is everything you expect from the great director, as though a more experienced Kurosawa had jumped into a time machine to do the last part, and the final confrontation is brilliant, even if the movie's last short scene is as flat and dry as the first ones.
Kurosawa has made much better movies, but there is enough of interest in this one that fans of the director should check it out at some point. -
davidmvining12 March 2022One of the earliest buddy cop movies, pairing up a young police officer with a more seasoned one, essentially Lethal Weapon but postwar Japanese, Straw Dogs is basically a police procedural about the search of a lost police pistol. What makes it really work is twofold: the cleareyed view of postwar Tokyo (largely captured by Kurosawa's assistant director Ishiro Hondo, in charge of the second unit direction) and strong character work that goes into every character in the film. Kurosawa would later deride the film a bit, feeling like it was an empty technical exercise. I would agree to some small degree in that there is no real thematic core, but the motifs common in his work are here. In addition, the character work is so strong that that's enough of a core on its own.
Rookie cop Detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) appears before his superior officer in shame. He had been pickpocketed on a bus on his way home, having his gun stolen from him. His superior is surprisingly unconcerned by it, but Murakami is consumed by guilt for his failing. If he's determined to figure out where the gun went, his superior directs him to try and figure out who did it using the police archives on known pickpockets, a search that leads him to a picture of the woman who was pressed up next to him on the bus. What follows is surprisingly delightful. Murakami, with the help of another officer, finds the girl Ogin (Noriko Sengoku) and follows her all day. The fun comes from the fact that Murakami is terrible at hiding himself, and she knows he's following her the entire day. As night comes, Ogin settles into a sake bar with Murakami waiting outside because he won't drink, and, out of a sense of shared humanity, she buys him a beer and gives him a clue to look for gun dealers in the slums.
The following sequence is most of the footage filmed by Hondo, going deep into some of the most dangerous parts of Tokyo, usually without Mifune, and it's really interesting to watch, providing a kind of cinema verite feel to the film that seems to fit more comfortably with Italian neo-realism rather than Kurosawa's output that heavily used sets. After several days of wandering the streets in disguise, sleeping where he can, and looking for the familiar face of the man who took his gun, he gets approached by a young man asking him if he wants a gun. Arranging a meeting at a restaurant with a girl with a white flower in her hair whom he arrests, making a scene in the process, and finding out that this girl had had his Colt pistol and was going to receive it back from the person she had rented it out to that evening in that restaurant. At a dead end, and with news that the gun was used in a robbery of a young girl that ended with a bullet in her shoulder and 40,000 yen stolen, Murakami's superior teams him up with Detective Sato (Takashi Shimura).
The most prominent motif of the film is a continuation of the ideas in The Quiet Duel, the conflict between two different ways forward for the Japanese youth in the face of the collapse of the Japanese Empire at the end of World War II. This really manifests in the contrast between Murakami and the target of the investigation, the almost entirely unseen Yusa (Isao Kimura). Through the girl, the pair track down the gun dealer Honda (Reizaburô Yamamoto) at a major Nippon League baseball game and pick up the ration card of Yusa, the one who received the gun. The bulk of this movie really is the police work, and it's effective, but what makes it worthwhile is the combination of Mifune and Shimura.
Shimura had been in Kurosawa's movies from the beginning with a part in Sanshiro Sugata. Mifune made his mark a bit later by taking over Shimura's movie Drunken Angel, the two pairing up together again is really effective. Shimura is the older man who has seen the way things work in law enforcement, and MIfune is the overly earnest young cop. Shimura leads Mifune in a paternal-like relationship, including a visit to Shimura's small rural house just outside of town. The two really do develop a palpable relationship over the course of the investigation as Sato guides the less experienced Murakami into finding new places to investigate, including a girly show and a geisha house. The investigation ends up setting them on separate paths with Murakami sitting in the apartment of Yusa's girlfriend Harumi (Keiko Awaji) while Sato follows the final tracks of Yusa. The contrast between Murakami and Yusa rises to the surface here (being subdued for vast swaths of the film, degrading it from theme to motif in my mind) with both the police officer and the murderer (having performed a house burglary that led to the death of a woman he shot) experiencing the same kind of robbery on their return from war (being robbed of their knapsacks on the train), but they went in opposite directions. Murakami decided he couldn't descend into immorality, so he became a police officer while Yusa simply decided to embrace the immorality of crime, ending with his current spree with Murakami's stolen gun. That Yusa is using Murakami's gun fuels his motivation completely, making him feel partially responsible for every crime Yusa commits despite Sato telling him that if it weren't his Colt it would be someone else's Browning.
The finale finds Murakami alone with Yusa having shot Sato, putting him in the hospital. Murakami is alone and has to follow the clues to figure out which of several young men, all dressed similarly, is the one he's looking for. The showdown is tense, the tensest thing Kurosawa has put together since the early showdown in Sanshiro Sugata, as Yusa has to use his final shots and Murakami has to face him down without a weapon himself. It's the culmination of all the little ideas of the film and the character's journey in one sequence, and it's great. It elevates everything that came before it. It's not deep, but it is effective.
