Towards the end of the period of Japan's occupation by US forces, Kurosawa took on a typically American genre, the film noir. In Stray Dog he weaves a tale that is part whodunit and part social drama. Kurosawa further develops his style in what was the beginning of his greatest area, aided by another great performance from leading man Toshiro Mifune that tops his part in the earlier Drunken Angel.<br /><br />I get the feeling Kurosawa really put his finger on the pulse of post-war Japan in this picture – as he tried to do but just fell short in Drunken Angel (1948). Mifune's detective character and his opposite number, Ko Kimura's criminal are not just typical examples of Japan's après guerre generation, they are also symbolic of the conflicting feelings prevalent in the defeated Japanese nation. On the one hand there is the guilt and responsibility detective Murakami feels over losing his gun, and opposite that the unhinged Yusa's blind anger and sense of injustice. Another telling reference to the impact of the war comes when Murakami is told to dress as a down-and-out, and subsequently puts on a shabby soldier's uniform.<br /><br />Although there is less warmth and more tragedy to this picture, Kurosawa demonstrates the same kind of sensitivity and tenderness he showed in Drunken Angel. In the scene where Murakami and Sato visit the scene of the second robbery, the sense of tragedy is brilliantly conveyed with a series of shots showing the house and garden empty, while we overhear neighbours whispering to each other about what has gone on. Also, unusually for a film noir (but more or less the rule for early Kurosawa) the characters are really likable. There is a great warmth in the relationship between the younger and older detectives, and the earthy, cheekiness of the petty criminals that pop up here and there in the film is almost charming.<br /><br />Kurosawa himself dismissed the film as being "too technical" with "not one single thought in it". In particular critics have often attacked the long drawn out search sequences in the first half hour of the film. While I agree they are perhaps a little over done, they are not only Kurosawa's opportunity to show off a number of visual styles, but also all the sights and sounds of the city, in an almost neo-realist style. Besides, the apparent aimlessness of this part of the film seems to be a deliberate match for Murakami's bungling ineptitude in the early stages of his investigation. In fact, the coherence of the plotting and pacing comes together at the same rate as the detectives' investigation. The final half hour is incredibly taut and tense.<br /><br />Kurosawa's kinetic approach to shot composition is really starting to shine through here, with whirring desk fans, spinning arcade games and billowing net curtains keeping moving elements in the frame even when the actors are still. He also begins making frequent use of horizontal wipes, matching the direction of the wipe with the direction of movement on screen.<br /><br />It's hard to talk about Stray Dog for long without mentioning the weather. Kurosawa obviously paid attention – and made his actors pay the same attention – to ensure that every single shot contained some reference to the sweltering heat. The heat wave builds up until the final night of the investigation when it breaks into a storm. It's perhaps a little more of an obvious use of the weather than in his later pictures, but it established a crucial Kurosawa motif.<br /><br />Stray Dog is a very decent early Kurosawa picture, in spite of his own misgivings about it. It's also a solid film noir which, although often very dark and negative, in balance bucks the trend by being overall uplifting and leaving you with a satisfied feeling – although some might say that excludes it from being counted as a film noir at all. Whatever the case, it is certainly a fantastic film.