The Kurosawa Century #6: Corporate Corruption & Contemporary Japan: The Bad Sleep Well (1960) & High and Low (1963)

The Bad Sleep Well (1960, 151 Minutes)

Moody, byzantine, and alienating are just a few adjectives to describe The Bad Sleep Well. Loosely inspired by Hamlet, in that it's a story about a son attempting to avenge the unjust death of his father, only it's' the version where Claudius wins. A plot summary would take several paragraphs, but if paying close attention, the plot is not over complicated. 

Toshiro Mifune stars as Nishi the young Vice President of the Public Development Corporation. The film opens with a wedding sequence with Nishi marrying Yoshiko, daughter of the company's president. Kurosawa used the sequence to frame the conflicts of the film.  The wedding party is interrupted by the police who arrest top officials on corruption charges, threatening he future of the company. The wedding cake is replica of corporate headquarters, with a certain window (on the cake) marking the spot where a former official leaped to his death. 

Thus, the plot is set in motion. Some characters have double identities, fake deaths are staged, and corruption goes on at high levels. A revenge plot in the planning for years is about to happen, dependent on several complex deceptions. Within this labyrinth are memorable scenes that include a character watching his own funeral and listening to co-workers make fun of him, a mock execution scene when a character is almost thrown out of a window and then is then made to believe he drank deadly poison. The grim and dramatic climax of the film happens off screen! 

One character observes, "It's not easy to fight evil." That's the truth. In Kurosawa's contemporary Japan evil has no human face, the banal offices and massive boardrooms feel oppressive, the bureaucratic levels are endless. Information and secrets are the currency. Mifune as the Hamlet avatar is so stoic and restrained, it's hard to get a read on the character.

Francis Ford Coppola named The Bad Sleep Well as an influence on The Godfather. The cinematography by Yuzuru Aizawa probably inspired Gordon Willis as so many frames are filled with darkness. The plot of Coppola's The Conversation also shares a lot with this film. Repeated viewings will be rewarded. 

High and Low (1963, 143 Minutes)

If The Bad Sleep Well is a thriller told in a minor key, High and Low plays in a major key. Inspired by the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom, the story involves a high-profile kidnapping and its aftermath. Toshiro Mifune (Kingo Gondo) stars as the top executive for a shoe company that's in the midst of a shake-up. The first section take place inside Gondo's spacious high-rise apartment. He gets a phone call telling him his young son has been kidnapped, only to find his young boy is still safe at home, it was in fact the child of Gondo's chauffer who was abducted by mistake.  

The kidnapper demands an extravagant ransom that would bankrupt Gondo, at first, he decides not to pay them off, but after the pleading of the father and his own guilt he decides to liquidate his savings. The police assure Gondo this will make him a hero to the public, while his bosses are far less charitable. In an astonishing sequence, a masterclass of shot selection and sound design, the money is dropped from a speeding train and the boy is returned. 

The chamber piece melodrama then shifts into procedural mode as the Tokyo police try to track down the kidnapper and his accomplices. The focus turns to the law enforcement professionals using every means at their disposal, whether it's high-tech forensic work, years of experience and wisdom, or managing the media. Kurosawa highlights the institution. which had modernized considerably since Stray Dog. Kurosawa emphasizes their efficiency, a storytelling mode that's popular today, people at their best getting things done. 

The final act becomes a gritty urban thriller as the scene shifts to the streets of Tokyo. Kurosawa explores the drug trade, nightclubs, and scrap yards. They capture the kidnapper, an intern at a hospital who envied the lavish lifestyle of Gondo. In the final scene, Gondo visits the young man in prison who is about to be executed for the kidnapping and murdering his accomplices. The two share a terse exchange. Crime driven by class resentment remains a cause célèbre in the 21st century, one thinks of the Luigi Mangioni case. Kurosawa takes a more telescopic view of class division, withholding political solutions or judgments, but does present class division as a tension fueling the undertow of a modern metropolis. 

The narrative flow of High and Low is nothing short of fantastic. The plot serves as nothing more than an instrument to explore themes of class, justice, moral responsibility, cold-hearted capitalism and systems reacting under pressure. Technically, the cinematography is also stunning, the use of blocking belongs on a film school syllabus. And one can see the DNA of modern urban thrillers, Lumet, Fincher, and especially Michael Mann. I can't imagine Manhunter or Heat existing without High and Low. 

