gavin6942 During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol. The film is considered a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres.Kurosawa mentioned in several interviews that his script was inspired by Jules Dassin's "The Naked City" and the works of Georges Simenon. Kurosawa wrote the script with Ryūzō Kikushima, a writer who had never written a script before. Indeed, it would be hard to deny the influence that film noir had on this film, as it is essentially that: film noir set in a post-war Tokyo.I have to wonder what influence this film had , if any, on the Nikkatsu studio. They made many great gangster films in the 1950s and 1960s, and while there is a distinction between "film noir" and "gangster", there is enough overlap that surely "Stray Dog" must have been something that was in the back of their minds.

Maddyclassicfilms Stray Dog is directed by Akira Kurosawa, is written by Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima,has music by Fumio Hayasaka and stars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura.During a heatwave young detective Murakami(Toshiro Mifune)is devastated when his police gun is stolen while he is on a bus. Working with a records detective, Murakami finds the woman who stole his gun. Long since having passed it on she directs him to some gun dealers.As time goes on his gun is linked with a crime and Murakami now feels personally responsible for crimes committed with his gun. He is paired with older and wiser detective Sato (Takashi Shimura). Sato makes him see that he has nothing to reproach himself for. He also teaches the younger and hot headed man to take a step back from what he's involved with and not get so caught up in the case. The pair track down several leads and soon get ever closer to the gun and it's current owner but not before the tragic murder of a housewife.This Japanese thriller is one of Kurosawa's best films, featuring strong performances from Mifune and Shimura who both convey more with a glance or expression than lines of dialogue ever could.The film also examines how emotionally tough being a police officer is.There will be cases officers just can't leave alone and they will put so much effort into solving. As Sato points out though, you devote time and emotion to one person or case when you should try not to get so personally involved, another case and person will come along and you can't get so involved each time because you'll wear yourself out. There's also no point in feeling sorry for every criminal you come across because there will always be another and another.Hayasaka's music greatly adds to the film, capturing the relentlessness of the heatwave and the urgency of the case.Mifune is excellent as the hot headed and desperate detective. You can see his anger and despair building up just waiting to explode. Shimura is (as ever)wonderful as the older and calmer Sato. Shimura makes you believe this man has seen a great deal and can help Murakami learn to stop taking cases personally.

George Roots (GeorgeRoots) Only 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.

Charles Herold (cherold) This 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.