1949 - STRAY DOG, very good crime thriller from Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa is a year away from releasing Rashomon which will put him on the map as one of Japan's most important directors.  A year before Rashomon, Stray Dog was released and it's a superior crime thriller.  The film is set in post World War II Japan and has lots of on location filming around Tokyo. The film stars Toshiro Mifune who was becoming one of Kurosawa's most important collaborators and Takashi Shimura who was the leader of The Seven Samurai in Kurosawa's film. In the West he is probably best remembered as Dr. Yamane from the first Godzilla film.

The plot of the film has Mifune as a rookie detective whose gun is stolen.  He spends the film attempting to locate the thief while the gun is being used to commit armed robberies. Shimura is the veteran police detective who helps the young detective solve the crime.  The film is set in Tokyo during a hot summer and  it does an excellent job of creating an oppressive atmosphere of heat and humidity.

 

Kurosawa tells an exciting story within the confines of the urban police procedural. Watching this film there is no question that he was entering an important part of his career.  According to the supplemental features on the Criterion disc Kurosawa was a big fan of detective novels which had a major influence on Stray Dog.  This film is also a good look at post war Tokyo as it recovered from World War II. 

The film was written by Akira Kurosawa and Ryūzō Kikushima who worked on some of Kurosawa's best films.  The running time is 122 minutes.