Stray Dog

A rather unusual offering from acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, this 1949 b/w film is Kurosawa’s subtle homage to French detective Inspector Maigret – with Takashi Shimura’s seasoned, controlled and calm veteran Detective Sato juxtaposed against hot-headed, obsessive and still rather inexperienced homicide detective Toshiro Mifune.

Shot in post-war Tokyo during a particularly merciless heatwave (the actors spend most of their screen time wiping away the sweat from their faces and bodies), the opening scene introduces us to freshly promoted homicide detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) – the latest addition to the Tokyo police team. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much time to feel pride and joy over his new promotion because during a ride on a crowded trolley bus, a pickpocket manages to ‘liberate’ him of his colt, kept in a jacket pocket. One is almost inclined to say “Serves him right” for having been so careless (not to mention stupid) for keeping a gun in a jacket pocket and not strapped in a holster on his body. Anyway, when Detective Murakami attempts to chase after the pickpocket, the thief clearly has the upper hand and soon vanishes into a side-lane. Embarrassed and humiliated, Murakami has no other option than to return to police headquarters and report the theft to his superior, Inspector Nakajima (Gen Shimizu). He even offers his immediate resignation but Nakajima, instead of accepting Murakami’s resignation, wants him to conduct an investigation into the theft. At least Murakami still has his job though as it later transpires, for the next three months he will get paid only half of his salary as a ‘punishment’ for his carelessness.

Initially, things look promising when one of the women who travelled on the bus during that fateful day appears to provide a tip-off, resulting in our remorseful detective going undercover and combing through the backstreets in the seedier parts of town in the hope to infiltrate the city’s illicit arms market. Easier said than done, for while this part of Tokyo might be a bit of an eye opener for Murakami (and for us) thanks to its post-war bars and places (often with American themes and names), the search leads nowhere. Exhausted from the heat and from running around in circles (symbolically speaking), he slumbers in front of a fountain when he is approached by a young punk who tips him off about a place in which a dealer will sell him a stolen gun… in a bar in which the dealer’s girlfriend (Noriko Sengoku) works and she’s easily identified by a white flower in her hair. Unfortunately, the tip-off also turns out to be a blank and even after the woman’s arrest, it turns out she knows precious little about the detective’s missing gun. Things go from bad to worse when a murder is committed during a robbery and it becomes clear that the suspect killed his victim with Murakami’s stolen Colt… who now knows that it’s a race against time to find the weapon before more bad things will happen.

Realising that Murakami grows increasingly frustrated and anxious, which hampers his rational thinking and his actions, his superior decides to partner him with Detective Sato (Takashi Shimura), a veteran detective who is the opposite to Murakami in his approach when it comes to finding the culprit: calm, methodical and always maintaining his cool. Thanks to his approach, the gun dealer’s girlfriend finally speaks and reveals that the dealer is nicknamed Honda and that he likes baseball. However, their joint plan of arresting Honda during a baseball match ends in more disappointment, because he has loaned the stolen gun to a disgruntled war veteran called Yusa (Isao Kimura), now involved with the yakuza. Undeterred, Sato and Murakami continue with their investigations and their latest lead points to a dancehall cum dive in which Yusa’s romantic interest, showgirl Harumi Namiki (Keiko Awaaji) works. Suffice to say she denies being romantically involved and insists she does not know where to find Yusa. Between further investigations, Sato and Murakami become friends and the latter looks upon the former as some kind of mentor. However, after another incident occurs involving Murakami’s stolen Colt, it almost pushes him over the edge, jeopardising not only his sanity but the investigation itself…

This is not the first time that Toshiro Mifune played alongside Takashi Shimura and the result is always excellent of course. Director Mifune, a self-confessed admirer of George Simenon’s ‘Inspector Maigret’ novels, clearly based the character of Detective Sato on him. Although primarily promoted as a crime drama with film noir influences, the human aspect is pretty much at the forefront here and it’s particularly interesting to see what post-war Tokyo (or parts of it) looked like.

STRAY DOG is available on 4K HD-Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime and the Blu-ray release comes with Special Features including: Newly recorded audio commentary by Kenta McGrath / ‘A Japanese Tale’ (2024, 31 min) – Kurosawa scholar Jasper Sharp discusses Stray Dog / Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create Stray Dog (2002, 32 min) / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only)