Which 1949 Kurosawa crime film follows a detective searching for his stolen pistol? The answer is Stray Dog.
The film stars Toshiro Mifune as rookie Tokyo homicide detective Murakami, who discovers that his Colt pistol has been stolen from his pocket on a crowded trolley during a sweltering summer. Ashamed and desperate to recover the weapon, he investigates the city’s illicit arms market and learns that the pistol has been used in crimes.
Kurosawa co-wrote the screenplay with Ryuzo Kikushima, drawing on the real-world premise of a police officer losing his gun. Veteran detective Sato, played by Takashi Shimura, joins Murakami, creating a partnership between an inexperienced, emotionally shaken investigator and a seasoned professional. The film is both a detective thriller and a portrait of postwar Tokyo, where heat, shortages, black markets, and war trauma shape the characters’ choices. It is sometimes grouped with later police procedurals or buddy-cop films because of its investigative pairing. The Bad Sleep Well, The Quiet Duel, and Scandal do not share this stolen-pistol premise.