Akira Kurosawa, along with his co-writer Ryuzo Kikushima, has here something very intriguing- a screenplay that really draws the viewer in, like opening up a tight, to-the-bone detective story by the likes of Dashiell Hammett (an influence on at least one Kurosawa film, by the way). His basic premise is deceptively simple- a nervous but completely professional and slightly worn-down cop, played by a young & trim Toshiro Mifune, gets his gun pick-pocketed on the subway, and he spends at least half of the film on his own looking for it. When a pickpocket specialist, played by one of the very best Japanese character actors Takashi Shimura, comes into being his partner on the case, then things, then the plot starts to thicken further. But as someone who's read (and tried to write) a few screenplays, I just know watching this how much detail probably went into it, the nuances of things that Mifune had to do. It's quite a delicate, awesome feat, considering the layers of the film's content.<br /><br />Obviously, Kurosawa as the director calls the shots in terms of the visuals, his true forte, though this is him still in a young director mode, very confident in his style, though only giving minor fluoride's of style (sometimes quite well). This works to his advantage when using the motif of hot, heat, the wretched weight of a summer's day in the more crowded, poorer areas of Tokyo. But Stray Dog is more than just a kind of common detective film. That the story is sturdy and good enough to be akin very much to the American films of the time is almost besides the point. Like De Sica, to a degree, Kurosawa uses the post-war streets and real locations (it's not all just Toho this time), and it adds that layer of heightened realism for our main characters on the prowl; in fact one could look at this film as being like the Bicycle Thief (looking for a lost item in the dark places of the city) had it been written with a fair amount less sentiment and more grit.<br /><br />When the suspense comes forth, it's really a knockout, especially when it comes time for he final confrontation with the thief, where it becomes such a struggle that the two are like, well, dogs, very primal as it boils down to the law versus the criminal. There's a certain sense of time and structure that sets apart Stray Dog from the numerous 'film-noirs' of American cinema of the period- while it contains the kind of determined edge and wit of those films, it also relies on portraying the people in this world as honestly as possible, however downtrodden things are (like Kurosawa's later film High & Low, location adds to the mood greatly). But even through Mifune's cautious and un-bending kind of performance, and Shimura's typical intelligent, laid-back way, it's the script that pulls everything together; that long, fascinating sequence of Mifine trudging through the streets looking for his gun was not very likely improvised. Very well done.