The Kurosawa Century #5: Social Class: The Lower Depths (1957) & Dodes 'ka-den (1970)

The Lower Depths (1957, 125 Minutes)

Kurosawa's adaptation of the 1902 Maxim Gorky play The Lower Depths is a character study of people living in a downtrodden section of Tokyo during the 19th century. A work of social realism, the play was well received in Japan and France. The play's an ensemble piece with a range of characters making sense of their low station in life, while lamenting their failed potential. A love triangle that erupts into a murder is the central plot point, in addition to many subplots spanning the spectrum of comical and tragic. 

The Lower Depths is one of Kurosawa's least cinematic films, the action is limited to two sets that were intentionally grimy, although the opening shot is fantastic and there are many long takes to emphasize the theatricality of the film. The characters range from old to young, some trying to pick up the pieces of their lives while others spend their days in misery and regret. As one can surmise, this is one of Kurosawa's darkest films and offbeat tonally, moments of existential despair are paired with slapstick humor. When a wandering pilgrim shows up (Bokuzen Hidari) offering spiritual advice to the downtrodden, some begin to question his story. Toshiro Mifune also given a meaty role as a thief in love with two sisters and trying to reform. 

Made during one of Kurosawa's most creative periods, The Lower Depths may take audiences by surprise with its tone bordering on nihilism. Like the Gorky play, the drama reminds middle-class audiences of the people living miserable lives who are often hidden in plain sight. Kurosawa fills the frame with humanity, and while the reality is grim, they are still imperfect people struggling to make sense of their lives and while keeping their dignity. 

Dodes 'ka-den (1970, 140 Minutes)

After completing Red Beard, Kurosawa worked in Hollywood for a few years developing a film script about Pearl Harbor, which became the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! After spending two years on the script, Kurosawa agreed to leave a few weeks into production. 20th Century Fox and Kurosawa clashed over his working methods being too slow. The experience left Kurosawa devastated and he returned to Japan.

Based on a novel by Shugoro Yamamato (A City Without Seasons), Dodes 'ka-den was filmed in 28 days. It was notably Kurosawa's first film in color. The story is a series of vignettes following characters who live in shantytown outside of Tokyo. One story follows a young boy who imagines he's a trolley conductor, a beggar and son fantasize about their dream house as malnutrition destroys their health, a mute teenage girl deals with her predatory uncle. Other stories involve infidelities, family conflicts, and other daily struggles. 

Primary colors dominate the visual style, although the brightness of the first hour gives way to the heavier stories and a more muted color scheme for the second half. The film works a companion piece to The Lower Depths, although Dodes 'ka-den offers more optimism. Imagination is portrayed as a means of escape, and the emphasis leans into renewal instead of despair. 

Dodes 'ka-den might be one of Kurosawa's most personal films. Questions of history and existentialism are in the background. The focus here is more on human interaction and small moments of compassion. Some interpret the boy imagining the trolley train as based on Kurosawa himself.  

The film failed to make money and Kurosawa questioned whether he would even continue making films, leading to a much-publicized personal crisis. Yet at the same time, at the lowest point of his career, his reputation among younger filmmakers was growing and instead of spending his late career in forced retirement he would become an elder statesman of world cinema and go on to create more masterpieces. 

The Kurosawa Century #4: Civilization and Nature: Seven Samurai (1954) & Dersu Uzala (1975)

Seven Samurai (1954, 207 Minutes)

The mystique of Seven Samurai continues to expand each decade. Kurosawa pushed the possibilities of cinema, a film with as much depth and insight into humanity on the same level with any work of great literature. All epic films stand in its shadow. Why is Seven Samurai a great film, maybe one of those films that should be launched into the stars as a future artifact of humanity? 

Set in 16th century Japan during the Civil Wars era, the film begins with a village getting raided by bandits, who terrorize and steal their rice harvest. Facing humiliation and starvation, elders of the village decide to seek out samurai warriors to defend the village. At the nearest town they meet an aging Ronin Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) who agrees to help them. Kambei recruits six more, the "getting the team together" remains a fixture of action cinema. Kurosawa is patient through these scenes which are often comical but also building character. The villagers can only pay them in rice, nothing but honor is at stake. 

