Article: STRAY DOG (1949) Director: Akira Kurosawa Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura Genre: Crime/Thriller

STRAY DOG is it.  This is the film that is said to have inspired the "buddy-cop" film.  Honor is the highest importance as the boiling summer drags on, Mifune has his colt hand - gun stolen.  He wanders the streets attempting to reclaim his honor as a man and as a cop...but appears the whole time as almost a lost "stray" dog...becoming one with the underworld he journeys in.

Scene on the bridge deals with the vulnerability of Mifune and his explanation that "he is responsible" for the killings taking place becuase they were done with his stolen colt.  Great scene in baseball stadium bringing a man out of a crowd.  Climax is (almost a western style stand-off) and knock down drag out fist fight in mud, puddles and more...an innocent group of girls walking by/singing underscores the balance between innocence and corruption.  Maybe Mifune's mission is actually a selfish one?  Maybe next time he will learn to not take it all personally?

As Shimura lays in bed, injured by a bullet, he tells Mifune...in time he will forget and somewhere out there...a new evil rises that he will need to extinguish once he can forget himself and his stolen honor.