Review – Stray Dog

This early team-up of famed director Akira Kurosawa and a youthful Toshiro Mifune will be something of a surprise to fans of the duo’s samurai classics. For openers, this is a contemporary drama about a cop who loses his gun on a bus and must spend the next couple of days pursuing the criminal who is using it to rob and kill people. The real star of the show isn’t the actors or the script; rather, Kurosawa’s skill at establishing atmosphere provides the best reason to rent and watch. He takes the audience on a sweaty tour of summertime Tokyo, particularly the places where the ragged people go. The final product has a distinctly European flavor (I don’t want to come right out and say “Fellini,” but the feeling is there). My only gripe about the whole thing was a problem with the DVD: the English subtitles were often more than a little odd. Otherwise this was a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours. Worth seeing