Toshiro Mifune was memorable as Kikuchiyo, a character who's comical, sensitive, menacing, full of contradictions. He's not even a samurai; in modern parlance he was a fan boy who eventually became the real thing. Kambei gathers a few trusted lieutenants, an expert swordsman, and a young samurai he takes on as a protege. Kambei's a quiet leader, he never gives speeches but always knows the right thing to say, when to be serious and when to joke around. 

Kurosawa's approach is both humanistic and anthropological. They peasants are presented as brave, cowardly, greedy, selfish, undeniably human. Disagreements among the samurai also happen, costly mistakes are made. The villagers are suspicious of the samurai, fearing their daughters will run off with them. Yet, they manage to cooperate and defend the village. Today "building community" is frequently invoked in rhetoric, but the film illustrates it's often a messy process with no blueprint. There's a sense of space and geography. The camera lets the audience know the layout of the village and how it will be defended.

It took over a month to film the final battle, often in the rain or snow. The sound of the horses, the wet mud, the courage, the cruelty, acts of foolishness and bravery, and the sense of exhaustion are all on screen. As we start to lose characters the stakes begin to feel real. When action, character, theme, cinematography, meet in such sublime harmony the experience marks a crescendo for the viewer. 

Existential themes punctuate the story and give further meanings. Early in the film Kambei talks about the big dreams of youth and how they vanish without notice and "before you know it you are all alone." In the final scene, he confesses to his lieutenant the victory came with great cost, and it was more for the villagers as they gaze at the graves of the four who perished. The film asks, what was it all for? What does it mean to offer service and ask for nothing in return? The peasants are celebrating their harvest, the surviving are no longer needed, standing like obsolete relics. 

For the ending, Kurosawa is asking the audience to make sense of what they just experienced. There's a difference between being forced to make a sacrifice and choosing to make one, civilization rests on doing things that may not benefit you but will allow others to live. Human existence cannot be all transactional, continuity depends on enough people willing to give their time and labor and never receive any material compensation. Would you still do the right thing if no one will ever know? Maybe someone else will get the credit, your actions might be erased. These are moving and important questions Seven Samurai asks about the foundations of civilization. 

Dersu Uzala (1975, 144 Minutes)

A co-production between the Soviet Union and Japan, Dersu Uzala is based on the true story of Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev (1872-1930) and his friendship with the trapper and hunter of the film's title. Kurosawa accepted the Soviet government's request to direct, spending several months in the Siberian wilderness in hazardous conditions. He was coming out of a difficult period in his professional and personal life when he struggled to get funding for his films and struggling with depression. 

Dersu Uzala is episodic in structure. In 1902 during a Russian expedition into the taiga, they encountered Dersu who agreed to become their guide. He bonds quickly with Arsenyev as he teaches them about the environment. In one of the most intense sequences Kurosawa ever filmed, Dersu and Vladimir build a grass hut in a blizzard to avoid freezing to death, the sound of the wind, the color of the sunlight, and the landscape are unforgettable. 

Dersu Uzala often looks like a nature documentary. All seasons are captured, the harsh winter winds and the violent thaw of spring, the ice breaking up in the rivers. Valdimir and Dersu meet again in 1907, when Dersu was making his living hunting sables, and they have further adventures. When the expedition encounters a tiger, Dersu is forced to shoot it. Believing he committed a crime against nature, his mood changes and he starts losing his eyesight. For a time Dersu lived with Arsenyev and his family, those scenes are also quite moving, but the idyllic moment was short lived. 

Tension between nature and civilization is recurring motif. Dersu carries important knowledge and life experience that will be lost forever, an entire way of life already deeply antiquated by the start of the 20th century. Kurosawa slowed the pace dramatically for the film, dialogue scenes are sparse. Much of the cinematography looks like a landscape painting, the tone throughout is more reflective rather than action based.

Watching these two films back-to-back speaks to how Kurosawa was changing as a filmmaker, more interested in the passage of time and what gets lost. Dersu might symbolize a passing world when humanity had a different, purer relationship with nature. but also signifies the value of his knowledge as the world moves on. 

Dersu Uzala was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1976. 

The Kurosawa Century #3: Samurai Code and Mentorship: Yojimbo (1961); Sanjuro (1962); Red Beard (1965)

 Yojimbo (1961, 110 Minutes)

Toshiro Mifune stars as a wandering samurai who gets caught up in a local power struggle in Yojimbo. With a masterful soundtrack by Masuru Sato and Kurosawa leaning into a pulpier style, it set the template for 60s cinema that would influence all action movies to come after. 