So, considering the heights that come later, I can see how Kurosawa would be dismissive of this. However, for a police procedural, this is really quality stuff. Acting from Mifune and Shimura are great. The character journey is clear and complete. The tension of key moments is palpable. The motifs are strong and interesting with the added benefit of extending ideas Kurosawa had been toying with in his previous films. After the pleasant surprise of The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog is another wonderful entry in Kurosawa's early career. -
Jeremy_Urquhart9 October 2021I think this is the earliest Kurosawa film I've watched so far, and it's reminded me that I have to keep going through his filmography, as there looks to be many worthwhile films in there that I'm still yet to see.
This starts off wonderfully simple, almost like Bicycle Thieves except set in Japan and involving a missing gun instead of a missing bike. Once Takeshi Shimura's character becomes involved, it becomes more of a police procedural. It's still somewhat interesting (and I assume very influential on future cop movies) but it wasn't quite as fascinating as the mostly dialogue free, very atmospheric depiction of Mifune's character navigating the streets of post-war Japan for any lead on where his missing gun is, which is largely what the first 30-40 minutes was.
In the end it's a little long and not always engaging in some places, but the first act is great, Kurosawa's knack for visual storytelling (and just great visuals in general) is already fully on display here quite early in his career, and he gets two very good performances out of the always excellent Mifune and Shimura.
Absolutely worth a watch, but I wouldn't quite put it up amongst Kurosawa's best films. -
I don't think Stray Dog is on the same level as some of Akira Kurasawa's later work like Seven Samurai, Ran, Ikiru, Yoijimbo, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, High and Low and The Hidden Fortress. It is a little too long and sags in the pace in the middle, however despite these debits there is much to admire. Kurasawa's films were always well made and directed, even those not so highly regarded like Dreams and Rhapsody in August, and with the striking scenery and very accomplished cinematography and direction Stray Dog is no exception. The music is appropriately simple yet lively, I am especially fond of the Bengawen Solo, while the script gives a certain tension, the action is authentic and Toshiro Mifune is as ever charismatic in a role that suits his acting skills to a tee. What is special about Stray Dog is the story, in the action you feel the summer heat and Mifune's self-loathing, but emphasis is cleverly put on the goodness of ordinary people and the world's beauty. Overall, early Kurasawa it is, but one that makes its mark without being one of his finest. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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frankde-jong14 May 2021"Stray dog" is an early film of Akira Kurosawa, made a year before his international breakthrough with "Rashomon".
On first sight the film is a film noir without much typical Japanese elements. The similarities with "The naked city" (1948, Jules Dassin) can not be missed. Both films are about the cooperation of a young cop (rookie) and a more experienced colleague. Both films end with the main characters looking out over the city and concluding that there are many cases like the case they have just solved happening everyday.
One gets the impression that in "Stray dog" a young director is practicing on his technique. For a long time this was also the opinion of Kurosawa himself. Besides there is nothing wrong with that, and some of the technique in this film is really fine. In some scenes (especially the scenes with the young cop and the girl friend of the culprit (the stray dog from the title)) one can see that the framing of the images (a strong point that is normally attributed to Ozu) has been well thought out.
There are however two elements in "Stray dog" that are not standard in a film noir.
In the first place the guilty feelings of the young cop about the fact that the crimes are perpetrated with the service pistol that has been stolen from him. His experienced colleague is not able to convince him that the pistol is just a tool and that the culprit would otherwise have commited the same crimes with a different pistol. Is this sense of guilt maybe nonetheless a Japenese element in this film?
In the second place the understanding the young cop has for the "stray dog". Both have been in the army in the Second World War and the young cop has the feeling that the "stray dog" just "took the wrong turn" after the end of the war. In fact the young cop has the feeling that it was just a matter of chance that he did not take the same wrong turn. This feeling is communicated during the roaming around of the young cop in the slums of Tokyo looking for a clue with regard to the thief of his pistol. This scene runs from minute 18 to minute 33, which is much too long looking from the perspective of the storyline only. This theme of the difficulties of ex soldiers to re-integrate in civil life is not typical Japanese. For an American exampel look at "The best years of our lives" (1946, William Wyler). -
grantss25 April 2018A rookie police detective has his service pistol stolen. He sets off to find the thief, unravelling a complex web of criminals in the process.
A earlyish-career movie from the famed Akira Kurosawa, and it shows, to an extent. Long-winded, with scenes that seem to exist only to take up space. The soldier scenes and baseball scenes are good examples - seem to go on forever and don't add much. The plot seems complex just for complexity's sake - the case was simpler than the movie made out.
This said, there is a decent amount of intrigue and Kurosawa does build the tension well. Just a pity editing and dynamism weren't priorities.