Akira Kurosawa's "Stray Dog"

I watched another Akira Kurosawa film last night, this time it was "Stray Dog". This is an American style film noir but set in the underworld of post-war Japan. Briefly, the story is about a policeman who has his gun stolen while on public transport and he spends the film trying to track down the gun. Once the gun is found to have been used in a robbery, he is racked with guilt and becomes even more persistant in trying to find the gun as he feels responsible each time it is used in a crime.

Although it's a gritty, fast-paced film with plenty of action and intrigue and vivid characters, it's also very much a morality tale and, as with all of Kurosawa's early films, it's also a fascinating look at Japan in the years just after the Second World War. Throughout the film the characters suffer with the heat and everyone is constantly fanning themselves, or wiping their brow and this adds to the oppressive feel. There's one highly erotic scene that I loved where some dancers in a nightclub take a rest between their routines and they all flop into their dressing room for a rest and the camera very slowly pans over their sweaty, glistening limbs as they try to keep cool.

I'm loving these early Kurosawa films. They're so different in feel to his famous samurai films but you can spot a lot of the cast of those later films in early roles for Kurosawa. Thoroughly Age Appropriate recommended!

Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low"

I watched Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low" on DVD today. When I think of Kurosawa I usually think of his famous samurai films like "Seven Samurai", "Yojimbo", "Sanjuro" and "The Hidden Fortress" but I've never seen any of his contemporary films before so I've rented a few. "High and Low" is a long film in two parts. The first part is almost staged like a play in one room with a businessman called Gondo who we see at first on the eve of taking over a business but then having to cope with police and the moral dilemma of paying out ransom money for a kidnapped child or ruining himself financially.

After much debating the ransom is finally paid and the film then shifts its focus and concentrates on the police force and how they gather their evidence and piece together all the clues to find out who the kidnapper is. This part is filmed in almost a documentary style and is in sharp contrast to the earlier part, both in style and setting. The japanese title is "Tengoku to Jigoku" which also translates as "Heaven and Hell" and the screenplay was loosely based on "King's Ransom", an 87th Precinct police procedural by Evan Hunter (written under the pseudonym Ed McBain).

I really enjoyed this film. It's unusual film because Kurosawa took on a forties Hollywood detective film and transposed it to Japan in the sixties, clearly illustrating the divide between the rich and the poor in his country at that era. Ultimately, it is revealed that the kidnapper's sole motive for his crime is his hatred for Gondo which stems from jealousy. He has no other connection with his victim and the last scene where the kidnapper Takuchi asks to meet Gondo ends with the following exchange:

Kingo Gondo: "Why should you and I hate each other?"

Ginjirô Takeuchi, medical intern: "I don't know. I'm not interested in self-analysis. I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, high up there. That's how I began to hate you."