The template for the story, a hired gun comes into town and plays both sides can be traced to the 1929 novel Red Harvest by Dashell Hammett and has been used many times since in different settings. Sergio Leone simply transferred the story into a spaghetti western for A Fistful of Dollars. But none measure up to Yojimbo.

Kurosawa visual style is unparalleled. The fight scenes were shot for the camera, not the editing room, allowing the sequences to play out on a wide canvas. Mifune offers his services to help one side and overhears their plan to betray him. The number of double crossings keeps piling up, but Mifune is always several steps ahead of everyone, although he does make a few mistakes. 

Style overpowers plot. Just watching the characters interact and getting Mifune's reactions, or the dusty claustrophobic feel of the town where everyone hates each other's guts. It also pits the classical world against the modern. The samurai views the greed among the yakuza gangs as primitive and stupid, as he says, "the town is full of men better off dead." 

The dark humor and swaggering style still feel fresh decades later, the sort of movie Tarantino's always been chasing. I'd like to see a story set in a town where tech companies are carving out territory for data centers and a soldier with a conscience comes in, but I guess that's what many Jason Statham movies do (The Beekeeper).  

Yojimbo marks Kurosawa's mastery of elevated pulp cinema, told in a gritty and hyperreal style. The sound of slashing swords, the gun symbolizing the devolution of old-world values, or just the satisfying feeling of having justice served against the corrupt in spectacular ways makes Yojimbo immensely satisfying. 

Sanjuro (1962, 95 Minutes)

Toshiro Mifune reprised his role for Sanjuro, this time mentoring a group nine samurai caught up in a clan war. If Yojimbo was a drawing upon pulp genres, Sanjuro unfolds more like a chess match. The violence is less about fighting, but strategy and position. Sanjuro tries to teach them about human nature, and a true victory is when violence is averted. 

Sanjuro is both tighter and denser than Yojimbo, there's more comedy and attempts at deception. As a mentor, Sanjuro believes actions are better than words. His understanding of human nature makes him an excellent teacher, although at the end he questions whether his students learned anything. 

The ending is famous for a graphic fight that ends quickly, it features blood spraying, displaying the true consequences of violence. Sanjuro might not have the panache of Yojimbo, but it broadens the themes and goes for a more polished style. Both films are best experienced back-to-back.

Red Beard (1965, 184 Minutes)

Red Beard is remembered for a few things. It was one of Kurosawa's longest productions, stretched out over two years and going way overbudget. Sadly, it was also the final collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune, their friendship deteriorated during production over a few issues. Mifune was upset about the slow process and having to turn down other acting offers, in the years to follow each took snipes at each other in the press. The sixteen films they made together stands as perhaps the most durable examples of a director and actor in all of cinema history. 

The story for Red Beard was adapted from the works of Shugoro Yamamato and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The time is the early 19th Century, and the setting is a clinic outside Tokyo that offers treatment to the poor. Mifune stars as Dr. Kyojo Niide, the taciturn doctor who runs the hospital who is also a martial artist. Despite his forbidding demeanor he takes a serious interest in the lives of his patients. He tells his staff, behind every illness is a misfortune. 

When a new doctor arrives by a bureaucratic mistake, Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama), he's appalled at the conditions and state of the patients he treats. He's ready to quit on the first day, but Niide persuades him to stay. Yasumoto notices others on the staff are in awe of Dr. Niide. He displays patience with the younger staff, shows humility, realistic about limitations, but pledges to save anyone he possibly can. 

Red Beard is more episodic than most Kurosawa films. There are many memorable scenes: Yasumoto lets his guard down with a mentally disturbed patient known as "the mantis" and almost loses his life, we get one brief moment when Niide shows off his martial arts skills to defeat a street gang forcing young girls into prostitution, and a harrowing surgical scene with an unruly patient. 

The story also spends time with patients; their stories are told in flashbacks. A dying man regrets failing his daughters, while another recalls his tragic marriage. Much of the story in the second half of the film is about efforts to free a girl from a brothel. The film displays how acts of compassion and empathy create a culture of decency in the face of oppressive poverty. 

Watching Red Beard in tandem with Yojimbo and Sanjuro reveals an evolving theme of heroism and what it means. The comic violence and cynicism of Yojimbo gives way to the wearied courage of Sanjuro. Red Beard suggests heroism may simply be alleviating suffering; a life of anonymity and quiet struggle with no recognition except for the trust of the community. 

