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Stray Dog (Nora inu) (1949)

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Akira Kurosawa directs the black-and-white 1949 film noir Nora Inu (released in the U.S. in 1963 as Stray Dog). In his third film with Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune plays young police detective Murakami. One summer day on a crowded bus in Tokyo, his gun is stolen by a pickpocket. Rather than face the shame of reporting his gun missing, he chooses to go out and find it himself (there were not many weapons on the streets of Tokyo immediately following WWII). While trying to locate the gun, he discovers

May 25, 2004

Janus Films

Cast

All Critics (17) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (1) | DVD (13)

Mifune is magnetic

September 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment
Cinema Writer

A great movie sharing "The Bicycle Thief" scenario about a stolen object needed for economic survival, as well as the tableaux of a shattered axis city.

April 27, 2010 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

... a low key thriller set in the uncertainty and turbulence of post-war Tokyo, part film noir and part social commentary with a hard moral.

March 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online | Comment
Turner Classic Movies Online

Kurosawa never forgets his audience. The result is a film that's traditional yet modern, one that even includes a ball game.

December 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

Good crime thriller, with historic Toyko footage

August 13, 2005 Comment
Classic Film and Television

Postwar noir is a tough, early collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune

June 21, 2005 Comment
Film Journal International

The story is engrossing, and it's fascinating to see glimpses of both Japanese post-war society and their approach towards police investigation and forensics

March 3, 2005 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Kurosawa transcended the limitations of the formula by using it to explore other issues, in this case the nature of criminality and the state of postwar Japan

August 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

It's clear even this early that Kurosawa was one of the cinema's leading action directors.

August 5, 2004 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Against the backdrop of a defeated Japan, Kurosawa depicts the emasculation of his hero in the simple symbolism of the loss of a gun.

June 1, 2004 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

Akira Kurosawa's 1949 film noir transposes the bleak outlook that dominates so many American entries in the genre to postwar Tokyo.

August 8, 2002 Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | Comment
MovieMartyr.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Stray Dog (Nora inu)

Probably the most amazing thing about this film is that the plot is so simple and basic, yet the film is so much more than that. It's another one of Akira Kurosawa's contemporary films, this time being set in (then) contemporary post-war Japan. It's a nice film noir story about a rookie police detective who gets his

August 6, 2006
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

While someone could make the argument that all cinema is poetic in certain ways, no set of films personify cinematic poetry more than the films of Akira Kurosawa. Even in his earlier films such as Stray Dog, he gives the viewer a generous bounty to chew on. Not only is this a noir influence crime drama, but a priceless

March 22, 2011
axadntpron
Reid Volk

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Nora inu (DE)
  • Chien enragé (FR)
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