stray dog ( 1949 ) theft and murder and lie and money . the pursuit of a single gun create a compelling story that be push far by human behavior and weather . the plot have murakami search for a gun he lose in the city of tokyo . the shooting location look very everyday and but never on the tokyo skyline . the back alley and the restaurant and the hair salon and the train station and they all have a familiar feel to them . these location aren not just there and there be several thing happen there as well . there people shop downtown and there people get their hair cut and there people at the baseball game and all of these people everywhere give the impression that the city be indeed full of people and add to the mood and atmosphere of the movie . it be very evident that everyone who have a line in the movie have a story represent the hotel worker be suffer because of the heat and the police unit be tackle several other case and and several other character give hint about their own life and how they be deal with problem and which all bring life into the film . the atmosphere of a busy market place where murakami go undercover to look for his miss gun add to the frustration of the scene . a sea of thousand of face blur together and drag along . on first glance the scene feel too long and the audience get the point after a minute and but by do this the focus turn from the plot to the character of murakami a the viewer see how badly he want his gun back . the gun become a macguffin plot device and the drive for murakami be to get his gun back before it can harm anyone else . when he finally do confront the killer and force the gun away and it be no longer mention . the overwhelming heat in the movie take it toll on the two detective and other character . exhaustion begin to take over a the character loose sleep and get frustrate and be overload with work . sato see that his young partner be go through the stage of exhaustion and try to get murakami on the right track and bring up the film key symbolism and a rabid stray dog ( even though rabies be extremely rare in japan ) . the exhaustion factor make murakami grumpy and quick to anger and narrow visioned . at time he can only focus on get his steal gun back at any cost and get person x and not notice his surroundings and and blindly head after people . sota be often the voice of reason and but the heat get to him too . one thing that black and white film can not do as well a color be show the temperature effect . for an example and in stray dog and the effect of heat be barely felt since it hard to ditinquish heat wave and the color differentaces in skin tone that show how moist skin be and how sun burnt it be . the heat isn not the only weather device use in the movie and the big rainfall bring change in the movie . harumi namiki and who be the murder girlfriend change her mind after the rain fall and decide to help the detective . the rain also signify sadness and bring a dramatic effect to sato be shoot . after the rain come a warm summer day where the murder be catch while bird be chripping and flower be grow and thing feel more lively then when the heat wave be in effect .