This police procedural has the interesting premise of a cop obsessed with finding his stolen gun, and his sense of responsibility for everything that happens because of the theft. It's an interesting idea, a sort of cop version of Bicycle Thieves, but it's a bit slow and static.
For all the comments here that call it a film noir, it lacks that sort of intensity, although it does have interesting anti-noir qualities - much of it takes place in daylight among people wearing light colored clothes.
Even at its weakest, there are interesting Kurosawa touches throughout, most notably the use of the oppressive summer heat as a character in the film. And while some moments feel overlong, such as the cop's undercover work, there are nice bits like his dogging a suspect or that suspect's later interrogation by an older and wiser cop.
The movie hits high Kurosawa in its fantastic forth. From a stunning image of a girl twirling in a dress just as a thunderstorm breaks,the film is everything you expect from the great director, as though a more experienced Kurosawa had jumped into a time machine to do the last part, and the final confrontation is brilliant, even if the movie's last short scene is as flat and dry as the first ones.
Kurosawa has made much better movies, but there is enough of interest in this one that fans of the director should check it out at some point.
For all the comments here that call it a film noir, it lacks that sort of intensity, although it does have interesting anti-noir qualities - much of it takes place in daylight among people wearing light colored clothes.
Even at its weakest, there are interesting Kurosawa touches throughout, most notably the use of the oppressive summer heat as a character in the film. And while some moments feel overlong, such as the cop's undercover work, there are nice bits like his dogging a suspect or that suspect's later interrogation by an older and wiser cop.
The movie hits high Kurosawa in its fantastic forth. From a stunning image of a girl twirling in a dress just as a thunderstorm breaks,the film is everything you expect from the great director, as though a more experienced Kurosawa had jumped into a time machine to do the last part, and the final confrontation is brilliant, even if the movie's last short scene is as flat and dry as the first ones.
Kurosawa has made much better movies, but there is enough of interest in this one that fans of the director should check it out at some point.