This is one of the early movies in the long career of Akira Kurosawa and a brilliant movie nonetheless. This movie can be considered the first of the Japanese police dramas. The main topic of the movie seems to be post World War II Japan. The movie deals with the similarities and difference between the cop and the crook. They are very similar in background (both were veterans of the war, both had their satchels stolen), yet ended up on opposite sides of the law. Kurosawa is showing the effects of the war on Japan. Where some steal and take the criminal way out to survive, others survive by doing what is right (and harder - as characterized by Harumi's speech to Murakami about the dress from Yusa). Even in this world, the criminal is not truly ruthless. Kurosawa accurately captures the feel of postwar Japan, by actually filming in its locations (when Toshiro Mifune travels through the market - those are actual shots of the black markets in various cities). So dangerous it was to shoot there in fact, that the "feet" of Murakami were actually a body double (or foot double) for Toshiro Mifune. Kurosawa uses the actors that he uses in so many classic movies - Toshiro Mifune (a breakout role for Mifune, who had been typecast as a yakuza in his movie roles thus far), Takashi Shumura (Detective Sato) and the first movie appearance for Minoru Chiaki. This movie starts out rather slowly in the progression of the action (Murakami's gun is stolen on a bus - revealed in a flashback to a superior), but picks up quickly once the Sato is assigned to help Murakami. This movie is recommended to any fan of the Japanese cinema, of Kurasawa, and of the police drama.