Stylistically, Red Beard also stands in contrast to earlier Kurosawa films. Kurosawa adopted a more formal style, inspired more by paintings and still photography. The pace is steadier and more contemplative. It would also be his final film shot in black and white, marking Red Beard as a transition film between Kurosawa's early and late styles. Thematically, questions about living a meaningful life, also connect Red Beard to Ikiru and his later work. 

The Kurosawa Century #2: Narrative and Structure: Rashomon (1950) & The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Rashomon (1950, 88 Minutes)

In the post-truth world of the 21st century, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon offers some guidance. The film announced Kurosawa as a major new voice in global cinema with its stunning cinematography and experimental approach to narrative. Based on short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the story provides four varying accounts of a sexual assault and subsequent murder. The film is framed as a Buddhist monk, and a woodcutter relate their experience to a commoner. 

In 2026, I estimate there are roughly three types of news consumers with some variation:

1) The Credulous: They take their cues from influencers, political leaders, podcasters, slanted news channels to provide talking points to reinforce their reality. Anyone outside the bubble of their informational ecosystem is highly suspect.

2) The Cynics: They don't believe anything they see or hear from the media. They might proudly proclaim to be politically independent or simply go by gut instinct when voting. Perhaps they've been lied to and deceived by so many people in positions of power, ranging from family to politicians, but they all news as propaganda.

3) The Discerning: They still believe in truth, while accepting bias is a real thing in news reporting. They cultivate traditional and digital media, read books, and always question their conclusions and display willingness to change their views when new evidence arises. Obviously, this approach requires time and effort. 

It's likely that groups one and two are more interchangeable, a cynic is always on the lookout for something or somebody to make them believe again. Much of talk radio was modeled on that one guy "who's brave enough to tell the truth." Those in the third are likely at their wit's end in the current media ecosystem, and despair can be the ultimate destination. That's where the characters are at in Rashomon, their, their notion of truth and order has been upended. 

The atmosphere in the opening scene looks and feels otherworldly. The monk and the woodcutter are in despair after witnessing the contradictory accounts of the crime. The towering pillars of the gate and pouring rain (a Kurosawa motif in many films) gives one the sense they are sole survivors of a catastrophe as they ponder the final verdict on humanity. They mutter, "I don't understand, I just don't understand" and "year after year, disaster after disaster."

Kurosawa applied a flashback within flashback structure. We have four accounts of the crime. The scene of the crime was in the forest, which also feels like a character. Everything happens in blinding sunlight. 

The first account is from the bandit Tajomaru played by Toshiro Mifune. In the forest he spotted a samurai traveling with his wife, he accosts them, tied up the husband and then forces himself on his wife. She then demands they fight to the death to save her honor, in a heroic fight, Tajomuru kills the samurai. In the wife's testimony her husband refused to even look at her after the assault, she attempts to stab him with a dagger but faints, she later wakes up to find her husband dead of a stab wound. 

Next, a medium testifies claiming to inhabit the spirit of the dead husband. In this version, the wife agrees to marry Tajomaru on the condition he kill her husband. In despair at his wife's betrayal, her husband stabs himself.

The fourth account comes from the woodcutter who witnessed the whole thing. His narrative is like an odd synthesis of the previous three accounts. After the assault, Tajomaru offers marriage, but she refuses and unties her husband and then orders them both to fight. Unlike the earlier heroic fight, this one is clumsy and half-hearted, but the samurai still ends up dead.

All the testimonies are self-serving in their own way. The truth of what happened will probably never be known. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as truth. We tend to construct narratives about our lives we find bearable; human beings struggle with being honest with themselves. 

Rashomon reminds us that truth seeking requires courage from within, which is often at cross purposes with our own selfish natures. In today's digital world of algorithms, one's "truth" will be reinforced repeatedly, no matter how far untethered from reality making the challenge even more difficult

In the final scene, a crying baby is discovered at the gate, presumably left there by desperate parents. The woodcutter agrees to take the child with him to join his seven children. The monk expresses some hope. Even in a world where truth is ever elusive and people struggle with honesty
from within and without, they still have the choice to make the ethical decision. 

