A Police Detective obsessed with recovering his stolen Colt.
Masterfully directed by Akira Kurosawa, written by Ryûzô Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa. Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai and Music by Fumio Hayasaka.
The film stars Toshiro Mifune as Detective Murakami, Takashi Shimura as Detective Satō, Keiko Awaji as Harumi Namiki, Eiko Miyoshi as Harumi's mother, Noriko Honma as Wooden Tub Shop woman, Isao Kimura as Yusa, Minoru Chiaki as Girlie Show director, Ichiro Sugai as Yayoi Hotel owner, Gen Shimizu as Police Inspector Nakajima, and Teruko Kishi as Ogin, the woman pickpocket.
Tokyo. Murakami. A rookie detective. The mark. A heat wave. A crowded bus. The "cannon." A female pickpocket. She smells of cheap perfume. She's sweating and furiously fanning herself. In the squeeze of humanity and using the bumps in the road, she lifts Murakami's police issue Colt automatic. She passes it to a "player." As Murakami leaves the bus he shouts and the player takes off. The "player" is good, he gives Murakami the slip.
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| Toshiro Mifune as Detective Murakami, |
As Murakami leaves the bus he shouts and the player takes off. The "player" is good, he gives Murakami the slip.
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| Chief Detective Sato (Takashi Shimura) and Murakami |
With this loss of face Murakami reports the stolen gun and tells his superior Chief Detective Sato that he will offer him his resignation. Sato gives him some encouragement and hooks him up with an old pro the of Section Three (Theft & Robbery) who starts to question him about how he got pickpocketed.
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| The chief of Section Three questions Murakami |
From the circumstances they narrow it down to a woman who works transportation, busses, and trolleys. Murakami searches through the booking records and finds Ogin the woman he was standing next to. The old chief detective says that he knows her well, but that she always wore a kinona. Murakami tells him that it's definitely her.
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Teruko Kishi as Ogin
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Murakami and the old detective go to wait at one of her hangouts. There Murakami confronts Ogin who tells him nothing. Murakami decides to tail her all day and well into the night.
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| Waiting for Ogin |
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| Ogin |
Ogin can't shake him and eventually tells Murakami to check the stolen gun dealers in the bombed out section of Tokyo that is now both a ghetto and a bustling blackmarket.
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| Murakami tailing Ogin |
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| Ogin gives Murakami the scoop on the illegal gun dealers |
Murakami decides to go undercover to find the fences of stolen guns. He dresses like an ex soldier down on his luck and begins to comb through Tokyo's underworld chasing leads.
Old Tokyo Black Market Sequence
Compounding the situation is that it's discovered through ballistics, that Murakami's Colt has been used in various robberies around. Each crime weighs more and more on Murakami's conscience feeding his obsession on recovering the weapon. When one of the victims dies, Murakami's search for his gun is them folded into a full fledged murder investigation under Chief Detective Sato.
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an underworld contact
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| Noriko Sengoku |
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| Honda (Reizaburô Yamamoto) |
Their investigation comes up with the name of a gun dealer Honda. Honda is fond of baseball games and they trick him into exposing himself by announcing that he's wanted down at the stadium office. From Honda they get the name of Yusa an ex soldier who has turned to crime for a living. Murakami and Sato question Yusa's sister and his girlfriend Harumi Namiki, a hoochie coochie dancer.
On a train Sato and Murakami discuss their next moves.
Sato: I think the most important moment has come. He's already killed a person. He's like a mad dog. You know how a mad dog acts? For a mad dog there is only a straight road. Yusa can only see a straight road to Harumi.
Later that night Sato follows another lead and heads to a dive hotel where Yusa has been seen. Sato questions the hotel owner and calls Murakami from a phone booth and tells him to join him but Yusa over hearing the conversation between the owner and Sato shoots Sato in the phone booth. Sato, though wounded, gives chase until he drops from loss of blood.
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| Sato at Hotel |
The next morning Namiki rats out Yusa telling Murakami, that she was supposed to meet him at a nearby train station. Yusa is surprised by Murakami and takes off running. When Yusa is finally cornered he shoots at Murakami with his own gun.
Noirsville
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| Keiko Awaji as Harumi Namiki |
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| Isao Kimura as Yusa |
A Classic, and a great gateway film into Japanese Noir. The acting and cinematography are faultless. The story is easy to follow for subtitle challenged viewers. Screencaps are from a recent TCM streamer with easy to follow story and subtitles for the foreign film challenged, ;-). 10/10
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