Starring a young 29- year-old Toshiro Mifune Stray Dog is a 1949 Japanese noir that has its recurring themes guilt and the pressures of societal decay on people without resources.

Rookie homicide detective Murakami tired and suffering from an oppressive heatwave blanketing the city has his pocket picked but instead of taking his wallet the thief makes off with Murakami’s police issues Colt pistol. Murakami dutifully reports the theft already quite guilty about his negligence certain that this will get him booted from the force into a city that has few opportunities as the nation crawls out of the destruction, physical and emotional, of the war.

Partnered with veteran policeman Sato (Takashi Shimura) the pair begin following leads to identify the thief and recover the stolen gun. The hunt leads them down a trail of petty crimes growing more serious and more dangerous as they penetrate the underbelly of the city’s criminal element. With each crime the pistol is tied to Murakami’s guilt grows as he takes on more and more responsibility for its abuse by the criminals. Simultaneously he develops an empathy for many of the people he encounters, people for whom the harsh realities of the nation have trapped in lives of desperation and shattered illusions.

An early film by renowned director Akira Kurosawa Stray Dog has clear inspirations from the American genre of film noir while still presenting the themes and imagery that is iconic to Kurosawa’s film legacy. Mifune here presents a different sort of character than the gruff and imposing types he would often be associated with later in his equally impressive career. Murakami is a sensitive man and it’s said many time in the film perhaps too sensitive for policework but it is this quality and Mifune’s excellent portrayal of it that provides the bridge that allows the audience to see the crushed humanity in the city’s underworld.

Stray Dog is an excellent example of the universality of noirand that the human conditions it comments upon are universal rather than national and I can heartily recommend watching it.

Stray Dog is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.