Stray Dog (1949)

7.8Not Rated122 minDirector: Akira Kurosawa

1949 film directed by Akira Kurosawa

Stray Dog (野良犬, Nora inu) is a 1949 Japanese crime drama noir film directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. It was Kurosawa's second film of 1949 produced by the Film Art Association and released by Shintoho. It is also considered a detective movie (among the earliest films in that genre) that explores the mood of Japan during its painful postwar recovery, as well as a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres, based on its premise of pairing two cops with different personalities and motivations together on a difficult case.

Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

FAQ

What is Stray Dog about?
Stray Dog (1949) — Murukami, a young homicide detective, has his pocket picked on a bus and loses his pistol. Frantic and ashamed, he dashes about trying to recover the weapon without success until taken under the wing of an older and wiser detective, Sato. Together they track the culprit.
Is Stray Dog based on a true story?
See the production background and source material details on the official Wikipedia article.
Is Stray Dog scary?
Content rating: Not Rated. See the reviews tab for parental guidance and tone notes.