The Steamy Underside

In this country, Kurosawa is mainly known for his samurai films. But this prolific filmmaker explored many genres during his long career. Stray Dog has a story like that of many detective movies, but its attitude is much more that of Japanese stoicism than the Hollywood flippancy of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler.

Novice police detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his pistol stolen while riding a crowded bus during a particularly hot summer. He immediately reports this to his superior and is assigned the case of finding the pickpocket who stole his gun. But in the meantime, the gun has found its way from the pickpocket to a ring of gun dealers and from them to a young thug. When a woman is shot during a robbery attempt, it is found that the weapon used was Murakami's. He is overwhelmed with remorse and immediately offers his resignation (which his boss refuses). Murakami begins working with the much more experienced detective Sato (Takashi Shimura) in a race to find the shooter before he can strike again.

Much of the film is spent exploring the poverty of immediate-post-war Japan. Murakami frequently voices sympathy for the thugs and streetwalkers he encounters. In many ways, Stray Dog seems to be Kurosawa's answer to the neo-realist films coming from Europe at the time.

Soon enough, the gunman strikes again. This time he kills, and Murakami's guilt begins to overtake him. Sato tries to assuage him, but to little effect. There seems no doubt that the gun will be used yet again.

Stray Dog provides a great introduction to another side of Kurosawa's work. Unlike his many period pieces, this film seems to speak for his own time and place without the use of elaborate metaphor.

-- Robert Stewart