STRAY DOG Movie Review

This tense, smart, assured early feature from Akira Kurosawa is the story of a rookie police detective (Toshiro Mifune) whose service revolver is plucked from his pocket while he's riding on a bus. Soon after its theft, he comes to the horrifying realization that his gun being used to commit a series of murders. Together with his seasoned, cynical older partner (Takashi Shimura), Mifune methodically and obsessively hunts down the “stray dog” who's stolen the deadly weapon; in the process, he learns more than he bargained for about guilt, responsibility, and justice. A powerful, tough, gripping detective picture that's also a fascinating portrait of postwar Japan, the 1949 Stray Dog was the last film Kurosawa made prior to achieving worldwide fame the following year with his brilliant Rashomon.

NEXT STOP … Drunken Angel, High & Low, Blue Steel

1949 122m/B JP Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura; D: Akira Kurosawa. VHS HMV, COL