is a 1949 Japanese film noir crime drama directed by Akira Kurosawa and 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 Japanese films in that genre) that explores the mood of Japan during its painful postwar recovery. The film is also considered 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 The film takes place during a heatwave in the middle of summer in post-war Tokyo. Murakami (Toshiro Mifune), a newly-promoted homicide detective in the Tokyo police, has his Colt pistol stolen while riding on a crowded trolley. He chases the pickpocket, but loses him. A remorseful Murakami reports the theft to his superior, Nakajima, at police headquarters. After Nakajima encourages him to conduct an investigation into the theft, the inexperienced Murakami goes undercover in the city's backstreets for days, trying to infiltrate the illicit arms market. He eventually locates a dealer who agrees to sell him a stolen gun, but when Murakami arrests the dealer's girlfriend at the exchange, he is distraught to find that she doesn't know anything about his missing gun. Forensics experts determine that Murakami's Colt was used to mug a woman of ¥40,000, and Nakajima partners him up with veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura). After Satō skillfully questions the girlfriend, the two detectives learn that the dealer, who is using the alias of "Honda", is a fan of baseball. They stake-out a local high-attendance baseball game looking for Honda and manage to lure him away from the crowd before taking him into custody. A ration card found on his person reveals that the gun was "loaned" to Yusa, a disenchanted war veteran who has become involved with the yakuza to support himself. The detectives interview Yusa's sister, one of his yakuza associates, and his sweetheart, showgirl Harumi Namiki (Keiko Awaji); none of these visits produce any useful leads. Murakami's gun is used again, this time to murder another woman during a robbery. He and Satō continue to question Namiki at her mother's house. She is still reluctant to talk, so Satō leaves to trace Yusa's movements, while Murakami remains behind hoping that Namiki's mother can persuade her to