Nora inu (1949)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Ryûzô Kikushima (writer)
Akira Kurosawa (writer)

Release Date:

31 August 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.

Plot Keywords:

Bus | Railway Station | Hotel | Show Girl | Police Detective

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Det. Murakami
Takashi Shimura	...	Det. Sato
Keiko Awaji	...	Harumi Namaki, showgirl
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Harumi's mother
Noriko Sengoku	...	Girl
Noriko Honma	...	Wooden Tub Shop woman (as Fumiko Honma)
Reikichi Kawamura
Eijirô Tôno
Yasushi Nagata		(as Kiyoshi Nagata)
Katsuhei Matsumoto
Isao Kimura	...	Yusa
Minoru Chiaki	...	Girlie Show director
Teruko Kishi
Ichirô Sugai	...	Yayoi Hotel owner
Gen Shimizu	...	Police Inspector Nakajima
Hiroshi Yanagiya	...	Police Officer
Hajime Izu	...	Criminal Identification Officer
Masao Shimizu	...	Nakamura
Kokuten Kodo	...	Old Landlord
Yûnosuke Itô	...	Bluebird Theatre manager
Akira Ubukata	...	Police Doctor
Fujio Nagahama	...	Sakura Hotel manager
Isao Ikukaka	...	Sei-san, bellhop
Shiro Mizutani	...	Punkster
Eizo Tanaka	...	Old Doctor
Kazuko Ihonbashi	...	Sato's wife
Haruko Togo	...	Azuma Hotel madame
Haruko Toyama	...	Kintaro geisha
Aso Mie	...	Pinball Parlor woman
Rikie Sanjo	...	Manager's wife
Chôko Iida	...	Kogetsu Hotel manager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ishirô Honda	...	Fleeing Villain
Haruo Nakajima	...	Man in Bar Fight (scenes deleted)
Hajime Taniguchi	...	Man in Bar Fight (scenes deleted)
Reisaburô Yamamoto	...	Hondo

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ryûzô Kikushima		writer
Akira Kurosawa		writer

Produced by
Akira Kurosawa	....	associate producer
Sôjirô Motoki	....	producer
Senkichi Taniguchi	....	associate producer
Kajirô Yamamoto	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Fumio Hayasaka

Cinematography by
Asakazu Nakai

Film Editing by
Toshio Gotô
Yoshi Sugihara

Production Design by
Takashi Matsuyama

Production Management
Seinosuke Hirai	....	in charge of production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ishirô Honda	....	chief assistant director
Zenshu Koizumi	....	assistant director

Art Department
Yoshirô Muraki	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Ichirô Minawa	....	sound effects editor
Fumio Yanoguchi	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Choshiro Ishii	....	lighting technician
Issei Tanaka	....	still photographer
Kazuo Yamada	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Toshio Gotô	....	negative cutter

Other crew
Yoji Ken	....	choreographer
Hachiko Toi	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Film Art Association
• Shintoho Company
• Toho Company

Distributors

• Toei Company (1949) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Toho Company (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Cowboy Pictures (2002) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Janus Films (????) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting (2007) (Japan) (TV)

Other Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

Stray Dog (USA)

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-12 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Film Art Association

Trivia:

The gun, which is the object of a search in the film, is a .25 caliber Colt model 1908 hammerless Vest Pocket Automatic.

Quotes:

Det. Sato: A stray dog becomes a mad dog.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sun taam (2007)

Soundtrack:

Sonatine in C Major, Op.20-1

The brilliance of early Kurosawa

Impressive as some of the later films of Kurosawa are - "Kagemusha" and "Ran" for example, I have to confess that it is his early work, particularly those set in modern Japan as opposed to its feudal past, that I find myself returning to with greater pleasure. He was not one of those artists who necessarily got better and better, rather was he one who continued to take on different challenges, not always with the same degree of success, as "Dodesukaden" and "Dreams" were to prove. I have long regarded the 1952 "Ikiru" as his greatest achievement, with the three modern day day films starring Toshiro Mifune that precede it, "Drunken Angel", "The Quiet Duel" and "Stray Dog", fascinating consolidations of his skill as a director. "Stray Dog" revels in technical accomplishment. It tells the story of a policeman who, after experiencing the theft of his gun while travelling on a bus, embarks on an odyssey to retrieve it. Questions of morality and honour loom large as they do in any Kurosawa film, with the quest becoming ever more urgent as evidence is gathered of the weapon being used in criminal activities. What might be regarded as plain bad luck in another culture is here seen as a matter of shame and dishonour by the unfortunate policeman, that has to be addressed forsaking all else. The search is pursued in a dazzling series of chases, encounters and interrogations that leaves the audience, like the hero, exhausted at times. The weather is hot throughout, characters sweat profusely and sometimes everything erupts in a tropical downpour - no other director uses rain so physically. Perhaps, at over two hours, "Stray Dog" is a little too long to sustain its material. It sags a little in the middle, but the chases at the outer ends of the film are wonderfully done, particularly the penultimate sequence where the cop pursues his prey through vegetation where city and countryside meet. You can almost smell the steamy atmosphere of a morning after rain where everything is about to heat up again. Possibly the other two Mifune films of the same period have the edge on this. They are more meditative works, their lengths more sustainable. But, for sheer cinematic bravado, this is the one.