Table of Contents

Overall Impressions

Searching for the Female

The cosmopolitan skyline

The Last Pursuit and Battle

In conclusion

“Straydog” is Akira Kurosawa’s wonderful detective story. A sort of Japanese Film Noir, it was his first film with Toshiro Mufune. Kurosawa says he does not like the movie, but the audiences do, and the film continues to be discovered by new viewers.

This paper examines what I consider to be three key sequences in the film.

General ObservationsThe 1949 film “Stray Dog” is a very complex work that has many layers. There is a basic detective story. Then there is a story about a young man, his mentor and how they struggle to reconcile modern Japan’s culture with the traditional.

It’s a simple story: Murakami is a young detective (Toshiro Mifune) who has his pocket picked on a packed bus. A woman distracts Murakami while her accomplice steals this weapon. It is clear that there is a black-market for guns in Japan, so he sets out to find it. Murakami’s obsession grows as he, Sato and Takashi Shimura follow leads.

Murakami, Sato, and the murderer discover the girlfriend. Murakami questions the woman, while Sato heads to the hotel to meet Yusa, the young man who was to be the murderer. Sato is wearing plain clothes but he reveals himself and Yusa kills him as he speaks to Murakami. Murakami is horrified by this and rushes straight to the hospital, where Sato is seriously injured. Yusa escapes. Murakami discovers, however, that Yusa would be at the railway station the next morning. She goes there to find him, chases him down and finally captures Yusa.

This short description doesn’t do the film justice. It is a gem that you should see again and again. I’d like you to focus on three pursuit sequences. Murakami is pursuing the woman that distracted him in the train, he walks through the streets looking for his weapon and then there’s the final chase.

The city is sweltering in the sun: people are drenched with sweat, clothes stick to their bodies, and perspiration runs down their face. It is the heat that makes Murakami feel pressured to find a gun. The heat can also make people irritable and short-tempered. Kurosawa also uses “weather cues” in his films to mark a turning point. Murakami asks Yusa’s girl to tell him the truth, but she initially lies. He persists. The storm literally breaks when she tells the truth. It is now raining heavily. The tension is lessened, the heat wave breaks, and the movie moves towards its conclusion. The storm signals that Sato will pay a high price, as he is forced to chase Murakami alone. (Smith, PG).

The Pursuit of the WomanMurakami pursues the woman, who is the pickpocket accomplice. She is a prostitute. Sato is able to identify her after finding her “mugshot” amongst thousands. He has apparently arrested her several times. It’s not surprising that the two are chummy. A wise old policeman and a prostitute with a gold heart is surprisingly a good combination. Murakami decides to follow her, but she will not talk. He is waiting outside. She ducks into the stores. She runs into an alley while he waits outside. He jumps aboard the streetcar as she gets off. He continues to follow her until she is exasperated and gives up. They are both hot, exhausted and frustrated, but it seems they have a connection. She gives him a drink of ice water and they sit on the bridge together, admiring the stars. He has already learned a lot, so instead of asking her questions, he just sits there and waits. The two have a certain chemistry that makes him think he might also learn to value having an informant. He’s starting to catch up with Sato in terms of “street-smarts”.

Murakami contacts the City Montage after he discovers that his weapon will be sold in the black market. He learns the ring sells weapons to men who are desperate enough commit crimes. Murakami dresses in his old Army Uniform and wanders the streets of Tokyo looking for people who need a pistol.

Kurosawa’s montages are almost completely silent, with the exception of city sounds. The montage is long (almost 10 minutes) and has no dialogue or music. It’s just a long montage showing Murakami walking through the city. He talks to the people around him, but his words are not heard. He sits down, takes a breather, and looks around. All around is a sea of sweaty, hot and tired people. Kurosawa wanted to show that Murakami was never one of the crowd. Even though he wears his old Army uniform and appears to be a veteran struggling with his life, something about him stands out. His search for information is hampered by the fact that people don’t appear to trust him. His appearance is not so much “undercover cop”, but his intensity. The way his body is tense and how he moves with purpose show that this man is obsessed about regaining the weapon. The heat doesn’t make him ramble. Instead, he keeps moving. He is not a member of the crowd.

In that way, he is a representation of post-war Japan. He represents a country that is looking for its own place in the global community, but also aware that the international community may not be prepared to accept this new nation.

The final fight, chase and capture is for me the most captivating sequence of the film. Kurosawa draws parallels between Murakami, Yusa and the rest of the characters in his film. Both men were veterans of Japan’s war, they had to confront the fact that Japan had lost the war and they are both very attractive. Yusa chose crime, while Murakami opted for the police.

Sato’s feelings are echoed by Sato. He too felt he was forced to choose. Like Yusa, his possessions were also stolen.

“‘Look! My knapsack was also stolen, along with my money. I felt outraged. I was outraged. I knew my life was at a critical point. But what have I done? Shimura would be like a pyromaniac becoming a fire chief. He still retains that original impulse and directs its direction.” (Richie. P. 61).

Shimura tells Murakami that he should not sympathize with the murderer, something he does often, because a part of him sees himself in this man. The whole film is built around a short conversation between Murakami’s and Sato’s discussion of Yusa. Murakami admits that he does feel sorry for Yusa.

Sato : “You simply cannot feel sorry for this man. We’re all prone to feeling that way since we chase them so much. We must not forget the number of sheep that are hurt by a single wolf. We are our own guardians. Let the authors analyze the criminal’s mind. It’s a hateful thing for me. “Evil will always be evil.”

Murakami says: “I’m not ready to think this way. During World War II, I witnessed how easily good people could turn bad. It could be the age difference, or the change in the times, but …”

Sato: “You understand him too well.” (Richie, pp. 59-60).

Murakami’s understanding of the killer is so deep that he begins to sympathize with the criminal, as he has witnessed good men become bad. Kurosawa makes this comparison easy by drawing such clear parallels. This is perfectly illustrated in the final chase.

Murakami arrives at the station around 6 am. Although he has never seen the murderer, he thinks that a man in the rain would be muddy. The man in the middle of the room is wearing dirty clothes. Murakami recognizes Yusa as soon as he spots him. The killer also recognizes the detective at that moment. Murakami is not required to move or show identification, nor to say anything. It’s the animal’s reaction when it sees the hunter. Yusa runs. Murakami runs after him. Yusa shoots Murakami using his own pistol. It’s the ultimate horror that Yusa uses his gun against himself. Yusa misses the second shot, which leaves the gun empty. Murakami manages to capture Yusa despite his injury, but they both end up covered in mud after falling into a river. Murakami is able to handcuff Yusa. They both then lie down, panting and blackened with mud, making it impossible to tell which one is which. You can’t tell who is who. Yusa screams and cries like a baby. He knows that Yusa will end up in jail or be put to death. It is a powerful scene and a compelling ending to an exciting film.

Conclusion”Straydog” is excellent cinema. It gives a good idea of how life was at the Japanese end of World War II, when they had to make tough decisions, and were sometimes surprised by the fact that there are more similarities between the good and the bad than we might think. Murakami resists Sato’s suggestion to leave Yusa behind at the end. He still has too much attachment to the entire thing. Kurosawa wants us to look back at the past. He uses memory as an opportunity to intervene in our current social condition.