Stray Dog (1949)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Inspired by the trying times of post-WWII Japanese filmmaker
Akira Kurosawa begins to emerge as a creative figure that would eventually carry
Japanese cinema to international acclaim. Stirred by a more pessimistic and
troubled society during the nation’s period of post-war occupation comes a film
that captures desperation and lawlessness that hindered many during a time when
sections of the population grew cynical. The picture delivers a simple crime
story, but more so captures style and atmosphere with carefully calculated
movie making precision that manifested a highly creative cinematic mind.
Stray Dog is a Japanese film noir crime drama about a
rookie detective’s desperate attempt to track down the pickpocket that stole
his pistol. During a hot, muggy summer rookie homicide detective Murakami
(Toshiro Mifune) falls victim to the theft of his pistol by a pickpocket on a
crowded bus. Shameed for the loss of such a dangerous tool of his profession he
dives in undercover within the backstreets to track down his unseen
perpetrator, discovering some of the underworld black market. When forensic
evidence discovers his gun was used in a murder his desperate anxiety worsens
to arm. Partnered with a world-weary veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura)
Murakami begins to be shown the balance of life to his work, despite yet
lacking identity for himself other than what he saw as his duty. Led to a shady
local showgirl, Harumi (Keiko Awaji) with possible connections to the man they
are looking for Satō follows a lead that leads to him getting by the man with
the gun. The clues and Murakami’s decisiveness come together ultimately to
solve the crime and stop the man, learning that troubled crimes like this is
the first step towards how he can become more like the understanding yet
content partner Satō.
A wonderfully shot picture with beautiful frame composition
that includes depth, carefully choreographed camera movements, staging, and
blocking of actors, this feature is a film class all in itself when it comes to
simple, but highly effective use of a camera. With a story being a precursor of
the “buddy cop” genre it is easy to follow and just complex enough to keep the
plot interesting. As a motion picture out of Japan the film easily breaks
cultural barriers with is mix of Hollywood precision and European dramatic style
story and composition. In an age when Japanese cinema had yet to hold any great
honor internationally Akira Kurosawa quietly composes a feature wonderfully
constructed with a suspenseful drama that can effortlessly entertain.
During the period of production of Stray Dog Japanese
cinema was still held is relatively low regard primarily due to the western
world’s sense of ownership of the cinematic arts and the devastation of the war
in far east Asia. Kurosawa had long work within motion pictures and was a
student on the medium from throughout the world, but with the Empire of Japan’s
defeat at the hands of America and the Allied Forces the nation and its culture
was relegated to reconstruction of cultural identity.
For what was his second feature of 1949 Kurosawa was
inspired the produce a film of a genre not popular in Japan, a detective story.
For the cinematic style he looked to film noir, stimulated by the visuals from films
like The Naked City, taking what is usually the perceive ugly surrounds
of a city and it structures and turning it into a breathing form of art. He
found the movement of people brought
with is a vibrant emotion and art to a picture, and settings and art
decoration, even with less than attractive aspects brought to the screen
volumes of information and life that went beyond the scripted word as surrounding told stories beyond any
primary plot.
Kurosawa’s frame composition for Stay Dog is
carefully constructed with action or settings carrying on throughout the in the
foreground and background. Individuals and items move through the frame that
have little to nothing to do with the plot, but construct a world and emotions
in which the characters live in delivering atmosphere and place that is rich
beyond anything spoken or plainly laid out to the audiences. Kurosawa controls
the periphery as a master of the frame purposely calculated, not wasting a
piece of celluloid. The way he sometimes shoots his characters allows for the
slightest bit of body language to speak volumes. Sometimes shooting reactions
from behind a character or with only a part of their body within frame delivering
emotion allowing the audience’s mind to fill in the all that is unseen, proving
to be far greater than anything he could have manifested on screen with simple
hints of subtle movement.
To be quite frank, at times the acting is very flat. The
film noir detective story was something of a new venture for the filmmaker and
Japanese cinematic culture. Kurosawa did cast two of his favorite actors in the
primary roles with Toshiro Mifune, perhaps his favorite discovery, as the young
detective battling to squash his own shame, and Takashi Shimua portrays the
worn-out veteran partner detective. This type of partnership of youth and age,
knee-jerk reaction with careful calculation, and narrow focused with
broad-mindedness manifests the making of what would become the buddy cop genre.
The story is rather simple, nothing too complicated and
sometimes falls into being rather slow, but the visuals and world building more
than makes up for simplicity of story. If there is one thing this picture does
better than anything is masterfully creating atmosphere. Beyond framing and
camera movement Kurosawa builds the tension with the subtle hints of the oppressive
heat of the summer that is ever present in the picture. The heat is only mentioning
briefly, but throughout the picture it is subtly laid on thicker with
characters continuously wiping at their brows and indiviuals struggling with
heat as they fan themselves in the background. With the build of tension, the presence
of the heat subconsciously builds on screen, adding to the suspense.
The climax of the picture contains a lovely contrast of peak
suspense juxtaposed with the serene and tranquil setting in which the finally
showdown between Murakami and his gunman face each other. The two worlds of
order and ciaos, good and bad, beauty and ugliness meet in a world that
contains both as they collide. Kurosawa brings a great deal to table as a filmmaker
and in studying this picture it can be easily observed how his style in
pictures like Stay Dog how his style could have been used to inspire some of
the greatest films years later produced by the next generation of filmmakers
that would have admired the work of Kurosawa.
As a picture from early in Akira Kurosawa’s career the film
receives a good amount of praise. Obviously inspired by the films of western
culture the picture captures more of style not of Japanese culture. After his
later, more celebrated films Kurosawa would look back of Stray Dog surprisingly
in a less than favorable light. For many years he viewed this production as an
example of his growth as a filmmaker being overly careful in calculating shots,
blocking actors, and editing that the film more than focusing on story or substance.
To a degree he is correct, but that does not take away from the brilliance of
the film. However, after years of looking down on his own production he would
come to once again enjoy this early picture as a fine piece of his cinematic
work and admiring his youthful creativity.
For students of cinema I highly recommend Stray Dog
as picture that manifested the wonderfully constructed work of a master
filmmaker in a period when even he considered himself distant from his best
work. His framing and creative reveals in this film are a study in themselves
in how visuals share far more than words on screen and how showing less at time
does far more. This only begins the journey into the greater world that is
Akira Kurosawa in this overall study of film history with the prospects of his
future works all the more exciting to unravel with the movement of time and
history.
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