Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.6 / 5.0

A dark, striking film:

This Japanese film noir was one of director Akira Kurosawa's earliest films, starring (a very young!) Toshiro Mifune as a police detective whose pistol has been stolen and fenced on the black market. The rookie cop carries a samurai-like sense of personal responsibility for the crimes that are committed with his gun following his lapse in vigilance; this sense of honor is not shared by his fellow officers, who hold a more pragmatic, modern view of things. Slow moving in the first half, the film picks up... more info

Homage & Echoes and Finally, Stubbornly Original.:

I am not a Japanese film historian, so others can elaborate on that aspect. When it started, I wasn't sure I would take to this film, but it draws you in inexorably. Shot on location in Tokyo, remarkably just 3 or 4 years after the end of WWII, it most reminds me of a Japanese Naked City, with echoes and moments reminiscent of other American gangster films all the way back to Public Enemy and The Roaring Twenties of the 30's.

The location photography alone is fascinating in depicting the Japan of 1948 or... more info

An excellent psychological crime story...:

In the shadow of the American occupation of Japan after World War II during an extremely hot summer afternoon, Murakami (Toshir? Mifune), a young homicide detective, is duped by a pickpocket who steals his issued gun. Detective Murakami notifies his superior about the theft which causes him embarrassment and fear of being fired. The humiliation combined with the fear compels Detective Murakami to keep searching for the thief by going undercover. Murakami probes the scorching Tokyo streets and alleys... more info

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