Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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.

Alex da Silva Rookie detective Toshiro Mifune (Murakami) gets his gun pick-pocketed and embarks upon a journey to retrieve it. He starts out alone but eventually teams up with a wiser cop played by Takashi Shimura (Sato). All the while, his gun is being used in more and more deadly crimes and his sense of shame and dishonour drives him onwards to rectify the situation. The gun has seven bullets, and by the end of the film, all of them have been fired.Director Akira Kurosawa delivers a high quality effort in capturing a tense atmosphere and stifling Tokyo heat. The characters are entertaining and the dialogue realistic with some memorable scenes, eg, the chorus of girls dancing in the nightclub and then running backstage to relax - this is where we first encounter Keiko Awaji (Harumi Namaki), who has a significant role as the killer's girlfriend. We are led to believe that Mifune has many similarities with the killer Isao Kimura (Yusa) – they have just chosen different paths.I must mention the dialogue - one particular gem is the moment when a woman's emotional behaviour is very frankly put down to her being on her period. How true. Hollywood just wouldn't dare.The film draws you in from the start, although it's overall length could be shortened. There is one scene which is a montage of shots of Mifune wandering around the shady districts of Tokyo. Whilst the accompanying music to this is interesting, we get the point after a couple of minutes. There are a few sections like this where the director drags it out a little too long. A good film. No-one has mentioned this yet but is it significant that Mifune doesn't actually speak his dialogue - he barks it like a dog?

Kong Ho Meng This 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!

TheLittleSongbird 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