While the world is full of corruption and self-serving narratives, the pursuit of truth remains a worthy endeavor. Today's climate makes people believe odd things and come to even stranger conclusions. When your old friend from college you remember as a thoughtful dude now repeatedly posts about low birth rates and saving western civilization, your aging aunt posting 20 stories a day from Fox News, or a former mentor who believes Trump's brain will be plugged into a super AI computer that will allow him to stay in power until the 2080s - don't despair, watch Rashomon. 

The Hidden Fortress (1958, 142 Minutes)

The Hidden Fortress, along with The Seven Samurai, shaped the contours of epic cinema. Often remembered as a primary influence on George Lucas in the creation of Star Wars, Kurosawa himself was heavily inspired by the films of John Ford. The film's reverberating tones of slapstick humor, proto-blockbuster spectacle, and heightened heroism feel modern. The widescreen format, Tohoscope, created unforgettable cinematography of the landscapes, from rocky hills to majestic mountains. 

Set in 16th century feudal Japan, the story follows two peasants Tahei and Mataschichi who get caught up in a war between competing clans. After they escape capture, they discover some gold and run into General Rokurota Makabe (Mifune) who they believe is a common criminal. He leads them to more gold and leads them to a hidden fortress, where he hopes to lead beleaguered Princess Yuki across enemy lines. 

Along the way, there are many narrow escapes, a suspenseful lance duel, a stunning fire festival, moments of greed and cowardice, but also loyalty and compassion. The symmetrical compositions, constant movement of the camera, a visual momentum. Nature becomes a character itself. Some of the cultural morays might be missed by Western audiences, such as class distinction and the significance of the fire festival when those barriers are temporarily ignored. Gold symbolizes not treasure but a rebirth of status for the clan. 

The Star Wars connections are clear. Princess Yuki was a template Leia and Padme; The Phantom Menace drew on The Hidden Fortress more than the A New Hope. The two peasants are the template for R2-D2 and 3CPO, Lucas was intrigued at how Kurasawa told the story through the lowest characters on the social hierarchy. And General Makabe was for both Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

The Hidden Fortress is best appreciated on the big screen, but it also plays on television. It's a must see to witness the genesis of modern cinema. 

The Kurosawa Century #1: Post-War Noirs: Drunken Angel (1948) & Stray Dog (1949)

Drunken Angel (1948, 98 Minutes)

The fragile relationship between a doctor and patient shapes the tragic realism of Drunken Angel. An early entry in Akira Kurosawa's canon, the film starred Takashi Shimura (Sato) and Toshiro Mifune (Matsunaga). Set in a swampy area of Tokyo shortly after the war, the insular setting to the film reinforces its themes of existential angst and entrapment. 

Mifune's a low-level player in the Yakuza who's slowly being diminished by tuberculosis. Shimura is a local physician, also disappointed with his station in life and is struggling with alcoholism, offers treatment. While tuberculosis was curable, it required discipline from the patient. Sanada warns Matsunaga that he will slowly die if he refuses treatment, which required long periods of rest and no alcohol. 

When the local kingpin arrives and mocks Matsunaga for refusing drink it leads to a downward spiral, a cycle of commitment to treatment and being pulled back into his violent life. After he overhears the Yakuza bosses' plan to remove him it leads to a violent climax.

The sense of fatalism and melancholy running through the film are best communicated through Dr. Sanada. He accepts that some patients will commit to improving themselves and others will not. Matsunaga considers leaving everything behind to focus on curing himself, but in true noir fashion, fate has other plans.

The collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune is important to film history, While Mifune would become known for playing Samurai warriors, he had remarkable range and it's on display in both films. As his coughing and condition worsens, he keeps looking thinner and, by the end he looks like a zombie. He brought some of the angsts associated with method actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando, but also the quiet resignation of Robert Mitchum. Kurosawa liked to let the camera linger on Mifune as he walked off into darkness. 

Kurosawa's mastery of composition begins to show itself, but there's also expressionism and a surreal dream sequence. Unlike many American noirs which often ended on a note despair or hopelessness, Kurosawa chose continuity as an ending.  

Stray Dog (1949, 122 Minutes)

If Stray Dogs isn't Kurosawa's first masterpiece, it's absolutely a near masterpiece. Set over a few days during a Tokyo heat wave, Toshiro Mifune stars as Detective Murakami who must recover his gun, a Colt, after a pickpocket lifted it on the train. The film is about an obsessive quest to find a gun in a vast urban space. Takashi Shimura co-stars as Detective Sato, a veteran who comes to the aid of high-strung Murakami. Influenced by the American noir The Naked City, Stray Dogs is a remarkably cinematic, subtle, and humanistic crime film. 

