6 of 10
Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai
Toshir� Mifune
Takashi Shimura
Keiko Awaji
Eiko Miyoshi
Isao Kimura
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| Stray Dog 6 of 10 |
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| Directed by Akira Kurosawa Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai Toshir� Mifune Takashi Shimura Keiko Awaji Eiko Miyoshi Isao Kimura |
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| My second �contemporary� Kurosawa; Ikiru was the first. This one seems to suffer from the same overall problem. Kurosawa�s story telling would probably never be described as �tight,� or as �sparse.� But here, it seems to take him even longer to figure out where the story is. There is simply too little happening in the first half. Stylistically, there is some wonderful stuff; the scenes with Mifune wandering through Japan�s post-war black market are wonderful to look at. (And interestingly enough, were originally going to involve extensive use of split screen. Way back in 1949.) But they still don�t give us much to go on. And then, just like in Ikiru, Kurosawa seems to really find what he has been searching for. From there, it gets stronger and stronger; the entire second half is excellent. It contains several extraordinary scenes, particularly one where Mifune and Shimura visit the suspect�s sister, all shot in a single take. This is followed later by a scene where Mifune tries to convince the suspect�s girl to turn him in that is easily the most emotionally resonant of the entire film. Mifune really shines, partially because he seems more restrained here than his samurai stuff. And Shimura is wonderful, as always. I would also particularly like to mention the climactic chase, which I found strangely gripping. Kurosawa uses background music extensively in this film, but drops it completely during the entire chase. Then, he introduces some music during the face-off that is truly unexpected, and also truly effective. Wonderful stuff, and although the film is nowhere near as polished or as driven as his later work, the hand of the master is visible even here. | ||||||