The Criterion Collection is helping me catch up on my Kurosawa. I’ve seen the big ones by now like Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Ran and Rashomon by now. They even put out Dreams and I watched High and Low after Highest 2 Lowest came out. Stray Dog is his third movie with Toshiro Mifune and another contemporary drama.
Mifune plays a detective whose gun is stolen. He spends the day looking for it as it is used in local crimes. I wonder if it was a reference for the John C. Reilly story in Magnolia, but either way it is tense and dramatic.
There is some wear on the 1949 print but it is sharp and vivid black and white. The 4:3 frame captures the tall, cast records drawers, crowded bustling streets and the final chase through fields.
The bonus features from previous editions are an informative 2003 historian commentary and 2002 episode of the Kurosawa Masterworks series which still includes some of the surviving actors and filmmakers.
Keep the Kurosawa Kriterions Koming!