Stray Dog is considered a procedural, and it follows the familiar tropes: the bureaucratic drudgery of investigations, scenes in the forensic lab, and hours of searching through documents and paperwork. Kurosawa, clearly working with a bigger budget, employs many cinematic techniques. Montage sequences are used to build tension, gritty Tokyo settings and architecture to provide atmosphere, a tense and methodical sequence during a baseball game at a packed stadium, there's even a musical sequence. Over the two-hour run time Kurosawa builds an immersive world. 

Murakami learns his gun is linked to a string of shootings, increasing the urgency of the situation. The symbolic relationship between a detective is gun is another trope of crime fiction, like when a Captain takes away the badge and gun is symbolic. When an officer loses his gun it raises questions about his ability, and yes, there's also the emasculating aspect of the situation. Mifune plays it as an agonizing experience, the idea of not only having something stolen from you and having it used for awful deeds increases the hurt. The Colt serves as a great MacGuffin for the story, the script uses a countdown technique to great effect, referring to the number of bullets in the chamber.

Stray Dogs also uses the buddy cop formula long before it had a name. Mifune and Shimura are teamed up again to great effect. Sato warns Murakami, 'You can't be this tense all the time." He imparts wisdom but not in a condescending way, no grumbling about being teamed up with a rookie. Mifune brings angst and restless heroism. Their dynamic reminded me of that between Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in David Fincher's Se7en, I suspect this film was a major influence on Fincher. Later, Sato takes Murakami to visit his family in a warm scene, shades of Lethal Weapon. 

Kurosawa also takes a sociological approach. Tokyo was devastated after the war; the displacement of young people is a major theme. References are made to rationing and the American occupation. The Yakuza provided opportunities for disparate young man (Yasu) on the run. When Murakami and Sato visit the shantytown where Yasu lives, the assailant's sister and mother are both warm and sympathetic. They speak of him spending his free time reading comics and fantasizing about a better life. Murakami realizes his life was on a similar trajectory and begins to view the suspect as a shadow of himself. 

Sato warns Murakami, "let the crime novelists psychoanalyze." The final beats to the film move to a fatalistic conclusion like Drunken Angel, Sato leaves us with one last bit of wisdom, the longer one works as a cop, "the less sentimental you get." Stray Dogs set a model for the modern crime film, providing breadth to characters who would be forgettable in other films and packing every scene with nuance.

Backrooms (2026)

Now that we're in the summer when You Tubers conquered cinema, I made a trip to the theater to see Backrooms. Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, the film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. The story, based on a series of YouTube videos created by Parsons, explores the surreal realm of liminal space. Visually the film is often exciting, and the script by Parsons and his co-writer Will Soodik does a serviceable job of introducing the concepts of this oddly familiar but disorienting cinematic universe. 

Ejiofor stars as Clark, a former architect who now manages a furniture store. He voices his life frustrations (his wife recently left) to his therapist Mary (Reinsve). After a night of drinking Clark discovers he can walk through a wall inside the store and sees endless hallways of abandoned office space. There's also strewn furniture everywhere, but the images get increasingly unnerving, like blood on the carpet or strange graffiti on the walls. Some rooms look like a Salvador Dali painting. Clark becomes obsessed, and suspects something evil is happening, he confides in Mary, who eventually investigates the space herself. Then the film moves into more conventional horror territory.

The architecture of the liminal space is star of the film. Some parts also look like an M.C. Escher painting; one scene plays like a homage to Vertigo. The nightmare logic recalls David Lynch, especially Eraserhead. There's also a Twilight Zone vibe (especially "Little Girl Lost), or maybe Black Mirror is the appropriate reference. I viewed the hallways as a metaphor for anxiety, the sense of being trapped in an agitated state of mind and scrambling to find an exit. That's what works best about the concept, it's open to varying interpretations. 

I suspect Backrooms will become a major franchise. Track is clearly being built up for several sequels. That's not a criticism there's potential to take the story in all sorts of directions. I'm not sure we're witnessing something akin to the 1960s culture shocks of The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, or the blockbuster totems of Jaws and Star Wars, but we are seeing young filmmakers engaging with the medium in ways that bring a sensibility not just honed by digital spaces, but with the vast history of cinema. 

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